Call me old school, but I say, don't do online "schooling" if you can avoid it. Why?
-In person lectures are awesome.
-University isn't just about the classroom, it's VERY much about meeting similar people and making new friends. Later, those can turn into job opportunities. This is what makes some MBA schools much better than others, even though they all teach roughly the same material.
-If you have a question during a lecture, you can raise your hand and ask it right away and get immediate clarification and follow along the rest of the lecture without confusion / uncertainty.
-It's great to get out of the house / apartment / basement
I did all of my schooling in person. Not a single online class was taken.
My brother did 100% of his university education online at a school which was 300 miles away. Not a single in-person class was taken.
His university experience was pretty much sitting in a basement for 3-4 years, reading books, taking online multiple choice tests, and going through the bullshit which online teachers put him through ("you have to write a three paragraph response to the reading, then respond to your class mates response! Participation is mandatory.") to give a semblance of "instruction". It was pretty much a guided reading book club for four years.
If you go WAY back and look at how skilled tradesmen were educated, they went through an apprenticeship program. An apprentice blacksmith would learn under a master blacksmith. The master blacksmith would have one on one training with his apprentice, and be able to guide him, spot his mistakes, and correct them quickly. You don't get better training than that. Today, the best equivalent you can get is a mentor. Going to a university in person can provide you with the opportunity to get that oh so valuable one on one mentorship, but it's not guaranteed by simply attending. Teachers / professors are supposed to be these mentors for their students, but much more often than not, they are there to just go through the motions, lecture for a few days a week, and call it a day. They're victims of the university classroom format. But, if you get to know a particular professor, do their office hours, and really try to take advantage of their expertise, they will be excellent mentors. In an online "classroom" setting, this is all but impossible. My thought is that just because something is online and "high tech" doesn't necessarily make it good or better. Usually, you have to (unknowingly) make some pretty big sacrifices for that convenience.
So yeah, don't do online classes if you can avoid it.
