https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 17 May 2026 16:32:41 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459222 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 22:53:44 +0000 simplyfelicity 2459222@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DesertDreams88: Thanks for looking it over! Most of the reviews are pretty good. :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459195 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 22:32:24 +0000 DesertDreams88 2459195@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@simplyfelicity: that sounds like a great program and price! Wish I had known about it before I did my program!</p> <p>One more idea.... you could Google search for reviews of the program. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459169 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 22:12:30 +0000 simplyfelicity 2459169@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@DesertDreams88: Thank you for your detailed response! This is really helpful! The program I am looking at is from the American Education College, takes 18 months and costs 8k in fees. It would pay for itself after the first year. Here is a little info that was sent to me by one of the guidance counselors:</p> <p>Our Master’s level classes run for 5 weeks total, with a one to two week break between the end of one class and the start of another. You take one class at a time, so you can focus on one topic at a time. </p> <p> A typical Master’s level class with includes: </p> <p>· Reading assignments - all reading materials are available electronically. There are no textbooks to buy. Students typically have between 1 and 5 journal articles to read each week.</p> <p>· Lectures – Each session of your class is pre-recorded so you can watch lectures when it’s convenient for you. There is no required log in time.</p> <p>· Assignments – Students must complete one assignment each week. They are embedded in the course and allow you to apply the week’s topic to your current or past teaching experiences.</p> <p>· Discussion Comments – Each weeks, students are required to post comments about a specified discussion topic and respond to other students’ comments.</p> <p>· Quizzes - Each week there are two ungraded, five-question quizzes, one for the readings and one for the lectures. </p> <p>·Final exam – A 20-question, multiple choice final exam is typically administered in week five. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459063 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 21:14:50 +0000 gingerbebe 2459063@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH is finishing up an Executive MBA that's 18 months long. He's graduating this spring and his classes started a month after DS was born. He has online/phone lectures Monday and Wednesday nights for about 90 minutes each night and then he goes in all day every other Saturday. The classes are in quarters and he has 2 weeks break between each quarter.</p> <p>I'll be really happy when it's over mostly because him being gone all day Saturday was annoying but it hasn't been the worst thing ever (granted we both went to law school). We eat dinner early as a family and then DH does bath with our son and then he goes into his office for class.</p> <p>As for managing the workload, I guess he's sorta working smarter not harder? He usually tries to just say something early on in the phone discussion to seem engaged and then works on the next session's homework while the lecture is ongoing. He speed reads so he skims his reading during his lunches. Biz school is a lot of group projects so he tries to sorta comandeer them early on and assign the tasks and "facilitate" them with deadlines and what not so they get done quickly. His team mostly really likes that because everyone is working full time and they just want discreet tasks to do instead of brainstorming junk.</p> <p>When he's at the in person sessions, he has his laptop out and his professor mostly thinks he's taking notes but in reality he's working on assignments. If the professor has a syllabus up early, he tries to do the homework assignments as early as possible. Sometimes he does them before the class even starts during the 2 week breaks between quarters.</p> <p>So, probably not the same as your program, but he really thinks he couldn't have handled anything more involved than that. He wasn't interested in a fully in person program and this was the best fit program for him. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459047 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 21:03:56 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2459047@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@simplyfelicity: nope, I didnt know that about teacher salaries. Go for it! If it makes you more money the sacrifice of time now will pay off in dividends later. Parents go back to school all the time. I bet you'll be a beast at time management. When I completed my MBA I worked FT and made the most of the waking hours.</p> <p> The program my husband was in, masters of finance &amp; investments, purposely aligned the coursework to help students prepare for the CFA- three part exam. For his career though the CFA is more important than the Master's. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459043 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 21:01:07 +0000 mrsjazz 2459043@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My DH is a teacher and got his MA for this reason, too--but he did brick and mortar school before LO was born. The salary increase was definitely very nice once he finished! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459040 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:59:12 +0000 DesertDreams88 2459040@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@simplyfelicity: Honestly that's the only reason I got my masters, too. After 6 years of higher education, I didn't really want to continue, especially since studies show it doesn't increase classroom achievement :( It's the only way to get a raise in Arizona more than 1% of your base pay, since they have taken away the traditional step schedule. Getting a master's in my district means only a raise of $1500 per year :( However, my MA only cost $10K because they accepted half of my credits from my teaching certificate program. