Online PhD Program – Things You Should Check
The internet has made education easy, just like everything else, and that has brought a flood of online degree programs. Online PhD programs are no exception. With so many options offering you PhD at the comfort of your own home, but needing you to invest a lot of your time, energy and money, PhD programs online should be checked carefully if you want to choose one of them. Here are some tips.
Focus
This may seem too obvious to discuss but is indeed an important point to consider when you will need to choose the area of your interest. If you are just in search of a degree which will adorn your resume, you have more chances to get tired of studying and even not completing it. So, it is better to identify what you would like to study and learn it. This is especially important while choosing an online PhD program, because most distance learners are employed for full time, and studying part-time. Doctorate courses are usually tough, standards are high and most of them take minimum three, but as many as seven years to finish. If the topic is uninteresting, studying it for such a long time becomes horrible.
Eligibility for Admission
After choosing your topic of interest you should consider whether you are eligible to take admission for the course. Though various universities have different standards of admission, the basic criteria are almost the same, like:
- Undergraduate and Graduate GPA
- GRE/MAT/GMAT scores
- Work experience
But if you don’t fulfill their requirements, don’t suddenly give up. Contact the school and ask what can be done. Maybe they will suggest you a way out.
Internship and Residency Requirements
Doctoral programs, whether traditional or online, normally require some sort of internship or residency. Therefore while checking the doctoral program, ensure that you will be able to invest time for travel to visit campus. Requirements for residency may mean anything from visiting the campus for a long weekend or residing for some weeks.
Duration and Schedule of Course
You will have to check how many credit hours the course will require, and also how many credit hours are considered for each course. E.g. two similar online courses could need 90 credit hours, but one of them may consider four or five credits per course while the other may take only three credits into consideration per course.
Transferring Credits from Other Courses
Sometimes credit hours from the previous doctoral programs or masters courses can be transferred, thus decreasing the number of credits you need to earn in your new online doctoral program. There are variations in policies from institution to institution, but generally, the lower the number of credit hours needed by the new course, the fewer the chances for credit hours transfer.
Fees and Other Costs
The fees and other costs of online PhD programs may vary a lot from $250 to more than $1,000. Therefore ensure that you know about the total cost, if you can afford it and your payment schedule.
OnlinePhDPrograms.biz gives you a perfect guidance about online PhD programs, best PhD programs, cheap PhD programs, and PhD programs in Canada and the UK. So, if you are planning to take up an online PhD program, don’t forget to visit their website.
