Online Computer Science Degree

I had put it off long enough. The time had come to finish the computer science degree I had started 10 years ago. When my husband and I were first married, I had planned on finishing the last three semesters of my education, get a good job and start saving for our first house. Before we knew it we were expecting our first baby, and I decided to take a year off to have the baby and then get right back to school. My baby is about to enter middle school.

With all of my children in elementary school now, I decided it was time to finish what I’d started. So I headed off to the local college to find out what kind of time commitment was involved to finish my last year and a half of college. It didn’t take me long to realize that with my hectic life that 18 months was going to turn into 3 years if I took the traditional college route of trying to find time to attend classes and running back and forth between my school and my kids’. Then my advisor asked why I didn’t consider taking a few online courses to get my degree.

You mean go to school on my computer? I asked in amazement. But will I learn anything? Boy, he answered, you have been out of the technology loop for awhile!

So he sat me down to explain how obtaining my computer science degree online would work.

Once I realized that I could go to school online, I also realized that I could go to any school in the country. How great was that? But, first I had to choose one. So I checked out this great free website that gave me a listing of thousands of great online programs from colleges and universities all over the country. With a few clicks of my computer keyboard I could compare them all right at this site. (Click on the link to check it out.) And if you want to see how easy it is, click here to watch a video that shows you exactly how it's done.

I was lucky because the school I finally chose offered 90% of the classes I needed online. That meant I could download the lectures and watch them at my convenience. Of course I would have to log in at specific times to discuss the lectures, speak with fellow classmates and the professor and take tests, but other than that, I was free to pursue my academic goals at my own pace and in my own timing.

How wonderful!

I could work when the kids were at school or late at night after they went to bed. Even if someone in my house was sick I didn’t have to miss a class. I could simply attend later in the day or the next. The flexibility of online classes was just what this busy mom needed.

Even though my particular degree program required me to do an internship with a local company, I still had the flexibility to discuss my hands-on work experience with my advisor via the internet – no need to schlep back to the college after a long day at my new “job” before heading home to the family.

Thankfully, computer science is one of the easiest degrees to obtain online, since of course it is a program designed to teach you how to best utilize the computer technology available to today’s businesses.

By having the freedom to ditch traditional classes and take my online, I was able to finish that degree in record time. And, now, you guessed it, I’m a member of the working world. Only now I’m earning money with my computer instead of studying on it.