ULondon & Coursera

[Pikachu]

Rejects for sure, and probably not well off since if the family is rich, they could probably pay their way into a better private college. 

Honestly, if you can't make it into a tier 1 school, then just go for something cheap and accessible (if we're talking about UMPI, TESU, etc) + low barrier for entry, local CC + regional state school works as well.

why spend 20k USD on goldsmith via cousera and later have doubts later.. eg, will US graduate school accept my degree? is my 3 year UK degree the same as a US degree? I hope Best Buy knows my CS degree is legit...

point is, not everyone is fortunate enough to enter a top tier place. So you're stuck with everything else below. Then just go for something cheap, local, and minimize your debt. 

Why would you aim for Goldsmith?

With the exception of TESU, is there a single BS or BA in CS program at a state school that comes in at $18k (total, not per year) or less in the USA? Even a post-bac BS in CS like Oregon State is at $30k now. 

Your point about grad school acceptance is ill-founded, at least for STEM programs. A significant majority of the enrollment is international and they're quite familiar with foreign degrees. Most STEM graduate students in the USA are from India and China: The Disappearing American Grad Student. Same with employers not knowing about foreign degrees. Come on. There's significant number of people on H1B and other visas at tech companies and they all have foreign degrees.

The biggest issue with UoL is that it can't be accelerated to a significant extent. For CS there's a real dearth of affordable options at the undergraduate level. Strictly talking about CS here because I know there are a ton of cheap, online options for BS in IT and other such degrees.

[sarahmac]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University..._Worldwide

When we talk about UoL on Coursera, it's University of London Worldwide program. It's an unranked distance learning institution.

Interesting. Didn't know the "Worldwide" part. Does the actual degree or marksheet reference "Worldwide", though?

The University of London is the parent institution for a large number of London colleges. To include King's College, LSE, UCL, SOAS, among others. Of interest to this forum are probably distance PhD's from Birkbeck (UoL's answer to Harvard Extension School) with tuition in the 4000 a year range. Each college has its own focus and set of degree programs, though as an in-person student you can take classes at the other colleges.

Diplomas from any one of the constituent colleges don't have the college name but are awarded by the University of London. Think of it like the Harvard colleges and Harvard University. They also directly award degrees (not only through Coursera, and not only via distance).

To be honest, this user has posted absolute sh*t about universities in the UK that has no basis in reality before, and likely will continue to do so.

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I do agree I wouldn't pay $20,000 for a degree via Goldsmith's though. First, UK universities generally have specialties - they aren't generalists like US colleges. Second, this is even more true when it comes to the UoL constituent colleges. Goldsmith's specialty is not tech-related anything. Do the TESU Comp Sci route and apply to grad school. If you want to have a decent chance at an overseas grad school, dual degree BA Math and Comp Sci (the level of math needed for the BA Math at TESU is pretty close to the level of Math needed to get into uni in the UK for Comp Sci undergrad).

[rachel83az]

With the exception of TESU, is there a single BS or BA in CS program at a state school that comes in at $18k (total, not per year) or less in the USA? Even a post-bac BS in CS like Oregon State is at $30k now. 

SNHU is a bit cheaper than that. But you have to maximize transfers from SDC/Sophia/etc. in the same way that you do with TESU.

[smartdegree]

Diplomas from any one of the constituent colleges don't have the college name but are awarded by the University of London. Think of it like the Harvard colleges and Harvard University. They also directly award degrees (not only through Coursera, and not only via distance).

That used to be true (over 20 years ago).   Today, most of the University of London college and all of the prestigious ones (like LSE, LBS, UCL) award their own degrees.  Legally speaking, they no longer function as units of the University of London, but are now individual universities offering their own degrees unconnected to the University of London.  
In practice, the University of London is just a "club" that shares certain facilities.  LSE and UCL are separate universities with separate degree awarding powers.

[sarahmac]

Diplomas from any one of the constituent colleges don't have the college name but are awarded by the University of London. Think of it like the Harvard colleges and Harvard University. They also directly award degrees (not only through Coursera, and not only via distance).

That used to be true (over 20 years ago).   Today, most of the University of London college and all of the prestigious ones (like LSE, LBS, UCL) award their own degrees.  Legally speaking, they no longer function as units of the University of London, but are now individual universities offering their own degrees unconnected to the University of London.  
In practice, the University of London is just a "club" that shares certain facilities.  LSE and UCL are separate universities with separate degree awarding powers.

Yes, some of the constituent colleges/schools have been granted powers to award their own degrees, so can choose to exercise those powers if they so wish. It also certainly wasn't "over 20 years ago"; 9 years ago for SOAS, 14 for LSE.

But aside from the main colleges, the others don't. For those doing online (or in person) study with the University of London, the diploma also names the member institution of the University of London which provided the academic direction. Someone who attended Queen Mary would receive the same diploma as someone who attended a UoL program online with academic direction from Queen Mary, just as an example.

As I said above, I wouldn't pay 20,000 for a Goldsmiths degree. But I am not going to pretend that the UoL diploma that says "UoL, with academic direction from Goldsmiths" is inferior to anything you would get from attending Goldsmiths for 3 years in person. Because it's the same diploma.

[Alpha]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University..._Worldwide

When we talk about UoL on Coursera, it's University of London Worldwide program. It's an unranked distance learning institution.

Interesting. Didn't know the "Worldwide" part. Does the actual degree or marksheet reference "Worldwide", though?

...To be honest, this user has posted absolute sh*t about universities in the UK that has no basis in reality before, and likely will continue to do so...

Interestingly, nomaduser seems to have a very different attitude toward ULondon in this thread
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...rom-6k-GBP

[sanantone]

I submitted a question to University of London, but someone on Reddit already asked this question, and University of London said that the on-campus and online certificates (diplomas) are the same. This information is on the University of London/Coursera FAQ on Github. University of London grants the degree, and Goldsmiths is listed as the school that gave the academic instruction. This also falls in line with what's said on the University of London and Goldsmiths websites. The supplemental diploma will indicate the mode of instruction.

Goldsmiths has the authority to grant its own degrees; it just chooses not to at this time. Unless your instruction is coming from a member institution that exercises its authority to grant its own degrees, it doesn't make a difference whether you're a distance learning student or at the campus.

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Royal Holloway, which is the institution of instruction for most of the Coursera programs, is ranked #499 by U.S. News. However, people usually pay more attention to QS and Times for global rankings, so I'm not understanding the bias toward U.S. News.

[nomaduser]

Interestingly, nomaduser seems to have a very different attitude toward ULondon in this thread

My perspective changed after seeing many unemployed, non-English speaking UoL grads on Linkedin.
They were getting not much better than community college grads.

[Alpha]

Interestingly, nomaduser seems to have a very different attitude toward ULondon in this thread

My perspective changed after seeing many unemployed, non-English speaking UoL grads on Linkedin.
They were getting not much better than community college grads.

I have no reason to believe that any of that is true.  Frankly, it just sounds like you're making it up.
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-opinion/lo...rates-high

[sanantone]

These are UoL's English language requirements.

https://www.london.ac.uk/applications/ho...quirements

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1. If someone is a distance learning student who is living in a country with a bad job market, then no school is going to help their situation.

2. There is a huge market for fake University of London diplomas, so it's possible that many people claiming to have UoL degrees don't actually have those degrees.