Distance Learning US College\University Courses?

little lady

Hi,

I have applied for the VISA lottery and being extremely positive about getting a VISA I would like to do some distance learning from a college\university in the US just to be that little bit ahead when applying for a job.

My confusion is what they name their qualifications and which type of course would be best to do.
As far as I can tell and associate degree is two years so would this be the equivalent of our Certificate courses ???

I would like an introductory course to finance, nothing to long, preferable a year or so as I plan to go to college part time when I get there but having a basic knowledge of the US financial systems would help when applying for jobs.

I am currently in contact by email with Boston University and will hopefully get some help from them but if anyone else could through light on the subject I would be very grateful.

LL

Black Swan

I would be very careful about online education offered from the United States, as there are "degree mills" that are not accredited and a waste of your money. Large, well known, established universities are your best bet, and several offer online degree programmes in finance.

You mentioned Boston University, which is a good school, but I think they only offer "degree completion programmes" online, which may or may not meet your needs for a finance education.

I've heard this online degree programme is very user-friendly and respected:

University of Maryland (University College) offers an online degree course in finance. Link: http://www.umuc.edu/prog/ugp/mjr_chart_online.shtml

thecelt

How can you be so positive about getting a visa?

Might be better just to get on with your life here and worry about getting a job there if u really do win in the dv 2012 lottery!

InTheTrees

I dont know much about this but my gf worked at admissions at the Uof Washington for years...

DO you know where you'd be living when you move to the US? Finding a community college or university in the area that also offers distance courses would be the best way to go.

Be very careful of the more commercial looking online places, schools need to be "acredited" (sp?) which means the academic credits you earn are transferable to other institutions.

Do some searches on Community Colleges, I think thats more what you'd want. They do more of the two year degrees and also would offer credit courses that you can take with no set goal but you would accumulate credits. And a lot of them offer online courses now.

thecelt

if u really are serious about doing the distance ed thing, i know that one of my friends in the usa is finishing up his degree with the university of maryland online,

Stay well clear of the university of phoenix!

little lady

thecelt wrote: »

How can you be so positive about getting a visa?

Might be better just to get on with your life here and worry about getting a job there if u really do win in the dv 2012 lottery!

I believe if you work and aim towards what you want you will get it. :-)

I am getting on with my life here, I have a job and I'm in the middle of a one year course here, but I think that if I have some kind of education from the US then it will look good to American employers, let them see that I am serious abot living and working there..


Thanks for all the responses, ye I am quite weary of all the on line stuff that comes up, I would rather a course from a reputable college, it may just take a while to find one that I suits my needs and is recognised.

JohnMearsheimer

I think you're putting the cart before the horse here. You would be better off saving your money to help you move if you do get selected. Most employers probably won't really care where you got your qualifications from.

InTheTrees

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

Most employers probably won't really care where you got your qualifications from.

I dont know about that. Americans can be incredibly insular, they're aware of the US diploma mills and dodgy qualifications so when they're faced witha foreign certificate of some kind they can be very dismissive.

Plus they'll want someone who's familiar with local terminology, procedures, law etc.

thecelt

inthetrees,

You are very right about that,
when i worked in the usa, they had me produce certified stamped copies of my uni transcripts despite the fact i didnt need any thing more than a high school diploma / leaving cert to do the job!

I do know of a friends sister who did her masters degree here in ireland,
she went back home to do her doctorate and was very disappointed to find out her masters from here was worthless to the college she had applied to to do a doctorate!!

JohnMearsheimer

I've never worked in the US but I have worked in the UK. I know most people in the UK never heard of UCC but it didn't stop me getting a job while I was over there. I got offered a job in Minnesota last year on the graduate visa partly based on my Irish/UK qualifications but couldn't take it because the pay wouldn't really have been enough to support myself. I'm off to Canada in January and it will probably be the same story. They will never have heard of the 2 colleges I went to but I don't expect it to be a problem. I just think there is a bit more to getting a job than where you went to school.

