As someone who has been to a community college (South Hills Business School), a regular college (Pennsylvania State University), and an online college (DeVry, but its not 100% online, they have physical campuses too). I'll give you the insight on each:
First, let me say the advice below is subject to change based on your degree requirements.
Second, make sure ANY school you choose is fully accredited.
Now, a community college (at least the one I went to) tends to feel like high school. They often offer 2 year degree programs and should be used more as a stepping stone rather than a final destination. A popular thing to do is get as many pre-requisites out of the way at a community college as you can (due to cost) and then transfer the credits to a bigger college. The classes you take in them usually will count towards math, english, art, and computer credits in a larger college. Do not expect anything directly degree related (such as in my case, computer programming) to transfer to your main colleges degree program.
Sometimes community colleges will move at a slow pace since many "adult learners" are present and some may not have basic computer skills and such and could potentially slow class down. This happened to me where I went in our programming classes. I spent a year at the community college listed above only to find out the school lied about their accredidation (literally, in which I immediately dropped out and went on to join the military.)
Next comes regular college:
A regular college is good, but time consuming due to having to work your
work schedule around class schedule. Also, just like the community college your class may be held up due to slower students, it happened to me in a C++ class.
Regular college has its good and bad points. There is the social aspect of school but that is a double edged sword for some people. When I went there I was above my peers due to previous experience in the fields of study I was in and I felt like I was being dragged down by class. Group work was often frustrating and working full time, as well as going to school full time can take its toll. If you work full time, or have a busy schedule really think long and hard before you decide to attend a traditional college.
Some of the good things about a traditional college is being able to ask the professor things one on one instantly, without having to wait for a response. Traditional college, like community colleges will tend to hand hold you more when it comes to assignments and is a good choice for people who have a hard time with self-motivation and school work.
That being said if you have a full time job or a busy schedule think long and hard about a traditional college first. Not to mention most traditional colleges have online options, I know Penn State does, as do many others. Even Harvard. I spent two years at Penn State but left because I felt the degree program I was in was going to slow, and also because I took a job working overseas and obviously could not attend class. A few of my classes were not available using Penn States World Campus (their online classes) so I was unable to complete my degree at Penn State.
That brings me to my last point, online schools. Also, let me say that my online school is also a regular school, a strictly online school may be a bit different.
Online schools are a different animal, and most people do not understand how online school really works (as apparent in this thread). What I am about to say may not hold true for every school, but it holds true for many of them, not just mine (as I have co-workers who attend different online schools and have a class schedule similar to mine).
Online schools generally are NOT learn at your own pace. Sure, there is no set class time but often there are very strict deadlines to accomplish things. The school I go to has a deadline of wednesday for class participation and each week work, LOTS of work, is due.
Online schools are usually a ton more work then a regular campus. Not only do you have to do a great amount of research, but if you run into a problem with an assignment you may not be able to get an instant response. This forces you to budget time very wisely and use every available resource to get your work done, and there is generally a ton of work. I spend right now between 60 - 100 hours a week on school work. I've never spent less that 30 hours on school work. (The only reason I'm on mac rumors is because my lighting for my game level is baking so I can't do much until its done). Last semester I in one week between two classes I had to read 550 pages, write two papers, do two quizzes, a powerpoint presentation, and write a framework for a game engine using C++, OpenGL, and SDL. Thats a ton of work for one week.
Online schools require a ton of self motivation. Do not expect hand holding on an online school. You are generally given the material, the assignments, and told to get it done by a deadline. You will do a lot of work, you will be frustrated, you will have a ton of reading, and a ton of work to do each week. Its hard.
Your peers will most likely be idiots. Yep. Idiots. Its sad but true. Many people jump into online school and they shouldn't. Think of an online school as just being there to give you a piece of paper, and you are responsible for most of your own learning and practice. In my classes I am often the only person who knows what they are really doing and I end up doing almost all of the work. Unfortunately no matter how much I beg the professors to work solo, the answer is always a no. According to the experiences of my co-workers and friends who go online though I am the only one who is running into this issue so it may not affect you at all.
Online schools are not "easy to cheat on". If your online school is halfway descent most of your work will be project based. Sure there may be a test here and there but expect the answers to be engineered in such a way that google and open notes and open books will not help you. (If you don't know the material you will not find it before the test is up.)Not to mention most quiz questions tend to be essays. Also most work is project based to prevent cheating, and as any other school, cheaters are generally expelled. Also, expect the projects to be pretty big. (Right now I have to make a full level of a networked game in 8 weeks. Anyone in the programming forum can tell you thats an insane amount of work. )
Expect a ton of reading for an online school. Between two classes I usually have about 350 - 400 pages of reading per week, sometimes it goes well over that.
Like I said, its not just my school that operates like this, me and my co-workers all run into the exact same scenarios. Online school is hard and its a ton of work. Its not for everyone. The only reason I would recommend online school is if:
1. The school has campuses in addition to online and you can switch between the two anytime. Also most professors for online school teach at regular universities, make sure your school does that too.
2. You already know what you are doing for the most part and plan on going to school for the piece of paper.
3. You are entering a field where you can show a portfolio of your work since some people who don't know a thing about online school think its this horrid thing and anyone coming out of it is uneducated. Sure its true some students aren't the brightest (just like any school), but there are many who are already professionals or are very driven and just need that degree and can't give up our jobs to go to a traditional school.
4. You are VERY self motivated and resourceful. If you need a professor to make you learn, online is not for you. I've been going online for 4 years, working a full time job in the IT field the whole time.
Out of all the schools, I prefer online school the most. Its hellish, it really is but I like to be able to do my classwork, and then augment my learning with a ton of self study. I also love to study quietly, in the middle of the night which I couldn't do at a regular campus.
Anyway, I hope that cleared up some stuff for you.
As a hiring manager, all an on-line degree tells me is that you spent money and the school took it. Worse yet, you probably went into student loan debt.
That's it.
...
Any resume I see that has an on-line college on it goes into the bin.
No offense but thats a terrible way to hire. You probably tossed a lot of great talent away because you judged someone based on where they went to school. I know many people who have degrees from so-called "great schools" but are just terrible work ethic and knowledge wise, and I also know some brilliant people who are great in the IT field who make 6 figures a year and have only a high school diploma (one only has a GED).
Just remember many people have no other choice but to go online because they have a full time career that they are juggling in addition to going to school. Thats a lot of work and it takes a lot of dedication to do something like that.
I liked going to classes. I liked the social aspect. I liked having the "what if" discussions with fellow students. I'm not as self-motivated as my wife... I like lots of little deadlines. I like listening to lectures, as opposed to reading (though I know some distance ed. courses are based on audio clips).
