It’s just not that simple or cut and dry. Ask yourself – would you hire the in-the-seat grad from the tier 4 state U in your state or the online grad from Stanford if all other qualifications were the same just because the in-the-seat grad sat in a classroom of questionable quality?

Of course, attending Stanford in-the-seat would be better — but do we really think that Stanford U would put their name on a degree if they didn’t think that you would get the material covered? Really?

So equal to “normal classes at the university”? Depends on which university. UPhoenix has classroom courses – think they’re equal to Stanford’s online courses? I don’t. So what matters here is not online vs classroom (especially not at the master’s level) but instead the quality of the college awarding the degree. Bad college = worthless degree; great college = valuable degree. It’s really (partly) as simple as that.