Did your friend's sister apply for a doctorate in a related field to her masters? I know an Irish guy in the US doing a PhD and he had no trouble with his Irish qualifications.

lonestargirl

There are 2 issues here:

1) Recognition of Irish qualifications in the US. I am a PhD student in the US with a BSc and MSc from Ireland. There is no way I would have got into my graduate program without my MSc and I have been allowed to waive some of my coursework on the basis of having it. I did need to get my degrees indenpendently certified - there are a number of companies that do this. I think this is going to become less of an issue as most Irish Unis have changed to a credits + GPA system that the US uses and will thus be familiar to people there.

2) Doing a distance learning course: you may never get to the US, however I don't see the harm in choosing to do a distance learning course based in the US rather than OU for instance. Just make sure it is worth the paper it is written on. Also, be aware that you may have to pay international tuition which can be very pricey.

little lady

I did find one course that I was interested in but it's far to expensive $20,000 for 18 months. The did say that they may be able to give me some credits depending on my education or experience, but still $20,000 :eek:

I have a friend in the US who is going to talk to his accountant and see if he can recommend any course or give me some advise on what direction to take.

I don't want to get involved in a 4/5 year Degree, unless I get the VISA but as InTheTrees pointed out it would be good to know some of the local terminology, law and practices.

I'm in no way expecting to land the perfect job but a little foot in the door is always good to have.

Thanks for all the replies.

lil_lisa

$20k for a year and a half for an out-of-state student is pretty reasonable actually. That's one thing about the US, college is VERY expensive.

InTheTrees

lonestargirl wrote: »

2) Doing a distance learning course: you may never get to the US, however I don't see the harm in choosing to do a distance learning course based in the US rather than OU for instance. Just make sure it is worth the paper it is written on.

Worst case scenario is that you dont makeit to the USA. But imagine how many US companies are in Ireland and Irish companies doing business in the US who could use someone with US qualifications.

Having some knowledge of US tax law could be very useful to irish companies.

InTheTrees

little lady wrote: »

I don't want to get involved in a 4/5 year Degree, unless I get the VISA but as InTheTrees pointed out it would be good to know some of the local terminology, law and practices.

Community college's. Its closest to our technical colleges or poly's.

Here's the website for one in my area, they're totally reputable, Their credits will transfer, they offer "elearning" in what you want. And I didn't check their fees but I'm sure its less than 20k (even for an out-of-area student):

Obviously i'm not recommending this one in particular but you can get an idea:

http://www.seattlecolleges.edu/

little lady

InTheTrees wrote: »

Community college's. Its closest to our technical colleges or poly's.

Here's the website for one in my area, they're totally reputable, Their credits will transfer, they offer "elearning" in what you want. And I didn't check their fees but I'm sure its less than 20k (even for an out-of-area student):

Obviously i'm not recommending this one in particular but you can get an idea:

http://www.seattlecolleges.edu/

Thanks InTheTress, that is exactly the type of thing I'm looking for and alot more affordable. Much appreciated. :-)

thecelt

Are you interested in any particular part of the country?

little lady

thecelt wrote: »

Are you interested in any particular part of the country?

The plan is to move to Boston, so colleges in Mass would be good. However as the course would be on-line, once it would be accreditted in Mass I wouldn't mind where the actual college is based.

InTheTrees

little lady wrote: »

The plan is to move to Boston, so colleges in Mass would be good. However as the course would be on-line, once it would be accreditted in Mass I wouldn't mind where the actual college is based.

But there's some good reasons to pick one in Boston;

You may not be finished or you may want to continue when you arrive and you'll have the option of being there in person plus local residents are charged less.

Boston has a reputation for education so the less reputable places also set up there.

Anyplace with a website ending with ".mass.edu" is going to be okay as a very very very general rule...

http://www.rcc.mass.edu/
http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/

(best of luck)