Though the summer months offer plenty of leisure activities, career-minded students are using summer sessions at online colleges to prepare for a challenging job market. By popular demand, colleges are making it easier than ever to transfer credits between online schools and traditional institutions. Here are five ways that students can leverage the power of online education to finish college sooner and improve their lifetime earning power:
1. Online Education Gets You to the Job Market Faster
According to economists and state labor analysts, students who complete their bachelor's degrees in less time than the traditional four years help themselves as well as their local economies. Especially in high-demand technology fields, such as web design and digital graphic design, students can complete their degree requirements with paid internships.
Some online colleges and traditional universities permit as many as three semester-long internships to count toward the credit hours required for a bachelor's degree. As a side benefit, a paid internship builds personal connections that often help graduates secure their first full-time jobs.
2. Transfer Credits from Online Schools to Campus Programs
State education officials fear the "brain drain" that happens when students, such as web development majors, leave their communities to study at hot schools. State grants and community-funded scholarships can encourage students to stay closer to home, but only if they can see the long-term advantages to enrolling in local colleges or online degree programs.
By investing in systems that allow students to more easily transfer course credits between accredited colleges and universities, educators hope that more students will stay home and build local ties by completing at least half of their bachelor's degree credits without moving to campus. Since most online universities encourage students to schedule class work around their jobs, those working summer jobs can stay home, maintain old friendships, contribute to their local economies, and advance their educations.
3. Online Education Opens Doors to Exciting Electives
As state officials make it easier to transfer credits between online degree programs and traditional education programs, students are discovering the relative ease with which they can earn elective credits during school breaks. For instance, digital graphic design degree programs and other specialized majors require students to sample courses from other disciplines. If students feel bored with on-campus elective options, they can enroll in online education programs that offer access to specific experts and lecturers.
Meanwhile, students can use online degree programs to pursue highly specialized degree concentrations. A growing number of campuses host experts from the entertainment, hospitality, aviation, and real estate fields. Some schools make their faculty and alumni presenters available through online education tools or through occasional campus visits. Either way, students can creatively use transfer credits or elective programs to access rare learning experiences and competitive job markets.
4. Spread Out Demanding Semesters With Help From Online Education
Online colleges and traditional colleges both require hard work and dedication from students. Graduates of every major can share stories of the semesters that felt the most challenging. Students who can benefit from a reduced workload during a semester with an internship requirement or another major challenge can make up the credit hours later by enrolling in online degree programs. Students who want to go "home" for the summer can continue their education online, reducing the number of credit hours they need to take during the regular school year.
In some cases, professional students use online degree programs to attend entry-level classes in fields that can make them more marketable to employers. A business major that has completed courses in web design may qualify for more jobs in the high tech sector than a classmate without similar skills. Likewise, medical students with digital graphic design experience may create more compelling presentations.
5. Use Online Schools to Explore Potential Changes of Major or Career
Sometimes, students may advance a few semesters into degree programs before questioning their long-term career decisions. Online education programs make it easy for students to test the waters for a change in major while continuing the work on their degrees. For example, a liberal arts major with interest in web design and web development can complement her campus studies with an intensive online education program during summer break. If she decides to change majors, she can usually find an accredited college that will offer a credit transfer. Otherwise, she can still benefit from the addition of highly desirable skills and knowing that she investigated other learning options.
In all five cases, students from online colleges and from traditional universities both enjoy the flexibility that comes from increased acceptance of online education. As government officials applaud the efficiency with which online schools can prepare a future workforce, they also emphasize the networking and relationships offered by college campuses. Smart students understand how to get the most from both worlds.
This article is sponsored by Lincoln College of Technology
Lincoln gives you the academic reputation and personalized attention of a traditional college along with the convenience, flexibility, and value you need and expect from an online college... That's the Lincoln Difference.
