Online education is becoming more than a cheaper or less time-consuming alternative to traditional education. Viable online degrees have been available for more than a decade. Now, online mentorship programs, also known as “VU,” are providing students with programming and design skills that take less time to obtain than in a traditional college setting and lead more directly to jobs. Students are also wondering, now more than ever, “Is my bachelor’s degree worth it?”
Due to these advances in e-learning and shortcomings in traditional education, online education has become a different but equal path people can choose as a matter of preference while still taking advantage of its low cost and flexibility. Instead of picking an objectively superior choice, prospective students now have to weigh a list of pros and cons before they decide to choose traditional education or online education (keep in mind that it is often possible to choose a hybrid model). If you’re about to make this choice or deviate from the path you’re already on, consider these pros and cons.
Online Education
Pros
The Savings
Even the most expensive online boot camps do not cost as much as the average college tuition. Coder Camps costs nearly $10,000 for a nine-week intensive program, which may seem like a lot but is still not even half the average cost of college. It’s also not a bad deal when you consider the fact that more than 90% of Coder Camps graduates found a career-relevant job within 90 days after graduating1. That’s $10,000 over the course of nine weeks instead of spending $80,000 in four years.
Prices get increasingly cheap as you move down the hierarchy from boot camps to self-paced online courses, then to free tutorials and massive open online courses (MOOCs). Although many students need the mentorship approach boot camps provide, there are some who have managed to launch their careers mostly with free resources. Take Feynman Liang, who used MOOCs to sharpen his skills and ultimately land an internship at Microsoft.
Convenience and Flexibility
Even if you have a full-time job and/or a family to take care of, online education will still be a possibility for you. Most online bootcamps and degree programs require somewhere between 10-20 hours a week depending on the intensity. The option of working from home makes it easier to fit this into a tight schedule.
More Marketable Skills and Job Focus
Compared to traditional education, online degree programs, courses, and boot camps focus much more on teaching hard and specific skills that will get you a job. In fact, boot camps are designed to prepare you for programming and design jobs. Instead of learning general critical thinking and analysis skills, you’ll be practicing for tasks you’ll have in the workforce.
For example, there are hundreds of high-quality online courses that teach specific programming languages instead of focusing on software development or computer science as a whole. On the other hand, most colleges do not offer courses that would train you to be, let’s say, a JavaScript developer, by focusing only on that language.
Learning Digital Skills in a Digital Space
There’s a reason why you won’t see too many college lectures on how to use Twitter, learn content marketing, or understand SEO. These are skills born online so it’s only natural that it would be easiest to learn them with online courses.
It Keeps Up with the Times
Online education is best for keeping your skills up-to-date, especially when it comes to programming. For example, Apple recently released a new programming language called Swift, which will become crucial for iOS development along with Objective-C. Since it launched in June, hundreds of online Swift tutorials and courses have sprung up. On the other hand, it will probably be many more months or even years before you can learn Swift as part of a college programming course. Like the web itself, the world of online courses is perpetually and quickly adapting to new trends.
Cons
If you want a list of the cons of online education, really all you need to do is look at the pros list for traditional education. Online education most likely won’t give you these benefits. It also has limited career options. You won’t be able to become a doctor, lawyer, etc. with online education nor will you be able to have the typical college experience. Online education empowers people who are self-directed and motivated but can be lonely compared to traditional education. Ultimately, it comes down to your goals and preferences.
Traditional Education
Pros
The Experience
When you go to college, a lot of what you’re paying for is the college experience: dorms, dining halls, parties, communal activities, sports teams, fraternities and sororities, clubs, etc. For some students, the actual education is secondary.
The Network
Being in constant physical proximity to people who might help you get a job is a huge advantage. Even after you graduate, you carry your network with you whether it’s contacts from the career center, other alumni, or even professors. Traditional college networks also help you get internships, which often lead to jobs.
People Will Recognize Your Degree
Even if your bachelor’s degree doesn’t help you get a job, people are at least guaranteed to recognize it as a valid form of education. If nothing else, that piece of paper is proof you spent an average of four years, racked up sufficient credits, and earned passing grades.
Provides Facilities Necessary for Certain Studies and Activities
Athletics, Biology, Chemistry, Clinical Psychology, Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing — You will need certain facilities and equipment to gain experience in these areas, things you probably won’t have lying around your home.
Some Careers and Professions Generally Require a Degree
If you want to be a professor, you’ll probably need a bachelor’s degree and then some. But that’s just one example. Here are a few more careers that generally require a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or Ph.D.-level education:
Actuary
Banker
Biologist
Clinical Psychologist
Dentist
Doctor of Medicine
Engineer
Lawyer
Nurse
Physicist
The list goes on…
Cons
It’s Insanely Expensive
College costs an average of $20,000/year2. You basically have to get an amazing scholarship or make over six figures if you want to go to college or send your child to college without falling into debt (by the way, the average student debt was almost $30,000 as of last year)3.
It Does Not Always Save You from Underemployment
The underemployment rate for the class of 2014 is projected to be 16.8% according to the Economic Policy Institute4. But this is just a conservative estimate with a stricter definition of underemployment. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York discovered 44% of recent graduates working jobs that did not require a bachelor’s degree,4 which one could consider another form of underemployment.
It Might Not Give You the Skills You Need
Traditional college is often more about giving you general critical thinking skills that build a foundation for the rest of your life. However, this becomes a problem when students do not graduate with the hard skills and experience needed in a modern workforce, especially when it comes to tech jobs.
For example, if you want to work in digital publishing but don’t know WordPress, your employer might not be willing to invest in training and may even be turned off by your lack of skills. Unfortunately, most universities don’t offer courses on these kinds of digital skills or even let you know the importance of learning them.
Earlier this year, a Gallup poll revealed that only 14% of Americans and 11% of business leaders believe recent graduates have the necessary skills and competencies to succeed in modern workplaces5
What Do You Want Most?
Before you choose a path or deviate from the one you’re on, think about who are you are, what you want, and what you can make work. If you want the typical college experience above all else and have the money for traditional ed, go for it! If you want a career that online ed can’t offer, it’s your only option anyway. For those of you who already know the job you want and the skills that job requires, online ed is the cheaper and more direct route. It also empowers self-directors and entrepreneurs who are ready to skip the lectures and pursue their dreams.