Monday, April 9, 2012

Working with Online Masters Degree Programs

It is a wrong belief of people that online masters degree programs are not only easy to get accepted into but fairly easy to pass with flying colors too. Conventional courses do not cost as little as these particular programs and the price disparity is being seen as one of the factors leading to this misconception. If you think about it, these are two completely different elements since the costs of both online and traditional programs are fairly the same if you take a look at the tuition fees that come with them.

With this in mind, you should stop believing when people say that it is easy as pie to get into good online masters degree programs. “Good” is the operative word here. There are some courses that come with easy admissions and these are the mediocre ones.

When it comes to masters programs, getting into these involves the same process for online and conventional students. Basically, the fewer cut-off prerequisites you have to work on, the easier it will be for you to get into a particular masteral program. Once you aim a bit higher, though, you see more hurdles to have to jump.

So getting into online masters degree programs that can actually benefit your resume later on is going to be a bit tough. See to it that you have above average GPA grades and letters of recommendation from the right people. See to it that you pay close attention to the required recommendation letters.

If your academic record is not the highest of the bunch, you can improve your application through fantastic letters of recommendation. This means more than letters that sing your praises. Basically, these letters of praise have been created by well-known individuals in a particular field.

Not everyone gets into these courses and you might be ignored during your first application but you have to simply try again. Unbeknownst to most people, admissions committees for these programs are choosy when it comes to the applicants that they consider. There is one institution that only accepts 40% of the best student applicants.

Of course, before you even start thinking about things like this, you must seek out good programs first. Generally, it is a smart idea to go through major universities’ offerings first. Always go with schools that are well known.

Some Ivy League or close-to-it schools offer programs online. Business is typically the most pursued program, so MBAs are among the most common in the selections. There are online programs for the less known fields but finding ones which are top notch will not be that easy as options in this case are highly limited.

Even if there is a student that engages in the online programs offered by Ivy League schools, these may not be credited to their academic history. A popular example would be the courses you find from eCornell, Cornell’s distance learning branch. When it comes to any degree program, it is important for all credits to be counted.

Keep in mind what was said earlier, which is that applications for online masters degree programs can get surprisingly competitive. You can say that you are one of the privileged few if you manage to graduate from an online degree. It only makes sense that you have to prove yourself truly worthy of accessing it.