online school for criminal justice

 hey everyone john here today i'm going

to be covering five important factors to

consider before enrolling in a criminal

justice degree program online I know how

stressful it can be trying to decide

among all the different online

universities out there especially

considering how important your education

is and the impact it can have on the

rest of your life but luckily for you

I'm gonna cut out all the noise and

really dig into the key decision factors

that truly matter so you can figure out

which online criminal justice degree

program is the right fit for your

particular situation so if you're ready

let's get to it

alright so before I dive into the

factors I should just mention upfront

here that if any point during this video

you feel like you need some more

information make sure to check the

the description below I'll drop links in the

the text below the video screen over to a

bunch of helpful sources guides and

resources so you'll definitely want to

check that out as you continue your

research also if you find this video

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up button and drop us a quick comment

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okay so let's get right to it so the

The first thing you should do is take some

time and really think about what you

want to do with a degree in criminal

justice what is your ultimate goal is to

become a police officer private

investigator crime scene specialist

forensic psychologist youth correctional

counselor, there are a ton of different

options the point is that you first need

to nail down what exactly it is you want

to do or specialize in this will help

you figure out which criminal justice

degree program best aligns with your

personal objectives that way as you

start to do your research you can start

identifying what I call x factors among

all these different online universities

and their degree programs

and by x factors, I'm talking about the

specific attributes offerings and

curriculum that aligns with your personal

goals so think of different concentration

options do the university offer a

specific concentration in the area or

niche in which you're most interested

how many elective credits are there as

part of that degree track that way you

can really zero in on the topics that

you're most passionate about are there

any specific criminal justice

certifications that are integrated into

the degree program so you can further

boost your resume does the university

have a military transfer credit program

or maybe your ultimate goal is to earn a

master's degree after completing your

bachelor's in that case you'll likely

want to check out online universities

that offer an accelerated bachelor's to

master's pathway Purdue university

global which is a popular national

an online university is a perfect example

of this essentially you can work towards

a master's degree in public

administration educational psychology

human services or legal studies while

you earn your bachelor's degree in

criminal justice this way you can

complete both degrees in less time and

at a lower cost than completing both

separately so the big takeaway here is

that by spending time upfront thinking

about your end goals and objectives

it'll help you identify which programs

might be a good fit for you personally

okay so once you have a good idea of

what your best fit degree program looks

like you need to consider admission

requirements in the application process

so online universities generally fall

into one of two buckets either open

enrollment or selective enrollment

selective enrollment schools are the

more traditional types of universities

that probably come to mind when you hear

the word college things stand for yale

university of texas these types of

universities tend to have stringent

admission requirements you'll likely

need a minimum GPA a good sat or act

score and write a personal statement

among other things so if you have a

strong academic background and you don't

mind jumping through a few hoops in

order to get accepted into a top-ranked

criminal justice program then you may

want to focus your research on selective

enrollment schools

just keep in mind though the acceptance

rates at selective enrollment schools

can be low there's definitely no

guarantee that you'll get in so you may

also want to consider an open enrollment

university these types of schools are

great for students who may not have the

strongest academic background or for

people who may have been in the military

or workforce for a while and are now

looking to go back to school since the

only admission requirement depending on

the program at open enrollment schools

typically it's just that students have a

high school diploma or GED so if this

type of admissions process is more

aligned with your background or current

situation i'd recommend checking out

Purdue university global I'll be using

them for example purposes throughout

this video since they're a well-known

national online university i'll go ahead

and drop a link down below in the

description over to Purdue global so you

can get a better feel for what the

application and admissions process is

like at an open enrollment college

okay the third and quite possibly most

important factor to consider is pricing

and affordability what is an online

bachelor's degree in criminal justice

going to cost and as you might imagine

there are a few factors to consider here

the first thing i would do is look at

the university's tuition per credit rate

and the number of credits required for

graduation doing some quick back of the

envelope math will give you a good idea

of the total cost to earn your criminal

justice screen typically national online

universities will either require 120 or

180 credits to graduate and then in

terms of pricing it typically ranges

between about 250 per credit on the low

end all the way up to 550 per credit on

the high end though this depends on the

universities you're considering as well

as other factors like whether you're in

state versus out of state an

international student part of the

military and more and then on top of

those standard tuition costs online

universities typically charge other fees

and assessments as well that you're

definitely going to want to watch out

for these include technology fees

transcript fees learning assessments

graduation fees etc sometimes these

