My Experience With an Online College: Would I Recommend It for Working Parents?
It was 9:17 pm on a Tuesday in 2016, and I was folding superhero pajamas on my coffee table while my 4-year-old snored into a throw pillow. My laptop was open to the Western Governors University course catalog, and I’d just stared at the tuition page for 20 minutes straight. I was working 30 hours a week as a paraeducator at the local elementary school, bringing in just enough to cover rent and groceries, and I’d wanted my full teaching license since I was 19. But on-campus classes started at 4 pm, when I was still at work, and childcare for evening classes would have cost more than the classes themselves. Online college was the only option that fit.
I ended up choosing WGU, a non-profit online school with a competency-based model, because it offered flat-rate tuition per six-month term instead of per credit. That meant if I only had time to finish one class in a term, I didn’t pay extra, and if I had a slow month at work and a free week with childcare, I could knock out three. I remember telling my partner over microwave beef tacos that if I messed up a term, I wouldn’t be out $1,500 per credit like I would at the local state college. That low-stakes flexibility sold me immediately.
For the next three and a half years, I did most of my coursework sitting on the floor of my son’s playroom while he built Lego castles, or on the couch after he fell asleep, my laptop propped on a pile of laundry. The first year I got the hang of it, I had one term where my son got hand, foot, and mouth disease, I missed two weeks of work and couldn’t touch my assignments, and I only finished one class instead of the three I’d planned. I didn’t lose any money or get kicked out of the program, which was a huge relief. But that flexibility came with big downsides, too. I went three weeks once without doing any work because I just kept putting it off—there was no professor reminding me every Monday that a paper was due, no set class time to force me to show up. My program mentor only checked in once a month, so it was on me to stay on track. I learned pretty quick to set 45-minute calendar reminders every night after bedtime, even if I was too tired to focus. Once I had to take a proctored exam for my special education class, and my cat kept jumping on the desk, so the proctor made me move to the bathroom. I sat on the closed toilet with my laptop for two hours, squinting at the screen.
When I graduated and got my license, I applied for an open 2nd grade teaching job at my school and got hired. The principal asked about the online degree once, and I told her I did my student teaching in the first grade classroom down the hall. She nodded and said that was all she needed to see. That was seven years ago, and I still teach there now.
People ask me all the time what online college I attended, and if I’d recommend it. I never give a straight yes or no, because it’s not that simple. It worked for me, but it’s not for everyone, and I’ve picked up a few concrete things I tell anyone considering the same path.
First, if you’re the kind of person who needs someone to tell you when to show up and when to turn in work to stay on track, don’t do a self-paced online program like WGU. A friend of mine started the same program the same year I did, and she quit after 18 months because she just couldn’t make herself sit down to work without a weekly in-person or live online class to attend. If that sounds like you, look for an online program from a local community college or state school that has set meeting times, even if it’s a little more expensive.
Second, spend 10 minutes before you applying checking two non-negotiable things: whether your program is accredited by the national board for your field, and whether local employers in your area actually hire graduates from that school. I called my school district’s HR office before I enrolled, asked if a WGU teaching degree would qualify me for a full state license, and they sent me a quick email confirming it. That 10-minute phone call saved me years of wasted time and money. A lot of for-profit online schools have bad reputations with local employers, even if they’re accredited, so it’s always worth asking.
Third, don’t buy into the “finish in 18 months” hype you see on ads. I took three and a half years to finish, which is longer than the average advertised time, and that was the right call for me. I only missed three of my son’s soccer games that whole time, and I never burned out bad enough to have to take a full semester off. Most people I know who rushed to finish to save money ended up dropping out anyway.
Right now, my paraeducator assistant Mia is 26, has a 2-year-old, and is thinking about enrolling in the same program. She texted me last week asking again if I thought it was worth it. We’re meeting for coffee after school this week to go over the course catalog, and I’m going to help her call HR to check if her degree will qualify her for the license she wants. Some days she’s sure she can juggle work, school, and a toddler, and some days she says she’ll just wait until her kid goes to kindergarten. That’s okay.
There’s no one right answer for online college, just the right answer for your life, your schedule, and how you work best. For what it’s worth, I’d do it again. But I also wouldn’t blame anyone who looks at their plate right now and decides it’s not the right fit.
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