Reputation Matters - Choosing an Online Degree Program

There are hundreds of schools offering online degree programs. Choosing a good school can be very difficult. There are many factors involved.
Not all degree programs or equivalent, and many they even have the same name may vary drastically and what topics are covered.

Finding an educational institution with an online program that is right for you is a very personal decision and will require a lot of work and careful understanding not only of the college but of yourself and your own personality as well. Not every program will work for every person.
Studying online can be difficult and different forms of study may be easier or harder for you getting on your past experience with technology and how you like to interact with information.
However regardless what your learning style is, one thing you need to be aware of with any institution is its reputation.
Every school has a different reputation and what parts of the reputation or important very depending on what industry you're planning on working in. If you want to work in the academic field then a degree from a school known for stellar academic credentials is important.

Other industries may look for different reputation strengths when they see the school you went to on your diploma.

One big shift in how you need to evaluate schools has to do with for-profit universities.
This is a rather recent trend because in the past almost all academic institutions were nonprofit.
For-profit universities may offer great academic training but the underlying motive is different than 1/8 nonprofit institution.

A for-profit institution is going to try to do its best to maximize its profit.
They will manage a number of different things in order to achieve that goal.

One of the things they will manage is the reputation and their academic experience.
They will want a good academic experience and a good reputation in order to be able to make more money. A nonprofit institution will do the same thing but sometimes for a different reason.

While they are concerned about maintaining enrollment levels, long-standing universities are trying to maintain a good academic record for other reasons than just money. They are trying to maintain the reputation that they've had going back for hundreds of years. Nonprofit institutions are usually run by academics. They are run by people who are professors themselves so their decisions seem to usually be based more on along the lines of the needs of study and research than profit and business decisions.