Online Grad programs

[Qtf311]

Will attaining your MA in history from an online program, like SNHU, affect your chances of getting into a phd program?  

[cowgirlsdontcry]

33 minutes ago, Qtf311 said:

Will attaining your MA in history from an online program, like SNHU, affect your chances of getting into a phd program?  

My M.A. program in English was a combination in person/online. However, I lived in the area and worked as a funded GA on campus during the two years I was in the program. As a result, the professors tried to do one discussion period per week for those of us working as GAs. My M.A. school is a smaller tier one state school in South Region and the English M.A. is rated in the top 10 Nationally in online programs. Our online program has students who live all over the world. We had 20 graduate this semester with an English MA. I believe 6 of us were in attendance at Graduation. 

I have been admitted to a Ph.D. program beginning this fall so will be moving soon. Don't plan on trying to get into a top 20 Ph.D. program, but if you have all the other pieces needed for a Ph.D. app, I don't know why you would not succeed. I don't know anything about SNHU--except they always have ads for adjunct instructors in higher ed (I was perusing the site before I got any offers for Plan B). Many state universities have online master's programs. It's convenient for those who have fulltime jobs or live in primarily rural states like Louisiana (where I live). Most of the schools also do not charge out-of-state fees for online courses. The University of Louisiana at Monroe has an online history M.A. This is not my school, but isn't that far away from me and was the first school I thought of as I knew my school does not have an MA in history (MS in Homeland Security instead).

Good luck in your search.

[Qtf311]

Thanks.  That all make sense.  I was just tood that some programs may still have a bias against online programs

[cowgirlsdontcry]

If it's a regular state university that has normal in person classes, how do programs know that it's all or partially online? Your degree certainly doesn't show that. In my case, I would say I like in person classes better, but even my in person classes had skype or Web Ex going for those students who lived far away. I probably got more personal attention from professors than I would have at a large state university. I think there may be some prejudice towards online programs and I would not enroll in one of the online universities, but as far as learning, I had no problem. Online classes are very different in state universities. I served as a GA/TA for two professors in the department and it was great. My GRE didn't suffer as I scored a 93% in verbal. Math was much lower, but I didn't spend the time prepping for math, as my adviser had told me English depts don't care about math much and my score was still high enough that I easily met and surpassed the quals for every school I applied to. There were four GAs in the English Dept (the sum total of those who lived nearby). Three of us made Ph.D. applications. All three of us were accepted at large state universities. I don't find any bias there. You should check out some state programs that can be done online. Talk to them. They will know if their students have successfully applied and been admitted to Ph.D. programs. They will also tell you the drawbacks to an online program. The real test would come if you attended an online university. You will find bias in top 20 universities, and large private universities. You won't find it in state universities. A state university is your best bet for online classes.

Edited June 1, 2017 by cowgirlsdontcry

[Jim Jeffreys]

Any degree from reputed university will definitely help in our career. All the best, I hope it will also help you. I am also doing my degree program from CBU Online. It is an online Christian university that provides a large number of online courses.

[Qtf311]

Thanks for the feedback.