 What's happening guys? It's Shane here. So a question that I get pretty frequently is basically, what do I think of online college? Do I think an online college degree is worth it? Should I attend an online college? Is online college a scam? Which online college should I attend if I do decide to attend online college? And this is a great question because if you think about it, online college have so many upsides on the surface. You know, they're extremely convenient. If you're currently working a job, you don't have to quit your job. You can just do the college work either in the morning or at night or if you have a really chill job, you can even do it while you're going to work. You don't have to move anywhere. So a normal college, you'd probably have to move somewhere unless you just happen to live right next to the college. If you're currently a used lighter salesman or you recently became a life coach, you can keep doing that. You don't have to change your life whatsoever. You also don't have to leave the house. You can do online classes from the comfort of your own home, wherever that may be. You don't have to go to class, which saves money on gas. And let's be real here. When you go up to the university, you're probably going to spend money on some sandwich or something like that you probably don't need. You're most likely going to buy some overpriced like $5 coffee. You're going to end up going to Chick-fil-A like seven different times to get their fries. Hurry up and order. I'm a regular here. This line needs to move. Instead of doing that, you can stay home, cook for yourself and save yourself time, money, and most importantly, your dignity. And the best part of all of this, the most important perk is that people aren't going to judge you when you're binge watching my videos and smashing the living daylight out of the like button. No, but seriously, I would really genuinely appreciate it if you did hit the like button. It helps a lot with the algorithm and it also helps the channel. And then of course, let's not forget about the most important perk, which is not having to interact with other human beings. And this is especially good if you're an introvert. And with all these perks, what could possibly go wrong? I mean, this is a sure thing, right? Not so fast. There's actually some really big issues with online college. Definitely not for everybody. There are things that you have to consider and it's different from person to person. And in this video, I'm going to go over those really important points that you need to think about before you make this decision. And by the end of the video, you'll know what types of online college is to avoid and also if online college is for you. Who me? No. And as a bonus at the end of the video, if you do decide that online college is the way to go for you, I'm going to tell you exactly how to select the best one. Because as you're about to see, most of them are pure trash. So first, let's break down the three different types of online colleges. So the first one is what's known as for profit universities and a couple examples of these. And I don't like to talk stuff about any of these, but a couple examples are going to be University of Phoenix and DeVry University. These are extremely well known and these are for profit universities. And a really good rule of thumb is to just never attend a for profit university, whether it's a traditional school that has a normal building that you go to, or whether it's an online school, just not a good idea to attend for profit universities. They're usually much more expensive and they're also way less respected by businesses and hiring managers. A lot of the time if they see that you went to a for profit university, they'll just throw your application out right there. I mean, we don't have a job for you. We've downsized. And a lot of them are getting a little bit more competitive and they're lowering their prices and they're actually becoming quite cheap. I still don't recommend going to these because once you get the degree, nobody actually respects it. And like I said, recruiters, hiring managers, business owners, they're going to see that you went to a for profit online university and they're just going to throw your resume away. And on top of this, the average graduation rate for online universities is only about 20 to 25%. And this is much lower if you compare it to traditional universities. And honestly, there's a really good argument to be made that some of these for profit universities, in fact, quite a few of them are straight up scams because only a small percentage of people actually graduate from the university. And then once they graduate, a lot of them don't really have the skills that they should have. And on top of that, nobody wants to hire them. I was showing you the door that said over there. So they're stuck with a huge student loan payment and they can't get a job. Now the second type of online university is what I like to call the respectable online university. And a few examples of this are going to be Western University or the University of Maryland University College. These are actually well respected online universities. You know, they're not going to throw your resume out the moment they see it. However, there's still some downsides to this. You know, you're not going to have the alumni base that you would have at a physical university. You're not going to have the career center to help you out like you would at a traditional college. So there definitely are some downsides. And the truth is, even though it's more respected than some of the other for profit universities, it's still not as respected as a traditional established brick and mortar university. Now, an example of where this would be a good option for you is if you want a certain position in a company and it's pretty much just there for the taking. Like they want you to be in that position. However, there's this kind of stupid little box that you have to tick that says, I've got an associates degree or I've got a bachelor's degree or something along those lines. And you can't get that position without ticking the little box because it's just some company policy or something like that. This sort of bureaucratic nonsense is really common in government jobs, for instance. Other than that, I really think there's better options out there for you. Now the third type of online college and what in my opinion is the best type is where a traditional school offers an online degree. Now these are by far the most respected out of all of the online colleges. And basically you just get a degree from that college. I don't believe you have to actually disclose that it was technically an online degree to any recruiters or hiring managers. So it's basically like you attended that university in person and there's no difference. Now a couple things here, you do want to make sure that you get the same degree as the on-site students. You know, a lot of these universities are offering these really weird certificate programs where you don't actually get a degree, you get a certificate. And in my opinion, these are borderline scams because they're not going to make any difference when it comes to a hiring manager seeing that on your resume. They're money making schemes, in my opinion, for the most part, and they're not really going to hold any weight in the real world. Now like I said, for online college, this is the best option and you really want to try to just go the cheapest possible route and get in-state tuition and just go as cheap as possible. And then another thing is you always want to make sure it's not just nationally accredited, but what's even more important than national accreditation is regional accreditation. This is what really counts. Make sure that they are regionally accredited. So now let's talk about some of the pros and cons of online college. So the pros we kind of already talked about, you can do it from home or wherever you like. If you want to do it at a coffee shop or McDonald's or your favorite place, you can do it anywhere you want. You don't need to quit your job in order to attend university. You can do it before, after, during your job if they'll allow you to. They're very flexible with the schedule. You