My Life As…An Online College Student

August 21, 2010     Posted in Reality

Just a typical Tuesday in class.

While every college girl shares many of the same college experiences (selling books, sexiled, one shot too many), she also carves her own path and has her own unique adventure. Have you ever wondered what it’s like for other girls? What it’s like to be an engineer? To get married?! To play an NCAA sport? Well wonder no more. Our one-of-a-kind CollegeCandy writers (and readers!) are sharing their unique experiences and opening our eyes to different college worlds.


By Anonymous

It’s late on a Friday and I’m enjoying a night out with my friends at the local Steak ‘n Shake. I’m just about to dig in to a nice, juicy burger when a sudden realization hits me. I have a paper due in exactly one hour, and if I miss the deadline I will fail my web design class. I rush home and spend the next hour furiously banging out the rest of my paper about famous designers. With ten minutes to go, I hit the submit button. Crisis averted—for now.

This is a typical day in my life as an online college student.

I started as an online student with just one class. With a history of barely passing my on-campus classes, I needed a change. I knew it would still take a lot of work, but taking a class in my pajamas sounded like too good an idea to pass up. The result? I squeaked by with an “A” and scored higher online than in any of my real classes. The next semester I took two more. After that, I was hooked. Last semester I started my life as a full-time online college student working toward a degree in web design.

Don’t let me mislead you into thinking online classes are easy. Sometimes they’re down right infuriating. You can only talk to your classmates and professors by email, and working on a group project is like trying to herd cats. You’ll put in just as much time and hard work into your assignments as you would in any other class, and you’ll still find yourself chugging energy drinks in the library and cramming for finals.

Online classes do come with some drawbacks. If you take them through a real, accredited college or university (and the University of Phoenix does not count) you have to follow some strict guidelines. You need to be a least a little computer savvy to save your work in different formats and ensure it gets submitted to the right place.

More importantly, though, most professors take the stance that if you miss a single assignment or project during the semester, you fail. Since you don’t have to physically go to class, they see no reason why your project should be late. During my last semester I had surgery. I spent an entire week cramming to get in two weeks worth of assignments so I could take a week off to recover.

On the plus side, I can work from anywhere. If I need to go out of town, I can pack up my laptop and go. I also have the freedom to attend virtual classes at any time. I boot up the computer late at night and sign in to start reading the assignment for that week. Then I head out to the library to get some work done.

It’s not your typical college experience, but it works for me. And I love it.

If you ever consider online classes, be it one or an entire degree, take them from a college you know and trust. Pick one with a physical campus that offers regular degrees. The University of Phoenix, DeVry University, and ITT Tech are all scams. Let me repeat that. Scams. Your classes will be a push over, your credits won’t transfer to any other college, and your degree will be worthless. They’re known as degree mills because you’re essentially paying them to award you a worthless degree. So if you decide online is for you, talk to your current college and see what they offer. Whether on-campus or online, you still have to work your butt off to get a college education.

[Story submitted by reader, Jessica R. Thanks, Jess! You got your own story? Tell us all about it and you could be featured on CollegeCandy.com!]

22 Comments on "My Life As…An Online College Student"

  1. criolle johnny says:
    Sat, 21st Aug 201011:37 am 

    Laugh at DeVry and UofP if you must. They FORCED conventional colleges to recognize the internet. When colleges went online, high schools followed.

    Brick and mortar schools of today will be brick and mortar museums in the next 20 years. You heard it from criolle johnny first.

    Online charter schools will lead the way to wrest the public school monopoly from government. This will force colleges to drop tuition rates for online courses. Students of the future may actually graduate without a lifetime of debt from student loans.

    Yes, you will be able to trace it back to DeVry!

  2. Lenna says:
    Sat, 21st Aug 201011:47 am 

    @criolle- While I agree with you that online classes are going to be much more common and hopefully cheaper in the future, physical classes are not going to disappear completely. There is no way to do science labs online. Sometimes hands on experience in a class is good too.

    Back on topic, I've never taken an online class myself, but working in a computer lab meant that I had to help students who took online classes (as well as in-class classes, but that's unrelated to my story) turn in their assignments. They could not figure out how to save something as pdf (or whatever file their professor wanted). So yes, it's important to stress to people who want to take online classes that they need to know how to use a computer and probably then some.

  3. Jenny says:
    Sat, 21st Aug 201012:22 pm 

    This is a pretty good article. I personally enjoy going to college courses face to face however being a military-spouse makes life very hard to plan. Being able to take classes online has saved me from wasting money trying to transfer credits after moving. I also think places like UofP are diploma-mills and I wouldn't personally attend one. HOWEVER, UofP is fully accredited. So just because you want to look down your nose at it, how can you unless you've actually attended this University? Furthermore, I work for a highly reputable company IT company and I have gotten to know a lot of different managers. One particular manager I know has her degree from UofP. So obviously it worked for her and got her the job she has. It doesn't matter what YOU think, only what employers think. Otherwise a good article.

  4. Star says:
    Sat, 21st Aug 201012:34 pm 

    @Jenny, I doubt she got in just because of her degree. Plenty of schools are "fully accredited" but being accredited doesn't automatically make you legit. ANYONE can get accreditation. It's WHO the accreditation is through that makes it worthwhile or worthless.

    The main difference it that University of Phoenix is a for-profit school and most employers frown on that. High-paying jobs come from not-for-profit universities. For-profit organizations do not care about your education level, only keeping you happy so they can make more money off of you.

