Final Decision - UMPI or Charter Oak

[bjcheung77]

For COSC, it remains part of the Big 3 due to max transfers of 114 credits if you can from RA and alternative credit that is approved by them, other than that, the appeal for them has dropped significantly after 2019 or the year a few retired and quit from COSC and they started making these changes... UMPI is a great public/state institution, I would go for them if you know you have the energy/time to get the remaining courses completed in that two sessions, three even.

[ss20ts]

One thing that may make a difference - and it may not - UMPI is a university whereas COSC is a college. Some people care about this. UMPI has a physical campus and isn't an online school. Some people care about this as well.

I have had people tell me I didn't "go to college." 

What do you mean? I have an associates and a bachelor's.

One person: "I thought that was just a correspondence course or something."

Other person: "Well yeah but
 you can't really say you WENT to [school]." 

Some people I met on a business trip who work within the same field as my wife were giving me career advice to pass onto her and recommend a certain university "because nobody can tell it was an online program." Apparently the perceived need to "hide" that is widespread. It is what it is. 

Another problem is there's an unaccredited for-profit school called Charter College that has a bad reputation. COSC just changed all their branding and colors and by coincidence it now looks similar to Charter College. So there's risk of confusion there. They also started putting emphasis on "Online" in all their marketing. Ugh.

The whole well you didn't set foot on a campus so you didn't go to college is a weird thing to me. I did do the on campus thing and aside from driving to the campus and attending my classes, I did nothing else there. I didn't live there. I was a commuter. I wasn't in clubs. I knew few people. So what exactly is the difference? Aside from not commuting and saving a small fortune? Jealousy? Because they so many hours sitting in these classes that really don't need 15 weeks to be completed? Even now in grad school my terms are 10 weeks long and we cover multiple textbooks. It's still all online. I don't understand what the difference is really. I probably now know more people at my grad school today than I did when I was attending a university in person. At least I'm not sitting in lecture halls with 300+ students and learning pretty much nothing. Those were such a waste of time.

[ReyMysterioso]

One thing that may make a difference - and it may not - UMPI is a university whereas COSC is a college. Some people care about this. UMPI has a physical campus and isn't an online school. Some people care about this as well.

I have had people tell me I didn't "go to college." 

What do you mean? I have an associates and a bachelor's.

One person: "I thought that was just a correspondence course or something."

Other person: "Well yeah but
 you can't really say you WENT to [school]." 

Some people I met on a business trip who work within the same field as my wife were giving me career advice to pass onto her and recommend a certain university "because nobody can tell it was an online program." Apparently the perceived need to "hide" that is widespread. It is what it is. 

Another problem is there's an unaccredited for-profit school called Charter College that has a bad reputation. COSC just changed all their branding and colors and by coincidence it now looks similar to Charter College. So there's risk of confusion there. They also started putting emphasis on "Online" in all their marketing. Ugh.

The whole well you didn't set foot on a campus so you didn't go to college is a weird thing to me. I did do the on campus thing and aside from driving to the campus and attending my classes, I did nothing else there. I didn't live there. I was a commuter. I wasn't in clubs. I knew few people. So what exactly is the difference? Aside from not commuting and saving a small fortune? Jealousy? Because they so many hours sitting in these classes that really don't need 15 weeks to be completed? Even now in grad school my terms are 10 weeks long and we cover multiple textbooks. It's still all online. I don't understand what the difference is really. I probably now know more people at my grad school today than I did when I was attending a university in person. At least I'm not sitting in lecture halls with 300+ students and learning pretty much nothing. Those were such a waste of time.

I lived in a college town for years. I see how student life is and that's always been my argument too. You apply online. You get a decision online. Everything is on Canvas, almost all your communications are through email. You take notes and do your homework on Google docs. You turn it in with an upload. You get your grade in a notification. 

Literally the only thing you're physically on campus for is lectures and a lab or two. All brick and mortar schools are already digital schools. 

Why do I want to fight traffic and parking for a weekly lecture? Total waste of time.


Yet the stigma persists. And if a potential employer is one of those with the stigma, that's a problem. So I'm always an advocate for mitigating that factor.

[KSoul]

With Covid, several students over the last three years have experienced one+ year of online studies in their traditional on-campus degrees due to restrictions. The new narrative will be that you didn't earn a substantial degree because you earned it during the chaos of Covid. If your skills are strong, where you earned your degree and in what format tends to be the last topic of interest. Of course, a local name school, if you work local has value, and a top-tier school will always have flare; however, everything else which makes up the majority of degree earners is all just for the ego because no one cares.

[ReyMysterioso]

With Covid, several students over the last three years have experienced one+ year of online studies in their traditional on-campus degrees due to restrictions. The new narrative will be that you didn't earn a substantial degree because you earned it during the chaos of Covid. If your skills are strong, where you earned your degree and in what format tends to be the last topic of interest. Of course, a local name school, if you work local has value, and a top-tier school will always have flare; however, everything else which makes up the majority of degree earners is all just for the ego because no one cares.

My bestie is a community college professor. He rants and raves that online is absolutely inferior in every way to butt-in-seat. 

I wonder how much of that is based on objective data vs. how much of that is based on his ego about the perceived self-importance of his role as the lecturer. 

[ss20ts]

With Covid, several students over the last three years have experienced one+ year of online studies in their traditional on-campus degrees due to restrictions. The new narrative will be that you didn't earn a substantial degree because you earned it during the chaos of Covid. If your skills are strong, where you earned your degree and in what format tends to be the last topic of interest. Of course, a local name school, if you work local has value, and a top-tier school will always have flare; however, everything else which makes up the majority of degree earners is all just for the ego because no one cares.

My bestie is a community college professor. He rants and raves that online is absolutely inferior in every way to butt-in-seat. 

I wonder how much of that is based on objective data vs. how much of that is based on his ego about the perceived self-importance of his role as the lecturer. 

Is he afraid of being replaced? If an online course is inferior, that's on the professor. Butts in seats should have the same work as online. Both types of programs have crummy professors and amazing professors.