get to save money on gas and food. You also get to save time. You can just roll out of bed in the morning. You don't have to get dressed. What time is it? 7.15 at night. You don't have to drive there. Just roll out of bed, get on your computer, and start doing your classes. And then online classes, a lot of the time will go at whatever pace you're comfortable with. So there's a lot of flexibility there. If you're really busy, you're working like 80 hours a week, and you can't complete a four-year degree in four years, then you can, you know, bring it out to five years or six years and just take less classes. Whereas at a traditional school, there's a lot of courses that are maybe only offered in the fall semester or the spring semester. And so it can really muck up your plans if you want to go a little bit slower than whatever their curriculum is. And then another great thing is some people learn better in a low-pressure environment where there's not anybody around watching you. And then, of course, you don't have to talk to real people. That's the best perk. Can I use your laptop? Yeah, go ahead. There's so much pool! You can just stay in your mom's basement if you want to. No, no, no, no, no. No, I live with my mom. And then the best thing is you don't have to talk to real people or develop social skills or anything like that. You can just stay in your mom's basement if you want to. Now, some of the cons of online college is you have to be very self-directed. You know, there's not going to be any structure there for you, like they create at a traditional university. If you don't stay up on the course work, you'll get behind extremely quickly. Another thing is it's also very easy to cheat. And so you might think, oh, that's not going to affect me. But the problem is, is even though they try to avoid cheating by making you turn a webcam on, and I think they monitor your computer, there's very easy ways to bypass that. You can just have an iPad, you know, just behind the camera or something where they can't see it. And because of that, you're going to be competing against a bunch of people who are cheating. And that's just not fair for you. And at a traditional university, it is way harder to cheat. I mean, I have seen people get caught cheating. They get kicked out of school. They're very serious about it. It is no joke. And then another thing is a lot of people learn better in person when they're around other people, you know, you're not going to get that same connection with the professor that you would get if you were in class with them. Sometimes it's much easier to pay attention when there's someone right in front of you, you know, they're probably making eye contact with you at certain times, and they're, you know, gesturing. And then another thing is you don't make the same connections with other students that you would at a traditional college. And this is real. I mean, some of my best friends ever people that I will probably be friends with for the rest of my life, I met during my university years. And I don't think I would have developed those same friendships if I attended an online university. And on top of that, I met a lot of people that I'm not necessarily friends with anymore, but I'm good acquaintances with them. And if they ever worked at a company that maybe I wanted to work at, they would probably be more than happy to help me out. So it really helped to develop my network. And it's not just other students in your network, you get to go into office hours and talk to professors. And it's just not the same as if you're emailing them or you're, you know, FaceTiming them or whatever they do in online universities as talking to them in real life, you can form an actual relationship with these professors. And then later on, you know, they'll do everything they can to help you out, they'll write you letters of recommendation, they might even be able to reach out to people in an industry and help you get a job. These are very valuable connections to have. And then another thing is you just miss out on the college experience, whatever that is. And by that, I basically mean partying, going out, making stupid decisions, finding yourself, doing dumb stuff, like going to the library, studying for 12 hours with your friends. And then you really only get 30 minutes of studying done because you're just like watching YouTube and talking to your friends the entire time. There really is something to having this college experience. There's a lot of nostalgia involved in it. And it's something that you're going to remember for the rest of your life. I look back on it and it was an amazing time. It was a great learning experience and growing experience for me. And I probably wouldn't have had that same experience if I went to an online university. Another thing is that online colleges don't spend nearly as much of your tuition on actually improving their degree. So they don't really spend it on the instruction or anything like that because there's such a low overhead anyways, whereas traditional colleges spend tons of money on making your overall experience better. And then just imagine this awkward experience. Let's say you go to Arizona State University online college and then later on you meet somebody who also went to Arizona State University and then you don't even know what the library's called. You don't know what the student union's called. You pretty much don't know anything about the school. What? That's going to be super awkward and they're just not going to feel like they have the same connection as if they met somebody who also went to Arizona State. Now another option for you is you could also go the hybrid route and you could take some of your classes at a traditional physical university and then you could take some of them online. This is more and more common and a lot of students are taking like one fourth of their classes online and then three fourths of their classes at a physical university. And this is a great option if there's some classes that you just want to get out of the way because they're not that important. Overall, all things considered, I think that going the traditional route to a physical location is probably a better idea. But as promised, if you do decide to go to an online college, you know, because of your life circumstances, maybe you can't quit your job or you got to take care of somebody or something along those lines, the best idea for you is to attend a respected brick and mortar physical university that just happens to offer an online degree. Do your research and then figure out which ones offer the cheapest possible degree and then also make sure that they're regionally accredited. And like I said, it's almost always a good idea to go with the cheapest option because the difference between a state school and a slightly less respected state school in terms of the degree, it doesn't really make much difference. Now, there are a few exceptions here. If you have an opportunity to go to online college with, you know, Stanford or Harvard or a really well known university, it's might be a good idea to take that opportunity because the clout is real and it'll open doors for you and give you opportunities that you just would not get anywhere else. Additionally, if you have a chance to go to a top 10 college for whatever degree that you're pursuing, that's also going to open a lot of doors for you. And it's probably worth it. And then the other thing to consider is if you're planning on living in a particular area where there's a strong alumni network, let's say just as an example, you know, University of Southern California has a very strong alumni network in the Southern California LA area, then it might be a good idea to go to online college there just because the Alumni Association will probably open up a lot of opportunities for you. Other than that, I think you should just be as cheap as possible and just go the cheapest possible route. Make sure to check out my videos right here. I made them just for you. Go ahead, smash the like button, hit the subscribe ring the notification bell and then comment down below any comments about this video or other videos that you'd like me to make. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.