Selecting which college you’ll attend is one of the most important decisions of your adult life, as you’re setting the stage for what your future will look like. You have heard many good things about online colleges, but you are still undecided. It is time to find out what the benefits are of attending an online college.
Here are the 10 top reasons to attend an online college:
In today’s article, we’ll outline the above 10 benefits of attending an online college. This article should quell your doubts and answer your questions about what an online university entails, so keep reading!
While many young people who have excitedly graduated with their high school diplomas are of college age and ready to move right on to a higher level of academia, for others, the situation is different.
Perhaps they’ve been working part-time throughout high school to support themselves or their families.
They may be part-time caretakers of a sick family member or face a different set of circumstances that make a traditional college education difficult if not impossible.
No one should be disqualified from the realm of higher education just because their lives have not followed the linear path from high school to college, yet that’s so often what happens.
Without a college education, it’s easy to feel disadvantaged in the career department, where job options might be scarcer and offer lower incomes.
What was once a small gap not going from high school to college becomes a chasm that limits a person’s progress for the rest of their life.
Online colleges seek to bridge that gap and make a college education more attainable for more people, including those who wouldn’t be able to attend a traditional college.
Everyone deserves a shot at an education, after all!
At a traditional college, you might work in the computer lab for some of your coursework over the two to four years you’re there, but certainly not all the time.
As a student at an online university, computers and other technology would become a part of your everyday experience.
You’d use apps, video conferencing technology, and computer programs to keep up with your lessons, assignments, tests, projects, and communication between your fellow students and your instructors.
Further, some online colleges might afford you the unique opportunity to use technology that everyday professionals in your chosen field rely on daily.
This allows you to become acquainted with this technology before you ever have to use it on the job is a skill you can add to your resume. This alone will make you a more appealing job candidate.
Let’s be honest, commuting is a huge waste of both time and money.
According to a 2021 report from the United States Census Bureau, in 2019, a one-way commute in the US averaged 27.6 minutes, which would mean spending approximately an hour of commuting per day.
That’s assuming there’s light traffic, and how often do you get that lucky, especially when traveling during rush hour?
A 2021 article from financial resource Lending Tree states that in the 100 biggest cities in the US, per year, commuting costs $5,679.
Although many people who attend traditional college choose to have the full experience by living on-campus, a smaller subset of students will commute. They’re subject to lost time and lost money that they could instead be putting towards their education.
When you attend an online university, there is no commute and you’ll never have to sit in traffic again! You’ll win back hundreds of hours each year to put toward your education.
Educational resource Spaces4Learning notes that when a student feels physically comfortable, they can focus better, block more negative thoughts, and relax. Those are all important facets of learning.
That’s why so many schools are prioritizing comfortable design in classrooms across the country.
Even still, what’s comfortable for one student might not necessarily be for another one. These students would be at a disadvantage, as they may struggle to learn at the same rate as a more comfortable student.
Attending an online college gives you the freedom to seek out whatever and wherever is the most comfortable for you. If that’s the desk in your bedroom or home office, then so be it.
Should you work best from the couch or the kitchen table, those are all options. You can even venture outside of the house to a park or a coffee shop and do your work there.
What’s even better is that if a certain environment no longer serves you, you can change where you work on a dime!
Even if you did feel comfortable in a classroom, it’s not always easy to pay attention.
Perhaps the wall clock ticks loudly, someone behind you is chewing gum, or the tapping of someone’s foot or pen drives you up a wall.
These kinds of everyday sounds are largely unavoidable, especially since most people don’t always realize they’re clearing their throat or tapping their feet. Yet if the sounds disrupt your concentration, they are valid complaints.
We already wrote about the link between a good learning environment and one’s ability to concentrate. You’ll be able to absorb the lessons you’re learning and potentially perform better on tests as well.
When taking online classes, you chose where you learn so you can maximize your concentration.
When you enroll in a college, you’re usually in it for the long haul. An associate degree program lasts two years on average while a bachelor’s degree program takes about four years.
Should you be interested in higher education still such as a master’s degree, then you could be looking at well over five years in a college or university.
This is a lot of time to take before you can begin working full-time and establishing yourself in your career.
Online colleges have largely solved that problem. Most offer accelerated programs that propel students toward graduation faster.
It’s not that the students aren’t getting the full breadth of their education. They’re not cheated out of a thing.
The programs are designed to take less time so a student can graduate with their degree and be out in the real world working in a job they love in seemingly no time!
One of the biggest concerns that people have at the prospect of attending an online college is that the entire experience is going to be devoid of personalization.
You’d watch lessons on a screen where an instructor talks at you, not to you because they’re recording to an empty room and don’t know you’re there. If you have questions, you’d have to contact someone after the lesson.
Fortunately, the online university experience is anything but that.
If you are interested in asynchronous learning, which involves fewer real-time elements, then you could review prerecorded lessons made for a subset of students, not a broad audience.
Even if you do opt for an asynchronous learning environment, you can always contact professors, instructors, mentors, and other staff.
The personalized attention you’d receive would be no different than that at a traditional college. You’d get your questions answered so you can fully understand the lesson and excel.
Synchronous learning is another option at online colleges that involves real-time lessons. You’d log in via a video conferencing platform and watch an instructor. You could ask questions in real time as well and receive an answer just as quickly.
Some online universities offer both synchronous and asynchronous learning options while others prefer one learning model over another. Whichever is more suitable for you, there’s an online college that has the educational requirements you want!
That’s not the only way that online universities are flexible. If you opted for a more asynchronous lesson plan, then you could learn when you prefer to.
Perhaps you’re a night owl who gets your best work done after the sun sets. With an online education, that’s an option.
Traditional colleges don’t have the same benefit. You can take night classes, but not for your entire course load.
Plus, you don’t always get a say in when your classes are when attending a traditional college. If you have to be up for an 8 a.m. class, then you’ll have to amend your night owl ways for the next semester, which can be difficult.
An online college gives you the flexibility to learn mostly on your own schedule, and that’s truly invaluable!
A college education might be the most expensive thing you buy in your lifetime, more so than a house or a car.
Many college students get saddled with student loan debt that can plague them for years and hold them back from some financial aspirations.
Online universities are a more cost-effective option for students who don’t want to pay back student loans until they’re 40.
As we talked about earlier, there’s no commute, so you’re saving money there. You also don’t have to worry about on-campus residency, which can be very costly, nor on-campus food and drink.
Some online colleges even roll in the price of your books and coursework into your tuition and offer tuition lock guarantees so your college education is always affordable!
As if it wasn’t already clear enough, an online college education is all about putting you in the driver’s seat and making your time in university as convenient as possible!
If you’ve decided that an online college is right for you but you’re still comparing your options, consider Bryan University.
Bryan U’s student experience goes above and beyond. You can participate in live online events and classes so you always feel connected to your peers and instructors.
As a Bryan University student, you’re given the latest tech to improve your knowledge retention and help you learn faster.
You always have access to one-on-one mentoring to plan for success and receive the individualized attention you deserve!
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