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Classrooms/campuses are becoming a thing of the past. You can pretty much learn anything online now. If the university is legit, then the degree is legit. Employers aren't going to know it was all online.
If you plan on studying something that cost a lot of money, study sometime that's worth it in the eyes of an employer/company... something hard and essential like Engineering or Accounting. Everyone is going for the easy degrees which is making the job market over-saturated with worthless degrees and underemployed people.
Some field require a "degree" such as a MSW, nursing, engineering, etc. I would focus on what you want to do in the work world and then determine if an advanced degree is necessary. If not an advanced degree perhaps a specialty course from coursera or some type of certificate?
Classrooms/campuses are becoming a thing of the past. You can pretty much learn anything online now.
This is just not true. You can learn several things online, but not everything. That's why research labs are still a critical component of higher education.
As long as your desired school is nationally accredited through hopefully multiple accreditation agencies you should be fine. Inquire about graduation rates and job placement rates after graduation. Probably a long shot, but if there is a licensure test after your graduation, ask about pass rates on the first try. Diploma mills, crooked for profit schools will have very low graduation rates and licensure pass rates. Even if your chosen field doesn’t require a license, look at pass rates for the internal (school within the university) schools for licensing tests. Legit colleges and universities will publish all of this on their websites.
Many in-state schools now offer online master's degrees. The "catch" is that they are generally expensive without the typical RA or TA available to on-campus students. A lot of graduates do a hybrid payment with loans, credit cards, and standard "out-of-pocket" bill payments. Some universities have payment plans per semester.
The accreditation is generally not a concern. If the university is accredited on-campus, the online courses are simply often video versions of campus lectures. There are factors to look for:
* the online programs should have experience in teaching such courses and be flexible for working students.
* the curriculum should be focused on professional development rather than "training for a PhD". Beware of the latter type of professors.
* the curriculum should have professors with real-world work experience rather than academic-only experience with focus on theory.
* the demand for the major should have real-world success (e.g. business, allied health, computer science, civil engineering, etc.)
* online meetings should be easily available with professors willing to respond within a day
* many books are free electronically from the library or common online sources
* some departments offer remote connection to campus computers if there is a need - beware of this if your home computer is really weak (e.g. 4 GB of RAM when machine learning project or database requires about 16 GB and an intel processor version 7 or higher)
* courses should have real-world applicability. One of the best I took was cloud computing, and another was data warehousing.
Cons:
* It's easy to have a misunderstanding in online threads, forums, emails, etc. I have seen conversations turn into internet flaming sessions between students or even between a student and professor - avoid this. Stop the escalation and just ask for a video call or phone call to get clarification in a calm, professional manner. Oftentimes, if the Department Chair sees the internet flaming he or she will view the internet flaming as childish regardles of who is at fault (meaning both people are judged badly by the department).
* On-campus experience valuable for research is limited.
* Community life experiences on campus are also not available (e.g. intramural sports, campus social events, etc.)
Give the pandemic and remote work, the online programs in computer science, information technology, and machine learning/big data are in huge demand.
The irony is that many "on-campus" programs went online the past year due to COVID-19. But with vaccination and social distancing the on-campus experience has been very partially saved (e.g. many traditional social gathering were absent throughout the year like home game crowds).
I recommend online programs if there is a financial incentive with return on investment. In that regard, avoid professors like this clueless professor who has no real-world work experience - an academic nerd lost in theory who is out of touch with industry...
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