| As an online student, I've read many topics on various websites asking this same question. Most of the time the consensus is that most employers won't care where you graduated from as long as you can show them proof of your programming ability. Whether this is in the form of a portfolio or the result of acing a programming interview depends on the employer/interviewer. An exception to this rule that I happen to know a little about is the government sector. If you want to work for the government, sometimes the particular position will require a degree, sometimes it won't. The good news is that for almost all government jobs, they don't care where you get your degree from as long as it is accredited by an institution recognized by the department of education. While the government doesn't care about the particular type of accreditation, you should. There are two types of accreditation that matter in the United States, regional and national. While it might be counter intuitive, national accreditation is not the most prestigious. If you want to ensure that your degree will be accepted by pretty much any employer on the planet, you should get a regionally accredited degree. National accreditation is becoming more accepted, but unfortunately some employers look at national accreditation as "inferior." This attitude is even more prevalent in the education system itself, as most universities will not accept transfer credit from a school that is not regionally accredited. My advice to you would be to find a regionally accredited, school with a good curriculum. There are many online schools so you should be able to find one that meets your requirements. Because you have obtained multiple degrees, and because you have a good amount of experience, you could probably even find an online school that will accept you directly into a master's program. Disclaimer: I personally don't have a problem with nationally accredited schools. There are "diploma mills" that are regionally accredited so its ridiculous to claim that regional accreditation is better. There are also some nationally accredited schools that get a bad reputation even thought they can be just as good if not better than a regionally accredited school. I went to an online school that was nationally accredited for about a semester, the classes were challenging and I felt that I worked hard for my grades. When I wanted to change my major, I couldn't find a regionally accredited school that would accept the credit. |
Thanks for the input. I was not aware of the regional/national accreditation differences.