Online Degrees – What You Should Know

Online Degree:
With the advent of the Internet the mode of eductation has changed drastically. From distance education the word has changed to Online Education where the method of teaching has become virtual.

Online Degrees are available all over the Internet from valid accepted Universities to fake Diploma Mills that churn out diplomas without need for anything other than cold hard cash.

While the advantages of the Online Degree providing colleges are many the fact remains that the fake diploma mills are adversely affecting the reputation of the legitimate degree providing colleges.

Legitimate Online Degree College vs Fake Diploma Mills:
Universities and colleges online have to be accredited and the best ones like Phoenix University are, but there are again, the ‘life experience’ degree providers like the Belford University that create fake accreditation agencies and then accredit themselves, causing students looking for shortcuts to believe that these are legit institutes and are merely showing them the way out.

However, when all online degree holders enter the practical world looking for a job carrying their ‘online diplomas’ these fake diploma holders cause the legit degree holders to lose out as potential employers lose faith in the ‘online degrees’ so many of which are useless.

The result is what a study reports, “A Vault.com study reports that 77 percent of hiring managers say that an online degree received through an established university such as Duke or Stanford is more acceptable than a degree earned through an Internet only university like Capella or Jones International.” The assessment may be unfair but with so many fake diploma mills employers are unwilling to take a risk.

Some of the ways in which to identify legit Internet Degree Providers?
• Check accreditation of the online degree at US Department of Education
• Check legitimacy of the Internet University at Council for Higher Education Accreditation
• Write to the Diploma Mill Police that authenticates Internet Institutes of Education.

Applying Early Improves Chances of Admissions?

Early decision greatly benefits the colleges in numerous ways, in spite of the self-righteous criticism of college presidents and the confusing back-and-forth changes between early decision and early action among the top Ivy League schools.  So, colleges will continue to use early decision, and they will not stop doing so until all their competitors stop using it, which is not likely in the foreseeable future.

Because early decision improves your chances, you should apply to a college that is somewhat above what you would have otherwise been able to gain admissions to based on your SAT’s, grades and other attributes.  But if you aim too high, or aim for a college that is too popular, you risk being deferred, and then face statistically much worse odds in the regular admissions process.  But don’t lose hope if you are deferred: I know personally two people who were deferred on early decision but eventually got into Harvard, including one off the waiting list.

The other advantage of early decision is that if you do get in, you can basically relax from early December on, and have a great senior year.  You practically must commit a felony in order to have the early decision admission withdrawn. So, you are then able to do all those (school) extracurricular activities that you did not have time for previously.

On the other hand, you give up choice and that “you-never-know” factor.  In other words, you sacrifice that stretch school that you might have gotten into, but didn’t apply to because you were accepted on early decision.  If you believe in luck, then don’t apply early decision, because it is an undeniable fact that college admissions decisions are often quite random, without reason and based on luck.

Student Loans Barriers to Higher Education

With few exceptions, one generation is usually better off than their parents’ generation. Most of the time, new technology allows us to live longer, have more stuff, and spend less time working (or work easier). However, there is reason to be worried that our generation will not be better off. A bachelor’s degree is as important now as a high school diploma was a generation ago. To earn those degrees, an increasing number of young people are taking out increasingly larger student loans with increasingly higher interest rates. This puts the economic health and well-being of our generation at risk.

College tuition continues to rise faster than the inflation rate. Adjusted for inflation, tuition at public universities has risen about 35 percent across the country in the past five years. While public university tuition was frozen in Maryland this past year, it has increased 40 percent in the previous three years. Unfortunately, funding to student grant programs has not risen in tandem with tuition increases. The maximum Pell Grant amount has been flat at $4,050 for five years. Pell Grants cover an increasingly small proportion of tuition, from 77 percent 25 years ago to 40 percent today.

To cover the gap, more have turned to student loans. Paying off student loans is not always an easy task, however. More students are going deeper in debt and it is taking them longer and costing them more to pay it off, as recent legislation has increased student loan interest rates on government loans. Many are having extreme difficulties paying loans off and find that their student debt is having severe effects on their post-collegiate life.

What are the effects? Surveys have shown that significant numbers of young people have chosen to put off buying a home, marrying, and having children due to high levels of student debt. Student debt has a snowball effect; it doesn’t just hinder our economic health in the years following college, but by preventing young people from pursuing graduate degrees and from saving for retirement, it can impact us for our entire lives.

One of the worst effects of increased student loans is that many students cannot afford to go into the public sector. Future teachers and social workers are being driven away from those professions because the salary would be too low to pay off student loans. There is a high demand for those who work in the public interest, but we will not be able to meet that demand if the current trend continues towards higher and higher levels of student debt.

There are a variety of measures we can take to help alleviate this problem. However, we cannot just throw money at this problem; we need to correct the inefficiencies too. One such inefficiency is Sallie Mae and the guaranteed loan program. Instead of directly administering all loans themselves, the federal government guarantees some loans administered through Sallie Mae, a private corporation. The federal government pays interest while the students are in school and pays Sallie Mae the entire balance plus accumulated interest if the student goes into default.

Usually, interest rates are contingent upon the level of risk a lender incurs in giving out a loan. That is why, for example, APRs on credit cards are high if you have a low credit rating. However, despite not incurring any risk on their federally guaranteed loans, Sallie Mae’s interest rates are not low, reaching double digits in some cases.

Not only does Sallie Mae make money through risk-free loans, they make money through the collection agencies they own. If Sallie Mae collects the money from a student in default, they can keep up to 25 percent. For every dollar owed, Sallie Mae can make up to $1.25 if the loan goes into default. Whether you pay your loan or not, Sallie Mae is going to make money.

Needless to say, this arrangement has made Sallie Mae an incredibly profitable company. Their stock price has gone up 2000 percent in the last decade and their CEO is worth a quarter of a billion dollars.

Sallie Mae provides financial incentives to schools that drive their students towards the guaranteed loan program instead of the direct loan program administered by the government. This is unfortunate, because the direct loan program is far more efficient. Studies have shown that the direct loan program costs taxpayers five times less per loan than the guaranteed loan program. However, Sallie Mae’s contributions to politicians have helped keep this inefficient policy afloat.

If more loans were through the direct loan program, then the money saved could help students in a variety of ways. We could raise the cap on grants, we could lower interest rates on federal loans, and we could provide more loan forgiveness for those who choose lower paying jobs in the public sector. Students in debt would also be helped by graduated payment programs. Students pay the same amount on the first and last payment of their loan. Why not allow students to make smaller payments when they are just starting out with a low paying job and gradually make larger payments as they progress through their career?

These are some possible solutions, but there has been little clamor for change. In the past, when Congress has cut student aid, they have hardly done so at their own peril. Despite the importance of this issue to our generation, it rarely registers in discussions of the important issues of the day. Too much debt can hold down our passion, our talent, our dedication and our ingenuity, but it is not too late to demand change.

By Ryan Walden