-By Timothy Lyons
Many students do not have the time to go to traditional schools. That is why I chose to get my degree with psychology online courses. I am going to show some of the choices that I looked at from the student’s perspective. I will provide information about schools that are 100% online and regionally accredited at the end of this blog.
In today’s day and age it seems that there is still an argument to be made by people who do not want to understand how learning really takes place. I was once told that for-profit online schools are seen as a joke in many circles. This came from a young man who had just paid $30,000 for his first semester at a somewhat well-known university. That means an undergraduate degree. And he had to borrow the money to do it while showing up for classes for hours at time. My response was, “That seems like a lot of money for a non-profit school. And when are you going to work to pay that loan off?”
Let’s face it, most of the learning and knowledge that that we actually accrue comes from our jobs. Even with an online psychology degree from psychology online courses, the student still has to have a number of post graduate hours to qualify for licensure.
How to Choose
The way that I chose my online psychology degree was by three criteria. First, I wanted something that was not too expensive. I wanted a way to pay for the degree as I WORKED my way through school. Second, I wanted a school that was regionally accredited. Third, I wanted a school that had the curriculum, infrastructure and necessary requirements to allow me to qualify for licensure at the state level.
I spent years at traditional schools…Back when I was young and had more time with less responsibilities. There was even a foray into psychology online courses that lead me to be able to learn and was not too expensive but that did not provide the necessary credits for licensure. I will now introduce you to some of the schools that I looked at and would consider for my own educational needs.
Whats First
To start off looking at any aspect of a school, it is good to look at accreditation. This is probably the most crucial element to any online degree program. Besides having a program that is approved by the American Psychological Association or the APA, there are two types of accreditation.
There are schools that are nationally accredited, those that are regionally accredited and some that are both. Personally, I want a school that is regionally accredited. The credits that you gain are more easily transferable. The accreditation that takes place is more in depth and all of the major colleges and universities are regionally accredited. This makes for a better school. If the requirements for accreditation are more rigorous then the school will have spent a huge amount of effort and time to gain that accreditation, in many cases years. This is a mark of excellence and is also much more widely recognized when it comes time for you to attempt to gain licensure.
What’s Next
The next critical item is the type of program that you want. There are so many different types of psychology online courses that you may want to choose from that it would be best for you to contact the schools that I have provided below. I have chosen a doctoral program, a PsyD that is based in clinical psychology. This is something that you should have a feel for by the time that you have begun to choose your major. There are schools that offer bachelor’s degrees, masters and even doctorates. Some offer Masters of the arts and Masters of Science. There are Doctor of philosophy PHD doctorates and doctor of psychology PsyD doctorates and Doctorates of Education EdD. Amongst these choices there are literally dozens of sub categories of the type of psychology that you might want to practice.
However you choose I wish the best of luck. I also hope that you choose to jump in the water head first. I like that analogy because it brings to mind that you are going in while looking ahead and you are going to get fully wet with the water of Psychology. Please click this link to see the results of my own searches.