Distance Education in Engineering - Finding the Best Schools

There are many schools online that offer degrees in engineering online, but the key is to find schools with a decent reputation that will not hinder your ability to get a job or further your education with a masters degree or post graduate school. Reputation is important when it comes to getting your degree online. Avoid the schools that offer only online degrees - In order to make the best impression you can on potential employers, its best to find a school that doesn't make it known to your potential employer that you completed your degree online. The best way to do this is to search for "brick and mortar" schools online that also happen to have a few online degrees available. The schools are there, it just might take some digging to find them. Especially with engineering, the degree is not as widely available as other degrees, so it will take quite a bit of research to find one with all of those qualities. Look for the .gov schools - The best way to do a search and find legitimate, reputable schools is to do a search of websites that end in .gov. If a website ends in .com it is a commercial website and may not be the most credible school. All state schools end in .gov. Compare Costs - Find out financial aid options your potential school offers. If they offer only private loans, that may end up costing you more over time because of the higher interest costs. Make sure you factor that in when comparing schools. Also, if a school cannot offer federal financial aid, it may be because they lack full accreditation, which is another red flag. Make your engineering degree one you can be proud of by doing the proper research ahead of time.