August 08, 2007

Curious George: Getting an Education I need an accounting degree, and I need your advice.

Here's the scoop: I was all ready to attend University of Phoenix, but did research and found out most people who've gotten their degrees from U of P regret that they did. My question to you monkeys is, do you know anything about them? What have you heard/experienced? Also, if I should forget about attending, what do you recommend as an inexpensive, mostly online, but completely accredited, alternative? What do you all think of community college? Thanks in advance for your advice!

posted by minda25 17 years ago
  • Community college is a much better bet for your dollar. My girlfriend has a master's in ed and works for the ed department of the USAF. She's pretty disgusted with the U of Pee and all their works. Tell us more about your situation, Minda. Do you want a four-year degree, two-year? Why not go to your state university? Are you going to go full time/part time? MomMonkeys need to know.
  • Okee, here are the details: - A two-year degree is my goal for now; a four-year is the ultimate goal (I want to have a good, solid, extremely boring career in finance). - I don't have the funds or financing available for state. - I want to take as many classes as I can while still being able to afford groceries, as well as have a bit of time for the family. - I'd really, really like to start this fall.
  • From what I understand, a fairly common thing to do these days is to do the community college thing for a couple years, get your diploma, and then use those same credits towards a uni degree, skipping the first couple years, saving yourself a lot of bucks, and having the piece of paper in hand already. Is that maybe an option in your field?
  • Yeah, I'd avoid U of Phoenix if you can. They're a for-profit enterprise, which means they're probably more interested in high tuition than giving you a good education. They're very expensive to attend, and pay their instructors next to nothing (I know people that teach there, who will remain nameless), which means that most people who teach there are doing so as supplemental income. This means that, at best, your instructor is more interested in her day job than in this one. Are you looking for online schools so you can continue to work, or are you equally able to go to a "real world" school? If you want online schools, I can recommend a couple that I know of, but if you can go to a real world school, I'd check out your local community college. They're cheaper and usually offer an education that's equal to or better than the intro-level classes at a four-year school.
  • Thanks for the responses. I'll most certainly skip the U of Pee! meredithea, I'm looking for online classes because evenings are just about impossible for anything other than family stuff. I *could* make it to a class, though, if I had to.
  • I did what Capt. Renault said in California (mostly because I was an international student and UC fees were ridiculous, while community college fees were acceptable). The credits transferred easily to UCSC when I switched for the second half of my degree, and I got an AA in anthro as well. Just be sure when you start that you are doing all the requirements to transfer to a state uni. There will be certain requirements: in California I had to get IGETC while doing my AA, which was a transfer agreement between California community colleges and the UCs.
  • Email the pertinent instructors at your local community college and see if any of them are willing to let you skip lectures or have someone record them for you or if any are lectures are available online. I took a unix class almost entirely in absentia from my local CC.
  • Thanks for the suggestions, trac & yentruoc! I let the guy at U of Pee know I wouldn't be attending after all, and started the process with the community college. As soon as I get financing figured out, I'll take your advice yentruoc & ask the instructors about that. That would certainly help quite a bit!
  • Just let me know if/when you'd like to take some online classes -- I used to teach online, and a couple of friends of mine are getting their degrees online, so I can kind of see things from both sides, there. Email's in the profile :)
  • I'm going the mostly-online route through the distance-learning branch of the state university. I say mostly, because they also have a local branch office where I have periodic meetings with my advisor and instructors and take exams. My local community college has five degrees you can do totally online (Business Administration, Business Management, Chemical Dependency Counseling, Hotel and Restaurant Management, and Paralegal). But a quick look at their accounting program shows that about half of the required courses can be taken online, as well. You may have already looked into those options at your local CC or State, but I thought I'd chime in since I have a wee bit of personal experience. You have to have the right personality for it - I don't, really, so I'm finding it a bit harder than most people seem to.
  • I got a bachelors degree in forgery by forging a bachelors degree in forgery. Then I thought: hey, why not try for a masters? Unfortunately I failed at the convocation because I spelled my name wrong, and someone else got my piece of paper instead of me. If you're reading this "the quidnunc kad" I just wanna tell you to gimme back my masters, you fraudulent asshile.