Online universities offer students an opportunity to complete a
university degree program while they work full time. Many of online
university degrees are accredited; many of them are offered by
traditional universities such as University
of Massachusetts schools, so they are as marketable
as traditional university degrees (i.e., university degrees that student
obtain while they attend physical classrooms) when university graduates
seek employment opportunities. However, there are certain things that
you cannot learn in any online university; in specific, you cannot
really learn perspectives that many different people have in any online
university. Traditional university’s campus is a very diversified place;
the campus is diversified ethnically, culturally and economically.
University campus is ‘diversified ethnically’; this is self-explanatory.
There are African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Whites and
foreign students. ‘Culturally diversified’ means that fellow students go
pursue many different careers after they graduate. ‘Economically
diversified’ is also self-explanatory; some are born rich while others
work a couple of different jobs to pay tuition. Some have parents who
make millions of dollars while others might not even have a single
parent who has a descent job.
Ethnical boundaries in US are becoming weaker slowly; however, ethnical
boundaries are still rather visible in US. For example, you can clearly
recognize African American community in Los Angeles. You can clearly
recognize Chinatown in San Francisco. You can also recognize that a part
of New York has increasing Korean population. So, chances are you grow
up inside an ethnical boundary up until you finish school. Though you
can identify that some students stay with those of the same ethnical
groups in a typical university campus, boundaries are blur.
If you attend one of major universities that offer dozens of degree
programs, you get to meet those who study different subjects such as
engineering, literature, chemistry, political science, mathematics and
business. You can certainly learn about all these subjects by reading
books and watching online lectures, but talking with them and hearing
their perspectives is a totally different experience. This is actually a
rare opportunity. Once you start working, you tend to spend most of
your time with those who work in your field. If you are a software
engineer, you tend to spend a lot of time with other software engineers.
If you are a lawyer, you tend to spend a lot of time with other
lawyers. You tend to hear only one set of perspectives once you start
working.
Lastly, whether you’d like to believe or not, there are classes in the
society; more specifically, there are classes divided by income. It’s a
sad reality, but it is a reality. It is unlikely that you have a friend
who works as a janitor once you become a hedge fund manager and start
making half a million dollars a year. It is also unlikely that you have a
fortune 500 CEO friend if you decide to open up a video store and
become your own boss (and not own any other store). However, you and
your friends are more or less equal in university. For example, even if
your friend’s father is Microsoft’s executive and you work two jobs to
pay tuition, your friend and you get same assignments; it is highly
unlikely that your friend gets a higher score simply because his father
makes millions of dollars a year. Your other friend might drive Mercedes
and you might just ride a bicycle. There is no reason why you cannot
get straight As while your friend gets B- average. Meeting people in
different classes is another way to get different perspectives, and
going to a traditional university gives you this unique opportunity.
Some may argue that online campus does not discriminate students, and
thus, you can interact with different people. This is true to a certain
extent, but meeting people face-to-face is totally different from
meeting people online. Also what you can learn from people online is
totally different from what you can learn from people whom you meet
face-to-face. I actually host a website about online education, and I am
certainly not devaluing online education, online university or online
university degree. However, getting a university degree is a big
investment in terms of time and money. It can also make a huge
difference in your life, so it should not be taken lightly. You should
make a well-informed decision. The point of this article is to inform
you of one of major advantages of getting a university degree at a
traditional university. I highly recommend that you get as much
information as you can and make an informed decision whether you decide
to study online, you decide to attend a traditional university or else.
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