Accelerated Social Work Degree Online

Make sure the program is from a good school that's an accredited higher education institution.
Some of these diploma/degree mills will be happy to take your money and give you a certificate that's not worth the paper it's printed on.

http://www2.ed.gov/students/prep/college/diplomamills/dip...

"Important: The Better Business Bureau suggests you watch for the following features and regard them as red flags when considering whether or not to enroll in a school:

Degrees that can be earned in less time than at an accredited postsecondary institution, an example would be earning a Bachelor's degree in a few months.
A list of accrediting agencies that sounds a little too impressive. Often, these schools will list accreditation by organizations that are not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. These schools will also imply official approval by mentioning state registration or licensing.
Offers that place unrealistic emphasis on offering college credits for lifetime or real world experience.
Tuition paid on a per-degree basis, or discounts for enrolling in multiple degree programs. Accredited institutions charge by credit hours, course, or semester.
Little or no interaction with professors.
Names that are similar to well known reputable universities.
Addresses that are box numbers or suites. That campus may very well be a mail drop box or someone's attic.".

There is a ton of press lately about online schools taking advantage of people. Be very careful. I would say your best bet is to go to a brick-and-mortar campus and talk to them first. Most "regular" colleges have both in-person and online classes. You may be able to get your degree from a traditional college, and still take your classes online.

Also, be sure that agencies who hire social workers take students who obtain their degree through online classes. I work in a different field, but everyone in my field requires hands-on experience. If someone applies for a job with a degree obtained solely through online classes, even if the degree is from an accredited place, that person is going to have a hard time getting hired, because they don't have the hands-on skills needed.

There may be good online programs out there for social work, just be very very careful before you commit to one.

Whatever you do, make sure you go to an accredited program. If you opt to go with a fly by nighter, unheard of cheap online school you are wasting your time and money because potential employer's will not recognize those programs as a qualified program.

Check with local colleges in your area and get references from someone in the line of work you would like to be in and find out what colleges offer the best programs for that degree. THEN, go to those colleges and find out what options you have for online. Most online programs do require you to come in for o many hours of the program.

Good luck!

My employer will only pay for accredited online schools. There are 2 or 3 but I do know University of Phoenix is one. A coworker was working on hers via their program. Anther coworker took classes online with a university and had to attend a physical class one day per week. This was easier than going to class 3 days a week. As mentioned, make sure the school is properly accredited. You could also call some agencies that work with social workers to see if they would accept a degree from such and such school to make sure it will help you do what you want it to.

The main thing we're taught in college is accreditation. I can hang out a shingle and say I'm accredited and that you can take my classes online and work and work and work but in the end when you go apply for jobs I am not accredited and you'd have wasted all that time and money for nothing.

So, if you have some college already and only want a BA in social work I imagine you could go through a local university or college that offers that degree.

If you already have a BA or BS and want an MSW I suggest you actually go to grad school. It's not that many hours and it is more prestigious than getting a degree online.

If you want to work in social services for your state or an organization as an Executive Director then you are going to have to have a solid degree that is unquestionable.

When I was on the Board of Big Brothers/Big Sisters we interviewed a lot of prospective applicants for our ED. We really didn't even look at anyone who didn't go "to" the school to take the classes because that person showed their education wasn't very important.

There are many ways for an adult to go to college, one friend rented an on-campus apartment and drove home to hubby and kids on the weekends and breaks. Some moved to a campus in another state and only came home on breaks. One lady rented an apartment and choose all Tuesday/Thursday classes. She drove to campus on Monday evening, went to classes on Tuesday, studied and did class work on Wednesday, then went to classes on Thursday, if she got more work assigned that had to be done on campus she'd head to the library after classes. When that work was done she'd either spend the night in her apartment or head home for the rest of the week. She's the one we hired too.

She showed that both her family and her education was important and she had nearly straight A's since she took time out of her week to completely focus on her education. She could compartmentalize school and work because she had that day set aside for nothing other than school work. So everything was done and she didn't take school home with her.

She was an awesome director and when I moved away from that town she was still the ED.

People who are hiring for positions look at things like this. Why didn't you go to real college. Why didn't you go to a school and go through a classroom situation, do you have issues with people? Crowds? Social anxiety issues? Don't like to drive back and forth? They want to know the reasons a person didn't choose a traditional method of getting their education.

Millions of people go to school full time and have full time families.

Many of the people doing the hiring are older and wouldn't have ever thought about taking classes online from some....business. They expect full time college students that graduate with good grades. Otherwise they wonder why that person didn't go that route.

They might not like non-traditional. SO no, I'd never do an online degree for anything like this.

For things like computer science or drafting or even a secretarial position the person looking for an employee can look at your skills and can even test you for those things. But when it comes to a social science it's different.

We had head hunters come to OSU and give talks about how their hiring process works. The ones from either Armstrong or Mercury Marine told us they look at anyone coming in, if they have ANY degree that is outside of CEAT, College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology they see if that person has an exact 4.0. If they even have a 3.9 they toss them in the trash. Gone without even reading them.

They said that anyone coming out of CEAT that can make even a solid 3.25 is a higher GPA that some social scientist. If a "social scientist" can't make a perfect 4.0 in their easy classes they they aren't very smart and they only hire smart people. They felt that the degree qualifications for a student in their programs worked around the clock 24 hours per day, day after day, they'd crash for a couple of hours under their work area desk then drink a 6 pack of Mountain Dew or pop a few energy drinks back and stay up for another few days to meet deadlines. They "worked" and "sacrificed" for their degrees and any other college degree that wasn't accompanied by a solid 4.0 was not a dedicated student or very smart.

This is almost exactly what they said. They were being honest and trying to get us to understand that most head hunters or people in human resources that do the hiring think of social sciences and all other degrees except math or science based degrees to be soft degrees and not worth anything.

To work in social services you will be competing with people who went to college for 4 years to earn those degrees and probably went on to grad school for masters or PhD degrees. So if you just have an online degree they will likely just discount it and you might not even get an interview.

Sorry, I'm sure that isn't what you want to hear. I'd never go for a social science degree online. I'd go full out to a university for the real deal and the prestige that comes from that school.

My first piece of advice would be to steer clear of for-profit colleges which tend to be degree mills that are more concerned with getting your money than providing an education. I would also choose a university that has a physical campus where you can speak to people.
Spend some time online checking out the reputation of any schools you are considering--there are plenty of good, reputable programs out there but you don't want to waste you time and money on a degree that proves to be worthless when you apply for jobs or graduate school.