Here’s video going over my experiences going to college on campus vs going to college online and what my pros and cons are for each.
College campus vs online college
In this video you’ll learn about this students experience with online classes versus taking classes on campus.
At first she was living in the dorms for her freshman year. Then she moved home to save some money. But then she returned to her college for junior and that’s when she decided to take her classes online so then she moved back home to save more moeny. And now she actually lives in Europe and still takes classes online.
On-campus pros
You can meet a whole bunch of people. You make a lot of friends. You’re interacting with lots of people all the time. You also have access to lots of activities. She was in the rock climbing club and also involved in student government.
“In a way on campus is a bit easier because there is a strict schedule to follow and you pretty much just follow it. It’s also nice to have a teacher in front of you feeding you the information. You can interact with the teacher and really develop a relationship and get feedback. On campus it’s just a little bit easier to learn the material because you have so many immediate resources available.”
On-campus cons
The timing of classes is always weird because you don’t really get to choose what time you take any of your classes and some of the classes are at times that you don’t really enjoy taking classes at. Like really early in the morning or really late at night.
And that can really affect your work schedule, if you’re planning to work and go to school. If your classes are randomly spread out over the day then you might not have time to go to work until really weird hours and that might just not make sense.
She says,
“I wanted to work and I had the time and energy to work. I just really didn’t have the time and flexibility to work because of my crazy class schedule.”
Also if you live off campus and you go to school on campus you have to factor in commuting time. It could take you a half hour or more to commute back and forth. There is a lot of wasted time in between classes if you have to commute.
“The biggest con is the amount of time that is wasted with on-campus classes”
Another big con is that on-campus is usually much more expensive than online classes.
Pros of online classes
It’s supper flexabile because you don’t have to take the bus or your car or commute to classeses and you don’t have to physically sit in a classroom and listen to your teacher for and hour and half and then drive all the way back home. You can really take your classes whenever you want. And you can do your classes wherever you are. So that means you can work at a library or cafe or park bench or whatever.
“Me personally I moved to Europe and I’m still able to take my classes from back home”
If you really like to travel or you have a job that allows you to travel or even if you just need a flexible schedule, online classes are really helpful for that. You can also go at your own pace with online class.
“For me my work is due every sunday at midnight so I can choose when I get all of my work done at any time in the week”
The last pro is that it’s much cheaper which is great!
Cons of online classes.
You don’t really get any social interaction so you have to figure out how to get social interaction in other ways. It can be really lonely and boring and sometimes you might not even see other people for a whole week. You don’t really get the normal college experience with roommates and parties and things like that.
The last con is that you have to be really freaking motivated to do your work. You have to actively try to learn the information because there’s no one there holding your hand and speaking to you to actually help you learn the information. And along with that, it can be difficult if you’re not very organized because you need to understand all of your deadlines and no one is going to hold you accountable but yourself.
Both online and on-campus college are really great options depending on who you are and what you might prefer out of your college experience.