In reading a lot of forum posts I am always encouraged by people who have found a website such as eLearners in order to gain information about furthering their education. Often times, however, many of these people ask about 1 or 2 schools specifically and have done little to no research or they are not even sure what it is they want to do.
This is not their fault, of course, as few things in life are as convoluted, complicated, and permanent as getting a higher education. So below I will answer a couple of questions I see most frequently on the eLearners forum and others like it.
- 1.) What do you think of (_________) school? Fill in the blank with whatever school it is that you are considering.
- A.) Often people will ask about the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University, Capella, etc. The answer is that there is no real answer. For me to give advice the factors to drawing an individual opinion are generally as follows:
- Ø Is this school accredited?
- Ø What is the general reputation of the school?
- Ø What degree programs do they offer in your particular area of interest?
- Ø Do they maintain a professional accreditation (for example ACBSP)?
- Ø Does anyone on the forum have personal experience with the school?
- Ø Do I know anyone with experience with that school and what have they said about it?
- Ø Will this school meet the goals you have told me about?
- Ø How much is the tuition for the school? Is it comparable to their competition?
- Ø Do I consider the school a good value based upon tuition vs. benefit? For example I would be willing to pay more to obtain an MBA than an MSM for reasons of average return on investment.
- Ø Have I read anything about the school from a RELIABLE source and not from someone who simply has a bone to pick?
- Ø Based upon my professional experience, educational experience and of course mistakes I have made what would I do?
These are the factors I will always consider before giving my opinion on any school. My advice then to you would be to ask these same questions yourself before posting on the forum as nobody knows your criteria and personal desires and needs better than you. Picking a degree and school is a highly personal process. It would be better to instead look for people to make suggestions of schools you may not have considered to further your research or to possibly warn you off of a glaring mistake.
- 2.) What do you think about (___________) and what will recruiters and hiring managers think of it? Fill in the degree you are considering.
- A.) As you may have guessed the answer is more often than not highly dependant upon the following factors:
- Ø Will this degree meet your stated goals? For instance if you want to become a nurse, an MBA may not be the best option for you.
- Ø What does this degree look like against its counterparts? For example I strongly considered getting a Master of Science in Management before pulling the trigger on an MBA. The primary determining factor was that the MBA has a much higher average return on investment (money wise) than most MSM degrees. Which leads me to ask...
- Ø Why do you want the degree? Is money the primary factor? Personal satisfaction? Change of careers or moving up in your current job?
- Ø What are the average earnings of a graduate with this degree in my area?
To answer the second part of the question, "what will recruiters and hiring managers think"? In actuality this is an impossible question as recruiters and hiring managers run the full gambit from education savvy to complete morons and everything in between. I am personally in a position to hire so I have to base my opinions off of my criteria and conversations I have with my peers (who are also hiring managers) and of course our bosses and human resources personnel. In my limited experience, most recruiters and hiring managers will usually consider the following in order of importance:
- Ø The degree level. If they posted a minimum qualification of a Bachelor of Science, it would generally be futile to apply with an Associate of Science and expect a positive result.
- Ø The degree major. Is this major in an area related to the job or one that demonstrates a desirable skill? For instance a BS in Nursing will likely not be of much value to a manager hiring an Accountant when your competition likely has a BS in Accounting.
- Ø Where did you earn the degree? As much as I hate to admit it, school reputation does play a factor. It's better to have no reputation than a bad one. Some schools, such as University of Phoenix, elicit a strong response in recruiters as many have drawn personal opinions (positive and negative) of the school based upon their own personal knowledge or lack thereof. More often than not I will see resume listing a degree from a school I have never heard of or know little about, such as Western New England College. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it is relatively easy to research the school's accreditation, which is really where accreditation plays the biggest part. If they are regionally accredited, most hiring managers and recruiters, myself included, are pretty comfortable with educational portion of the resume. If it is a school I am familiar with, such as Boston University then I generally have a good feeling about the educational portion of their resume.
- Ø Do you have the professional credentials needed for the job outside of education? For example, if 10 years experience and a BS are the minimum qualifications, likely someone with a BS and 5 years experience will not be considered. The only exception is if the person has a higher than minimum education, such as an MS and a reasonably close margin of experience, such as 7 to 8 years, I might consider them. Certainly I would weigh the option.
Try to consider these options when doing your research and be open to suggestions but realize that ultimately the decision is yours to make and it is a highly personal decision. Nobody can make it for you but perhaps we can provide you with new avenues to explore. So do your research and then be prepared to do a little more.
I hope this helps.
---Cajun