Re:Ask HN: Are online master degrees credible?
by gumby on Friday November 27, 2020 @02:27PM
(#25231834)
If you are concerned more about raising your "ranking" rather than acquiring some specific knowledge, look for a school that doesn't label its only degrees "online".
I know that the University of Illinois provides degree programs online through coursera which are treated the same as non-online in that the diploma is the same, you can join the alumni association etc. I happen to know this somewhat randomly (from a coursera employee who worked on it) so I am sure there are others; I don't know if you can tell this by visiting Coursera or if the university does it and doesn't mention their platform provider.
As others have remarked in practice the education isn't the same, but in some cases I could imagine it could be better (depending on the student, quality of instructor, etc). For me the "cultural" aspects are quite important (discussions, people you meet, etc) but that may not be true for everyone.
Also if you are perfectly capable but feel you need to alter your "credibility brand" the actual quality of the education may not matter. I have a friend who enrolled in grad school entirely to meet people, ended dropping out part way through to start a company, and did fine. So there are many paths to "success".
I know that the University of Illinois provides degree programs online through coursera which are treated the same as non-online in that the diploma is the same, you can join the alumni association etc. I happen to know this somewhat randomly (from a coursera employee who worked on it) so I am sure there are others; I don't know if you can tell this by visiting Coursera or if the university does it and doesn't mention their platform provider.
As others have remarked in practice the education isn't the same, but in some cases I could imagine it could be better (depending on the student, quality of instructor, etc). For me the "cultural" aspects are quite important (discussions, people you meet, etc) but that may not be true for everyone.
Also if you are perfectly capable but feel you need to alter your "credibility brand" the actual quality of the education may not matter. I have a friend who enrolled in grad school entirely to meet people, ended dropping out part way through to start a company, and did fine. So there are many paths to "success".