There are several reasons why a person must attend a military online education course instead of an in-class or in person class. They may be posted abroad or working aboard a ship or on some remote location without access to regular facilities for a long period. Hence, with internet access, and with government funding via the Montgomery GI Bill, the GI Bill for the 21st Century and other military online education funding, an online military degree is a possibility today.
Military online education is much more flexible than regular full-time education. The basic infrastructure consists of email, message boards, chat rooms, compact discs and many more multimedia aids. Attending a military online education course for just a couple of hours each day could result in earning a respectable degree within a short period.
Today, there are several colleges that offer military online education, and it can prove to be quite a difficult task to select a college suitable to specific, individual requirements when it comes to distance education. Here we take a look at some of the top colleges which offer military online education, which should help a person in making a suitable choice.
Choosing the Right University
Enrolling for an online degree is not like joining a regular university, where you get to visit the campus, meet the faculty members and even get a guided tour around the campus. You are dealing with people you have never met or may never meet. Due the unknown factor, it is imperative to exercise extreme caution before signing up for a course.
If you are looking for a “military friendly” university, there are some vital issues that need to be addressed. In short, you should check to see if the school has a military culture, whether financial assistance is available if there is enough flexibility and most importantly, whether adequate support services are in place.
You need to ask questions like if classes are held on base or not, are transfer credits from other universities possible and whether active duty students get “in-state” tuition or not. You can visit guidetoonlineschools.com which has an exhaustive list of online universities where you can compare the pros and cons of one against another.
Here, we have filtered the options down to some of the universities that are best-recommended by virtue of their reviews.
Bowling Green State University
This is by far one of the highest recommended online universities. Bowling Green State University offers more than 35 online programs in the various categories of bachelor degrees, master degrees and endorsement programs. There is a dedicated department which looks into matters regarding transfer of existing credits from other universities. The university has an excellent faculty, which has national and international experts who are available to distance education students whenever required.
Reviews
The feedback received about this university is that because it is not too huge, personalized attention is possible for each student. According the EDU in Review, “BGSU offers distance education, which is an innovative form of education where technology is used to facilitate the learning process via the internet.”
Capella University
Here is another university offering various degrees in business, technical and criminal Justice, as well as in homeland security. Capella University got mentioned in the G.I. Jobs Magazine in 2010. It was categorized as a Military Friendly School. The State of Minnesota has named Capella University a “Yellow Ribbon” organization. Therefore, a person with a military background will be comfortable in pursuing a degree from this university.
Reviews
This university has some rather good reviews on the internet. The consensus is that the courses are challenging and on par with the level of difficulty faced while pursuing a full-time course. There has also been a good amount of positive feedback from housewives who wished to pursue their higher studies after having a family. An anonymous poster on onlinedegreereviews.org, “Am loving my Ph.D. and so proud that Capella is my alma mater!”
Colorado Technical University
This university offers technical and business degrees with the addition of criminal Justice and security. The Colorado Technical University does not offer the range of degrees that some other universities offer, but it makes up for this shortfall with the degree of specialization that is offered under each course. It is, however, a military friendly institution.
Reviews
The reviews on Colorado Technical University are largely positive. Of course, there are a few negative ones as well, but positive reviews seem to out-rank the negative ones. Says police officer Matthew Vincent Blackstock, “I really enjoyed my time there and it assisted me in obtaining a position as a Criminal Investigator in a State Police agency in Texas”.
Drexel University
This university has conducted online education programs for over ten years, now. If you want to specialize in business technology, Drexel University is the place to go. However, the quality of degrees offered in general studies, criminal justice, education and communications are also superb. It is also possible to study for certain offbeat degrees like property management. Drexel University has a very good reputation for its professionalism and is highly respected among business circles.
Reviews
It has been pointed out that this university is expensive, but then, it has also been stressed that it is a highly professional institution with well-qualified instructors. The negative feedback is that the faculty is rather old-fashioned, but those who were able to adjust to the teaching culture had an overall good learning experience.
University of Massachusetts
The University of Massachusetts is a well-known university has a remarkably vast range of distance education programs to offer. Not only does the University of Massachusetts have all the required courses in the business and technical category, it also has several other degrees in fields like liberal arts and journalism among several other courses and specializations. There is a lot of flexibility in the learning pattern, which allows the student to organize their study in a highly personal and customized way.
Reviews
The general opinion of those who have attended the online courses of the University of Massachusetts is that it is a good university, compared with the rest. The online site thebestcolleges.org highlights the fact that the faculty is made up of national award winners of prizes like the Pulitzer, the Draper (for excellence in engineering) and even some Nobel laureates.
The Final Analysis of Military Online Education
With the plethora of universities offering military online education today, one has to be very careful in choosing a university that will be suitable to you in all respects and above all, will be military friendly. Once you have enrolled with the school, you don’t want to be looking to transfer to another one within a year. With all this in mind, and seeing the success rate of several universities, it is possible to come out on top with a degree of your choice, and have a good studying experience with a course in military online education.
