Tonight I decided to better myself and make a commitment to go back to school.  The problem is, of course, that I am a stay at home mom and don't really have enough time to trek across town to one of the city colleges, especially with Jason getting ready to start preschool this year.  I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about good accredited online colleges because it would be more practical to work at night when Jason is asleep and I have idle time.  I would like to get my Associate's Degree in Science because I want to eventually (this will be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way from now) get my PhD in Physics.  I know that that itself will not be easy, but for now, I'm just looking to start out small since I need to learn the maths from the very beginning and update my English and writing skills.  My fascination with Physics itself is pretty hysterical since I suck at math, but I won't let that deter me. :D

So....any ideas?

Obviously I've no experience with US colleges at all but I wanted to wish you luck with this Jess. 

I got my bachelors and masters degree by studying part-time but attending classes on a weekly basis.  Even that was hard (and I didn't have kids at the time) and I couldn't imagine doing it all on my own.  I don't have the self-discipline to study without someone prompting me!

Tonight I decided to better myself and make a commitment to go back to school.  The problem is, of course, that I am a stay at home mom and don't really have enough time to trek across town to one of the city colleges, especially with Jason getting ready to start preschool this year.  I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about good accredited online colleges because it would be more practical to work at night when Jason is asleep and I have idle time.  I would like to get my Associate's Degree in Science because I want to eventually (this will be a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way from now) get my PhD in Physics.  I know that that itself will not be easy, but for now, I'm just looking to start out small since I need to learn the maths from the very beginning and update my English and writing skills.  My fascination with Physics itself is pretty hysterical since I suck at math, but I won't let that deter me. :D

So....any ideas?


A lot of regular colleges offer online classes.

That way you get the best of the both worlds, everything is backed up by a solid bricks and mortar university with people working at it, but you don't need to go there every week.

A lot of regular colleges offer online classes.

That way you get the best of the both worlds, everything is backed up by a solid bricks and mortar university with people working at it, but you don't need to go there every week.


I was going to mention this as well... I took an online course at our community college and only had to go to campus twice.... once for the midterm and once for the final... it was pretty convenient. And much cheaper than those "professional online colleges"

I see this commercial quite often, maybe it could help?  ???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYS5NtRXlZQ

  My fascination with Physics itself is pretty hysterical since I suck at math, but I won't let that deter me. :D

So....any ideas?


Stop what you're doing and start working on the math.  You will need the math to do the physics.

If you're doing it for your own edification, rather than for any particular career goal, save yourself some money and use MIT's Open Courseware. 

Yes, the MIT.  1900 courses online.  Free.  As in "Free beer".  Everything from classical mechanics to three terms' worth of relativistic quantum field theory.  Hell, everything from feminist political theory to magnetohydrodynamic theory of fusion sytems. 

(Edit: And back on the math front, everything from basic linear algebra and single-variable calculus - which are gonna be the same courses no matter where you sit in on the lectures - to grad-level courses on manifold geometry, and if you can figure that stuff out, you don't need our help :)

You won't get a degree from using the MIT courseware stuff, but you might get an education.

Stop what you're doing and start working on the math.  You will need the math to do the physics.

If you're doing it for your own edification, rather than for any particular career goal, save yourself some money and use MIT's Open Courseware. 

Yes, the MIT.  1900 courses online.  Free.  As in "Free beer".  Everything from classical mechanics to three terms' worth of relativistic quantum field theory.  Hell, everything from feminist political theory to magnetohydrodynamic theory of fusion sytems.

You won't get a degree from using the MIT courseware, but you might get an education.


Jess

This could be the way to go.  Foo's right, you need to have some math ability to do physics.  All the random stuff you did in high school that you might have wondered when you would use it in RL you use in physics.

