Administrators at Virginia College have recently released a set of guidelines that students should abide by whenever they’re choosing an online college. According to openPR.com:

Make sure the school is accredited by a reputable government agency. While many schools will tout their accreditation, the agencies aren’t all created equal. Schools that offer Federal Title IV financial aid, including student loans and Pell grants, are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

The best online schools will have admissions counselors available to help you every step of the way. This counselor should be able to tell you about the courses you will be taking, the skills you will acquire and what career options you will have upon graduation.

The best online schools will be glad to offer you a list of companies that have hired their graduates. These references indicate that employers value degrees or certificates from the school, and also assure the quality of the school’s job placement programs.

Virginia College is an online college that offers associate, bachelor, and master degrees obtainable through completely-online study. They have been in operation for more than 30 years, and they are accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools.

Most people have heard of diploma mills — the unaccredited schools that charge outrageous tuition fees and award useless degrees. According to a recent report by NewsOK.com, the newest scammers are targeting students who are searching for education grants online:
Beware of online offers that promise grants to pay for college — for a small fee.
The [...]

Currently, the University of North Carolina offers more than 90 different online degree programs. However, until recently, these programs weren’t organized into one working space. Now, UNC has developed an online school that they hopes competes with the University of Phoenix with slogans like “All of our online degrees come from universities your prospective employer [...]

Starting in the fall of 2007, Florida Hospital College of Health Sciences will begin offering its BS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography through its online degree program. As the field of diagnostic medical sonography becomes more and more necessary in medical settings, the need for sonographers all over the world is growing rapidly. According to PR [...]

As the number of colleges and universities that offer online classes grow, so does the number of degrees that can be earned online. This makes choosing a degree program much more difficult. However, there are some jobs that rank higher than others that students can get with their online degree. According to Online-Education.net, the top [...]

One of the most hampering aspects of online learning is that it hinders a student’s ability to score an internship or work-study position that offers them work experience in their field of study. While many students work in their field while also earning their degree online, many others are not able to work in their [...]

As mental health issues have become better understood by both psychologists and society alike, the need for psychologists has compounded. Psychologists work for themselves as well as in hospitals, schools, correctional institutions, and human resource departments. Psychologists typically need a doctorate degree to practice psychology, and this has led many psychology students to turn to [...]

A recent study performed by Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative shows that online students perform just as well if not better than traditional students in the classroom. Besides being a faster and more convenient means of earning a degree, studying online has been shown to be just as valuable as studying in a traditional classroom. [...]

As the popularity of online degrees has soared, many traditional schools have recognized the benefits of offering online degree options and developed their own online programs. According to Forbes.com, this often takes students away from the original solely-online schools:
Apollo Group Inc.’s University of Phoenix online unit, founded in 1989, was among the first accredited for-profit [...]

U.S. News and World Report’s “Special Annual e-Learning Guide” recently named Walden’s University as the largest online provider of graduate programs in education. Walden University has been offering online education to students for more than 37 years, and more than 20,000 graduate students have pursued their education degree through their programs. The Bastrop Daily Enterprise [...]