Rutgers University - 100 Percent Online Degrees. Interesting...esp for Business Admin

[Kaz]

I went to Rutgers for about 3 semester's worth of credits, all butt-in-seat in New Brunswick or Piscataway and during the merger of the little colleges into the School of Art and Sciences. My father, brother, and uncles all graduated from Rutgers. I would give you 100-to-1 odds that Rutgers is NOT trying to become an "online" school (that term means something different as the years go bye lol). Rutgers considers itself a public ivy, with the New Brunswick campus littered with historical buildings and plaques. You find out quickly that the old "Queen's College" (Rutgers' original name) was founded before the American Revolution, that they were one of the teams in the very first college football game, that they have arguably the best analytical philosophy department IN THE WORLD, etc. I was a non-traditional student while there because I went part-time instead of full-time and even THAT would get me a little "attitude" at times because all non-traditional students were enrolled through what was then called "University College", and University College didn't have as good of a rep at Rutgers as "Rutgers College" or "Cook College" did (they have since been merged as I mentioned).

Rutgers lost me as a student, however, precisely because it was so butt-in-seat oriented. I don't blame them, or any well established university for doing so. They've literally been doing it that way for longer than a couple of centuries. But for anyone who has to work full-time, can't make it to those specific campuses, is grounded at home because of whatever their life situation is, etc., Rutgers simply didn't cut it. It was definitely behind Penn State and U. of Maryland at the time, and I believe still is. I'm glad they are finally trying to compete in this arena though. But trust me, they are never going to be anything like the Big 3. Most of the faculty would rather set fire to the buildings they are standing in then see thousands of new students CLEPing their way to a Rutgers degree lol. What will probably happen is the development of programs that are cheaper than out-of-state tuition and are well respected, but that's it. There will always be the typical residency requirements, they actually will scrutinize all of your transfer credits with a good chance of denying some of them, it will always be more expensive than a TESC or Excelsior, etc.

[Christopher]

That's how it is with the universities in Los Angeles. UCLA is our version of Rutgers. Not as old as Rutgers, but right up there in status. I think UCLA is the most applied to school in the USA. I know UCLA is the most applied to for Califironia high school graduates and most get turned away. The most known university in Southern California. UCLA medical hospital, etc. Plus we have the Cal State University system and so on. They have a few online courses, and Cal State Uni is trying to start some fully online degrees, but for the most part, they're meant for full or at least half time students and their classes are designed during mornings and mid-days. They target the fresh out of high school crowd. So the working adults who can't take that 11:00-12:30PM T, Th, F class are out of luck. Plus, like Rutgers, the big California universities like UCLA are not designed for CLEP. They only allow you something like five classes at the max you can "P/NP" out of (AKA Clept or apply for no letter grade status). My community college catalog is very clear about that. In fact they expect GPA letter grades especially for the higher end grad schools. Most of the staff are 20+ year instructors (even at our local community college district) and rather have students in the class rooms. One instructor wont allow phones into her classroom because she doesn't believe in cell phones (she's been teaching at the same college since the 1980s!) The same thing with transfer credits. The private schools like University of La Verne are easy with them, but the Cal State University system is dead strict with transfer. They state right on all community college catalog which courses they will accept and which they don't. Like my local CC catalog will say "transferable - CSUN". Some history classes won't transfer over, etc. The CSUN system only allows a max of 70 units transfer over meaning with a 60 credit associate degree they leave little room for transfer of credits. It actually use to be 65 but they recently bumped it up five more. I believe Charter Oak is 87 they will take. We have those residency requirements. The big universitys in California actually have required residency courses such as having to take one Kinesiology class and having to take a class on the California State Constitution. Luckly our CC only requires the Kinesiology activity class and any US Political or History class you want. So yep. I hear ya. It's the #1 reason why I'm looking/going with online university/college for my BA/BS degree. Im an adult so I can't do the mid day classes every day and looking for more freedom with my major choices which the three online colleges here offer. Like here...the big 3 here only require "college algebra" as the math GE requirement to pass. At the main California universities it's both College Algebra and Trigonometry either as one combind long semester class or split between two classes over two semesters but its "College Algebra + Trigonometry" as the regular GE requirement for math even if you're majoring in Art History or Theater Arts or nothing STEM related. The big 3 are designed for people like me...us lol.

Rutgers lost me as a student, however, precisely because it was so butt-in-seat oriented. I don't blame them, or any well established university for doing so. They've literally been doing it that way for longer than a couple of centuries. But for anyone who has to work full-time, can't make it to those specific campuses, is grounded at home because of whatever their life situation is, etc., Rutgers simply didn't cut it. It was definitely behind Penn State and U. of Maryland at the time, and I believe still is. I'm glad they are finally trying to compete in this arena though. But trust me, they are never going to be anything like the Big 3. Most of the faculty would rather set fire to the buildings they are standing in then see thousands of new students CLEPing their way to a Rutgers degree lol. What will probably happen is the development of programs that are cheaper than out-of-state tuition and are well respected, but that's it. There will always be the typical residency requirements, they actually will scrutinize all of your transfer credits with a good chance of denying some of them, it will always be more expensive than a TESC or Excelsior, etc.