    Sadly, most people don't know that and fall into the same trap as the comments on this article.

  5. Liz says:
    Sat, 21st Aug 201012:49 pm 

    I'm not posting this in response to college in general, but as evidence of the existence of diploma mills: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_with…

    May I ask with what university you are taking online classes? I'm interested in doing a bit myself while I take time off, but don't really know where to start looking.

  6. Liz says:
    Sat, 21st Aug 201012:54 pm 

    online colleges in general, that is.

  7. Katie says:
    Sun, 22nd Aug 20108:22 am 

    i am also interested in what college you are going to… i am thinking about doing the online college thing to finish my degree

  8. Charlotte says:
    Sun, 22nd Aug 20109:46 am 

    While I think this is a great option for people trying to finish up a degree while working full time, it seems a little ridiculous to do all your classes online. Isn't part of a university education collaboration and teamwork? I feel like these transferable skills, which could arguably be more important to employers than the facts you learn in school, will be underdeveloped in an online degree.

  9. Jess says:
    Sun, 22nd Aug 201011:46 pm 

    @Liz and Katie:

    Hey guys,

    While my name's not on it, I wrote this article and just wanted to let you know that I first started online classes through Middle Tennessee State University and now take them through Nashville State Community College. Certain colleges offer limited online classes through the community college or university directly, so you'd still need to take some on-campus classes as well.

    The Tennessee Board of Regents offers certain online degrees through RODP which are all available online, but requires you to go to a campus somewhere in Tennessee for mid-term and final exams. It also allows you to use the services of any Tennessee campus, such as libraries and digital media labs, for completing your work. I'm taking all online classes through RODP with Nashville State as my home campus and MTSU as my go-to campus for research (yes, it's a bit complicated!).

    I would check with schools in your area. They may offer certain classes online and you could go part-time on campus. If your state, or a certain school, does all online degrees a nearby community college or university can point you in the right direction for applying.

    Hope that helps and didn't just confuse you!

  10. Jenny says:
    Mon, 23rd Aug 20104:20 am 

    @Star, I agree that UofP only cares about profit and sales. Like I said, I would not personally attend one of these diploma-mills. However, I still know people who have attended and have decent jobs now, even in this tough economy. Some employers just don't seem to mind while others do. The particular manager I was speaking of is now going for her master's through UofP, which our company is paying for. So she obviously has not had any problems with the education she received.

    I agree that there are lots of drawbacks to taking classes online. My particular school was like the author's, I had to attend a certain amount of classes face-to-face and obviously labs, etc. Also, going to class online does not enable you to really get to know your classmates or your professor. Keep this in mind if you want to attend graduate school and will need recommendations from profs. If you're looking into going to graduate school online this is a nice search engine that lets you sort by online schools. http://www.gradschools.com/ . Anyway, good luck!

  11. Fred says:
    Mon, 23rd Aug 20109:08 am 

    Online colleges are great because they can fit any lifestyle and schedule.

  12. misnomer says:
    Mon, 23rd Aug 20109:17 am 

    I can see it making a lot of sense for a program like webdesign where a lot of your work will be done online and there may be less human interaction. Not to mention, computer skills will be the most important skill you will learn. However, a lot of jobs it doesn't make sense to get all of your courses through online because communication (face to face) will be as important as any skills your teachers will teach you. I disagree with anyone who says brick and mortar schools are on their way out, because many of us learn better that way. and as long as there is a demand for it, it will be there. But it is good to have more options because some students do better with the individual coursework that online classes allow.

    http://studentswhostillhavesouls.blogspot.com

  13. kaley says:
    Mon, 23rd Aug 20107:21 pm 

    I'm glad to see someone writing about this. Online classes can be really helpful. I always take at LEAST 15 credits per semester while working full time, and while I have the work ethic to do both, I do NOT have the time to spend on campus (at normal hours). I usually take 2 or 3 morning classes, go to work, and then work on my online classes at night of on weekends. It's still tons of work, save the occasional push over teacher, but it is very convenient to do schoolwork literally whenever you want!

  14. Career Education says:
    Thu, 26th Aug 20103:37 am 

    Just was going through the already posted comments. It is really poignant to hear about online colleges. Whenever we are talking about like an online college, we will always seek for the best one. Yes! It is true to accredited by chance, but to serve better is the most important thing. What I can suggest, a blog on career and education where you can find a whole list. Just visit my blog on Career and Education at careereducation2u.com

  15. Kim says:
    Thu, 26th Aug 20109:29 pm 

    Another good thing about online classes- sometimes they can be a LOT cheaper than traditional ones on campus! My freshman year, I took regular classes. To save money this semester, I decided to try 3 online ones…With online classes, at my school, I don't have to pay a lot of the (dumb) "mandatory student fees" that those on-campus have to pay :) since I'm working from the privacy of my home! lol

  16. Lauren says:
    Sun, 19th Dec 20101:10 am 

    My mom got her masters in education through University of Phoenix. It was very difficult and she worked extremely hard in order to get good grades. And she has gotten several teaching jobs since then, so I wouldn't call University of Phoenix a scam.

  17. insomniac says:
    Wed, 27th Apr 20113:19 pm 

    college life is really very good..
    we meet new people… lean how to work and something…. we fun we enjoy..
    u know like the song of westlife.. we had joy we had fun , we had season in the sun
    office assistant

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