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Do you think that an online university program (i.e. University of Phoenix) will be taken as seriously as a 4 year brick and mortar university? 

Matt Grant 
Matthew T. Grant, PhD                                                                   Minister of Enlightenment                                                      
AQUENT
 
Question
Do you think that an online university program (i.e. University of Phoenix) will be taken as seriously as a 4 year brick and mortar university?
 
Answer
The primary benefit of attending a traditional brick and mortar university comes from the personal connections you are able to make in them and the alumni networks that you can then tap into post-graduation. The secondary benefit is that, for a small handful of schools, their name on your resume says something about you to employers. It’s hard for me to imagine that any online university could ever have the impact of a “Harvard” or a “Yale.”
 
That being said, these universities are right now building out their online capabilities and it may one day be possible to graduate with a degree from MIT, for example, without ever having set foot in Cambridge, MA. At the same time, it’s increasingly possible to access course notes from well-known universities and even watch videotaped lectures, thus attending them “virtually.”
 
In the end, you need to distinguish the acquisition of knowledge, which can happen in myriad ways on- and off-line, from the social benefits of becoming associated with a specific prestigious group, “Harvard graduates,” for example. The difference is between learning how to do something and being able to do it where and with the people you want to.
 

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