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459033 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:55:29 +0000 DesertDreams88 2459033@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I echo everything @Mrsjazz: said. It's doable, but it depends on the program's requirements, their flexibility, and your ability to manage time and complete tasks independently. It also depends on your learning style - online programs focus heavily on reading and writing , which are two of my strengths, so I love that style of program. For me, I feel like the traditional college class style of slow discusion and lecture is a waste of time bc it's not how I learn. </p> <p>My background: After graduating with a 7-12 teaching certificate and major in social studies education, I took a full time job teaching 5th grade language arts social studies and thus had to complete a 2 year online program to get K-8 certified. I completed about 9 credits per semester and in the summer. Then, a year's worth of those credits transferred into my masters program, which took another year to complete. That program was one 3-credit course every 8 weeks, with the option of doing 1 class at a time, 2 classes at a time, or staggered.</p> <p>Both programs allowed me to work at my own pace, as long as I finished everything by the course end date. However they also had a guideline that I could only turn in one assignment at a time, &amp; I had to wait to get feedback on it before I could turn in the next one. Depending on the busyness of my life, sometimes I worked ahead, sometimes I didn't. I lesson planned on Saturdays and did my grad school coursework on Sundays and school breaks.</p> <p>All of this was done without a LO though.</p> <p>When looking into programs, I would definitely ask what their procedures are in case you need to take a semester off, and what their expectations are in regards to working at your own pace. I would also ask them what a typical weekly workload is. For example, in most classes, I had 5-10 page research papers due every week. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2459029 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:51:57 +0000 simplyfelicity 2459029@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I almost hate to admit it, but my reason for going to school now is to increase my salary. As a teacher, our salary is based on units and years of experience (sorry if you know this!) I would move over three or four columns on our payscale and my max pay would be much higher. So, its really about the payscale as opposed to professional development (though I hope that does happen.) I have always wanted to get my master's and never really thought I would do it online but the savings is huge. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458994 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:30:48 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2458994@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This is going to sound so discouraging, but DH started a master's program online and shortly after I became pregnant he decided not to continue it. He works FT with a brutal commute &amp; puts extra hours in at home so as he says it the online program was getting in the way of work. LOL. Plus he didn't want to spend the next 2-3 years spending his nights and weekends holed up in his office doing work work and school work when there was a cute LO he'd rather spend time with.</p> <p>After completing a few courses and using outside resources to do so he realized he could achieve his ultimate goal of earning a professional designation on his own without the grad school curriculum. He's disciplined enough to do the self-study with the resources he found. Is there another means to the end?</p> <p>I completed my masters before DH &amp; obviously children. I much preferred the classes that were taught in a classroom vs the few online classes I did. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458980 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:19:33 +0000 mrsjazz 2458980@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@simplyfelicity: cool! yeah my MFA was definitely not work-related (though I do work as a writer full-time). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458976 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:18:17 +0000 simplyfelicity 2458976@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrsjazz: How interesting! I got my B.A. in Creative Writing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458968 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:15:34 +0000 mrsjazz 2458968@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@simplyfelicity: creative writing. Which I think is one of those programs that is "easier" online because it's creative and there wasn't a lot of things to memorize or tests. I did have to spend 2 weeks on campus every semester--which would've been hard if LO was here. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458944 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:07:00 +0000 simplyfelicity 2458944@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrsjazz: What did you study (if you don't mind my asking?) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458938 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:05:07 +0000 Greentea 2458938@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH tried- online is okay, but he had science labs and classes he had to attend. It hasn't worked well, tbh, but online is more hopeful! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458882 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 19:40:17 +0000 gotkimchi 2458882@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes my husband got laid off and he went back to school online! It works well because he can do school work around his new job/our lo but it requires a lot of planning and him staying on top of his homework. So I think you can do it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458876 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 19:38:49 +0000 mrsjazz 2458876@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@simplyfelicity: I haven't gone to school while I had an LO--but I did do my master's program online while working full-time and there were parents in my program. I will be honest--it was rough with no LO but if you have support you can do it. I had many late nights but at least with school online you can work around your own schedule. </p> <p>It also depends on what you're studying, how much reading, homework, assignments you'll have. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-go-to-school-online#post-2458867 Thu, 11 Feb 2016 19:35:12 +0000 simplyfelicity 2458867@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our "plan" was for DH to start his master's program this fall once he was tenured and then I would get my master's down the line. Since DH is getting laid off and doesn't want to start his master's degree while at a new school, I am thinking about getting mine now. I can start in April and I would make nearly 8 thousand more a year (so it would quickly pay for itself.)</p> <p>Am I nuts? Has anyone gone to school while working FT with a LO? I am kicking myself for not doing this pre-LO. :bummed: </p>