As online colleges continue to grow in popularity the debate and comparison with traditional colleges continues to get hotter and hotter. Both types of institution has its pros and cons and people will take a particular side based on personal interest or which is more applicable to the particular environment. Here we will try to find a middle ground and present the facts without bias to any particular educational model and let you decide for yourself if they are the same or different.

Course Work

There is not much difference in the type of course work delivered by online or traditional institutions. This is due to the fact that all courses must meet particular standards before they can be approved by the various educational boards. This is done to ensure that graduates will be fully trained in a particular area as advertised on their transcripts. However, online colleges have the advantage of offering their students accelerated programs that significantly reduce the time needed to complete the requirements for the studies.

Method of Delivery

This is a main factor that separates traditional and online colleges. In traditional colleges, students are tutored on campus, thus utilizing the physical facilities of the institution. They establish face-to-face relationships with their instructors and peers as they all function in a physical classroom environment.


In the online education set up, students do not have any physical contact with their instructors or fellow classmates. Most of their interaction will be done electronically through, email, chat rooms and video conferencing. There is a chance that you may see your instructor and peers on a live streaming video but you may never actually meet them face to face. Some people are unable to deal with the impersonal nature of online learning just as some people prefer not to enter a classroom for whatever personal reasons.

Practical Experience

Some commentators say that practical experience is the main drawback with online education. Unlike traditional institutions, students are unable to gain practical experience in some of the subject areas they study, especially where hands on experience is necessary. Traditional institutions invest heavily in various forms of lab equipment and group events that they use to prepare students for the working world.


On the other hand, if students of online colleges are proactive enough, the flexibility of the online educational environment afford them time to gain employment as apprentices and interns in various fields. Many employers are willing to employ online students to develop their practical skills. This gives these online students valuable real life experience in the working environment as opposed to simulated cases and training equipment available in traditional colleges.

Cost of Tuition

Surveys show that online colleges cost much less than traditional colleges for the delivery of the same course material. This is so because online students require less physically of the online institution. In the traditional college, it is necessary to invest heavily in building classrooms, providing maintenance and upkeep and getting additional administrative and support staff. This is not so with online institutions as the focus is only on the delivery of solid course work material, thus reducing their overhead cost significantly.

Convenience

By far this one of the super blows to traditional institutions. Online institutions offer incomparable convenience to students where they can attend school at anytime from anywhere in the world. All their course material is delivered to them by video, email of through hard copy books. As a result, students realize significant savings from the lack of requirement for relocation and fuel for travel. In the traditional institution environment, students have to relocate to a particular institution to utilize its facilities for their education.

Resulting Merge

What we have seen evolving in this battle between traditional and online colleges is an appearance of a merger between the two. Most traditional institutions are now entering the field of online education to give students the option of the method of education they desire. This results in an improvement in the overall education and value for the students and attracts more students to the institutions.

When applying to schools and colleges, filling out the application and the required documents are important things that often become puzzling and stressful. Each school requires a definite set of documents. A few schools request some basic documents be stapled with the application form, whereas others demand a stipulated list of documents. Care has to be taken when filing these documents. The omission of one document can result in rejection of the application.

Required Documents and the Application Form

The list of required documents will be provided to you by the school authorities. In order to get the form and the list, you need to contact the admission office or visit the website of the desired college and university. Colleges have their own applications, but there some colleges that use a common form. If you deal with such a college having common application form, you need to focus whether or not the college wants an application supplement. Usually, these supplements have questions that are required by the college admissions office.

College Application and Academic Information

Most colleges and universities request a high school or GED transcript depending on the level of education of the applicant. For high schools students, college guidance counselors generally handle sending these transcripts. Not every school requires the standardized test scores but those that do ask the candidate to take the SAT or ACT and review the scores. The colleges usually consider the highest possible composite scores.

Personal Information Required To Sent To Colleges

The college admissions officers like to read essays and letters when admitting a student. A great letter from a teacher or an exceptional personal essay can prove to be a golden chance for a student to be accepted. When seeking admission, you need to find out whether such a letter or essay is required for the school.

Checklist for College Admission

Some of the documents that are common in most colleges are:

• Letters of recommendation
• Counselor recommendation
• Test scores
• Signature on all pages of the application
• Copies of all forms and documentation enclosed
• Transcripts
• Orientation schedul
• Application fee
• Financial aid forms

After Sending the Application

Once you are done with your application, you can submit it to the admissions department of the college. You may also receive a financial aid reward letter. After you send documents needed by the college authority, you have nothing else to do until you are contacted by the college about acceptance or denial of the application.

Find below eight most important things that you must do this summer before college.

1. Using Academic Calendar

Majority of universities have their own academic calendar, which you can access through internet. With academic calendar, you will get an idea of when classes begin and end and what sort of time you are going to get in order to complete your project. Stay away from any extra curricular activities in the final month of the semester as there is going to be plenty of pressure on you.

2. Getting To Orientation

Large number of universities holds orientation sessions during the summer. Make sure that you attend it that time instead of attending it when classes begin. At lots of universities, orientation session is a time when enrollment for courses for the fall semester starts. If your university is one of these, it is of paramount importance that you enroll early because there may not be too many seats available for the course of your choice.

3. Buy A Laptop

In this day and age when technology is the buzzword in every field, you will certainly require a laptop for study purpose. Make sure that your laptop is loaded with all the latest software. Before loading any software, it is advisable that you ask university officials what sort of software they support. For example, few universities support Word rather than WordPerfect.

4. Selecting Degree Program

Before you go to college, it is quite vital that you select degree program on the basis of your knowledge base and interest. As most of the universities have their own websites, you can easily get details of courses that are being offered by them. Some students commit a mistake of selecting degree program on the basis of market condition. Don’t do this because if you are not comfortable with the subjects, you will face plenty of problems in earning a degree.

5. Knowing About All The Requirements

Before you go to college, make sure that you know about all the requirements that are associated with your course. It includes core courses and specialized courses that you need to complete in order to earn a degree.

6. Research Available Resources

Universities are rich locations with lots of services being offered so that students can increase their academic qualification without any hassle. For example, students can take the assistance of writing center in order to write a paper or learning center which plays a prominent part in developing analytical sills. Whatever be your requirement, there are plenty of options available provided you are willing to devote some of your time in research.

7. College Details

Before going to any college, it is better to gather the details of college first. By doing this, you will get to know about the track record of college as well as infrastructural facilities offered by them.

8. Excess Reading

Some students think that reading textbooks before the start of semester gives them a launching pad. This is not true as excess reading will burn you out and you will not be able to concentrate when the actual study starts.