The convenience and popularity of getting a college degree online has lead to the proliferation of online programs. For some, attending an online program is their only option because they live too far away from a brick-and-mortar school or have a schedule that varies widely and does not permit them to attend class at the same time every week.
You can get a degree online in almost any course of study. The most popular areas are business, criminology or criminal justice, computer science, and social sciences such as psychology and sociology. If you have decided to get a college degree online, but you have not selected your major or a specific program, there is a lot to consider.
The first thing you want to do is find your strengths and weaknesses. There are a number of free career assessment tools online. Take the time to utilize a couple of the tools, they usually have between 10-30 questions, which should not take you more than fifteen minutes each. For a more extensive and validated assessment, you can take the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey for about $20.00. This survey was developed by Douglas Jackson, PhD approximately 40 years ago.
Once you have an idea where your strengths are, you can identify some fields of a course in miracles study that interest you and allow you to capitalize on your abilities. Identify the top five areas of study and research them. You want to know what it is like to work in that field. You can use the internet, school guidance counselor, friends, family, and if necessary the telephone. For example if you are interested in the nursing field, but you do not know anyone who is a nurse and none of your friends or family know someone in the nursing field, you can call up a doctor’s office and explain that you are interested in nursing and would like know if anyone would be willing to speak to you about nursing. Of course, you don’t want to call a hospital or emergency clinic because those people are busy and may be trying to save someone’s life, however the office that your mom goes to might be willing to direct you to a nurse that is willing to answer some questions.