So find a local college to do the General Science course and then look at a career (I think you mentioned Pharmacy Technician before?) and use the MIT stuff to feed your interest in Physics

So find a local college to do the General Science course and then look at a career (I think you mentioned Pharmacy Technician before?) and use the MIT stuff to feed your interest in Physics


And I'll pick up on that point.  Different lecturers cover topics in different orders, and cover topics in different ways.  If you're taking courses in meatspace with the intent of getting a real accreditation, use the MIT courses to fill in the gaps (and your "real" courses to cover the gaps in whatever the MIT guys are teaching) in whatever you're learning, and to guarantee you'll always have intelligent questions for the real lecturer. 

For bonus points, the textbooks used at MIT won't be the same as the textbooks you're using.  But the material in any given course will have lots of overlap.  Those aren't bugs, they're features:  being able to figure out where to get the answers in your textbook from a guy who's teaching from a completely different textbook is a really useful skill.  It translates directly to Reality 101, where the only textbook is a combination of what's in your head and what you can find on the Internet, and the exam questions are constructed by random people at your workplace (bosses, subordinates, and customers alike) asking you for solutions to whatever they're working on at the moment.

Stop what you're doing and start working on the math.  You will need the math to do the physics.

If you're doing it for your own edification, rather than for any particular career goal, save yourself some money and use MIT's Open Courseware. 

Yes, the MIT.  1900 courses online.  Free.  As in "Free beer".  Everything from classical mechanics to three terms' worth of relativistic quantum field theory.  Hell, everything from feminist political theory to magnetohydrodynamic theory of fusion sytems. 

(Edit: And back on the math front, everything from basic linear algebra and single-variable calculus - which are gonna be the same courses no matter where you sit in on the lectures - to grad-level courses on manifold geometry, and if you can figure that stuff out, you don't need our help :)

You won't get a degree from using the MIT courseware stuff, but you might get an education.



Jess

This could be the way to go.  Foo's right, you need to have some math ability to do physics.  All the random stuff you did in high school that you might have wondered when you would use it in RL you use in physics.

So find a local college to do the General Science course and then look at a career (I think you mentioned Pharmacy Technician before?) and use the MIT stuff to feed your interest in Physics


Oh, that's the way I was going to go.  I didn't clarify it thoroughly, but I was thinking of starting way way WAY at the bottom, with a City College Associate's degree.  My understanding of math sucked when I was younger, but I'm chalking that up to my, "I'm going to ditch every class and to hell with learning anything" phase.  I know I have the mind to stick to it all now, without giving up.  Most of the City College courses I looked at involve a TON of math, no matter what Associate's degree you're trying for (I was thinking Associate Science, because you have to take math on top of math on top of math).  Unfortunately, the City Colleges do not offer anything in the way of online classes, so it looks like I'll have to hoof it to a campus. :D

Thanks for the information on MIT, Foo Bar.  I'll look that up at a better hour (rather than 2am my time), so I can go through it more thoroughly.  I didn't know MIT (that's pretty spectacular!) offered all of that stuff online.  I was more intent on looking at the lower end of online education.

I can't really explain why I'm so hell bent on Physics (I'm leaning towards Astrophysics, which sounds simpler than it actually is).  For the past 10 years, I've flaked and chickened out on different things that I've wanted to do with my life.  Yes, I could take the easy way out and go with Pharmacy Technician training, which would automatically give me job security wherever we went, but I'm not wanting that now.  I want something that will challenge me and expand my mind, and yeah, I won't be disappointed if I get to hang out and study the cosmos for a living.

I've been thinking long and hard about this all, wondering if it was just another phase I was going through, but the idea is still there, and it's not going away.  I know it will take forever and a day, especially given our finances (although I might get help with that), the fact that we might have to move when Rice is done with school, and the fact that we do want another child at some point in the near future.

I've told Rice already that most of this won't happen until the Autumn of 2010 at the latest.  I have to make plans, research financial aid, find out about daycare, plot a course of action, etc.  In the meantime, I'll check out the MIT link and satisfy my mind with that for now.  Waiting until 2010 will also give me enough time to really do some soul searching and all that jazz. ;D