“I guess it’s easier to get an online degree” she said to me shortly after congratulating me on finishing the requirements for my MBA.
“Whaaaaattttt?!?!?” was the reply that screamed in my mind. I suddenly had fuzzy vision as my blood pressure shot up with a white hot rage. Suddenly I hated her with the passion that only an office worker who has suddenly found his sandwich that he dreamed about all day is missing from the community refrigerator at work could possibly understand. But I calmly replied “not really” while my left eye twitched uncontrollably. How utterly dismissive was that right?
So for those looking into the “easy” online path, here is a little bit of what you can expect.
Expect:
1.) Reading assignments on the scale of between a mere 20 pages upwards to 180 pages within about a week’s time. Sorry, not too many pictures and this is single spaced in dry academic books.
2.) Writing assignments as small as 3 pages to as big as 30, depending upon the week and all. Good news though, at least you can double space these but yeah, you’ll still have to finish it within the same week as the reading assignment.
3.) To have to actually understand not only what you are reading but why exactly it was written and how it fits into the course objectives. This can slow reading considerably.
4.) Cold coffee.
5.) Tired eyes.
6.) Stress and frustration that only a sheep herder allergic to wool could relate to.
7.) An irritated spouse who is frustrated at having to spend so much time alone because you have to figure out how to perform the dreaded regression analysis over a seemingly inadequately supplied amount of information.
8.) To form a seemingly unhealthy bond with your laptop or PC.
9.) To gain weight, lose weight or both though not likely at the same time. Possibly neither but given the amount of time you spend at work then at school workouts are definitely going to become a luxury if you are married and/or have kids.
10.) To learn how to have a meal while driving, reading or even typing.
11.) To learn the joys of having slick textbook pages stuck to your face when you wakeup suddenly realizing you wasted precious time on something as trivial as sleep.
12.) To suddenly realize that while you were studying or typing away the sun came up and you haven’t been to bed yet. Oh yeah and you have to be at work in 2 hours.
13.) Long days at work and longer nights at home.