secondary costs can really add up so

it's worth looking into prior to

enrolling

now while we're on the topic of

affordability there are two more factors

to keep in mind one is allowable

transfer credits you'll definitely want

to research this if you have credits

left over from a college course you've

taken in the past this is a great way to

reduce the overall cost of your degree

program for example at purdue university

global they allow students to transfer

up to 75 of the total credits required

for graduation and the average

bachelor's graduate earns their degree

in about two years

of course each online university has

their own transfer policies and rules so

you'll definitely want to do your own

research but i at least wanted to make

you aware of this

now the other thing to look for here are

trial periods in some cases online

universities allow you to do a free

trial run before you go and plop down

thousands of dollars in tuition for

example once again at purdue global they

offer a no financial obligation

three-week trial period so essentially

you can enroll take classes for three

weeks see if you like it and then decide

whether you want to continue or opt out

with no tuition cost which i think is a

pretty cool option for students who are

maybe on the fence for more information

about how these trial periods work check

down below in the description i'll have

a link down there over to purdue

university global they'll walk you

through everything

okay the next factor to consider is

financial aid and i'm not talking about

student loans because at the end of the

day pretty much anyone can go out and

source themselves a federal or private

student loan instead what's more

important and interesting to look at is

the average amount of institutional aid

that universities provide directly in

other words what percentage of new

beginning full-time students get grants

or scholarships from the actual

university and not third-party sources

and what is the average amount of that

aid this will give you a good idea of

what your chances are of securing funds

from the university to help you reduce

the overall cost of earning your degree

and yes that type of information is

publicly available if you're wondering

you can actually get this data directly

from us department of education, I'll

go ahead and drop a link down below in

the description over to the us

department of education's website so you

can check what the stats are for the

a specific university that you're

interested in

okay before moving on from the topic of

financial aid i should mention that some

national online universities also offer

different incentives and promotions to

keep students motivated after they first

enroll in most cases these incentives

are called progress scholarships welcome

grants or something to that effect and

essentially how they work is that if you

stay continuously enrolled at the

university and meet some other basic

eligibility requirements schools will

often reduce your tuition rate in order

to keep you motivated and on track to

earn your degree

and the other item you should inquire

about is tuition locks some online

universities lock in the tuition rate

for the duration of your degree program

once you enroll this means there won't

be any surprise tuition hikes down the

road so definitely make sure to ask if

one of these options is available to you

during the application process

okay so the final factor on my list

today that you should consider prior to

enrolling is program format but before i

cover that i should mention that every

single month here at test prep insight

we give away a 500 scholarship to one

lucky subscriber just as a way of saying

thank you and to help ease the financial

burden of higher education it's super

simple to enter i'll drop all the

details down below in the description

it'll take you less than 10 seconds to

enter in hey you never know you could

win 500 to help pay for your criminal

justice degree

okay so back to program format or in

other words how the courses and terms

are structured or scheduled in my

experience most online degree programs

fall into one of three buckets short

accelerated terms traditional school

terms and self-paced so in that first

category of short accelerated terms some

online universities work off five to six

week terms in which students take one

course at a time or sometimes two max

the courses move very swiftly but the

nice thing here is that you only have to

focus on one class at a time you don't

have to juggle three or four courses at

once so if you're the type of student

who maybe has trouble multitasking or

staying organized and on schedule then

this type of program format might be a

good fit for you assuming you have the

free time for a compressed schedule

now the second type of format is the

more classic college experience that

you're probably used to in which you

take two to five classes per term this

is your typical quarter or semester

system where terms usually last anywhere

from eight to twelve weeks i'd say the

majority of online universities fall

into this bucket so if you want a more

typical traditional hired schedule even

if part time i'd focus your research on

these types of program formats purdue

global which i've mentioned several

times already follows this format they

offer 10-week terms in which each

program requires a weekly commitment of

around 15 to 18 hours on average again

the link for purdue global will be down

below in the description they have some

helpful information on their website

regarding how their courses and terms

are structured so you can get a better

feel for this type of program format

okay so last up here i want to cover the

self-paced learning formats that seem to

be picking up steam in recent years

essentially with these types of degree

programs you can take courses at your

own speed and move on to the next course

whenever you're ready so if you want to

tackle multiple courses at a time and

fly through the degree program as

quickly as possible you can in as little

as 15 to 18 months in some cases

or if you have other obligations like a

full-time job or young children and you

can only spare a few hours per week you

can slow it down and study at your own

pace so bottom line if you're super busy

or you have a hectic chaotic schedule

that is constantly changing this type of

self-paced program might be a great fit

and sometimes there are schools that

offer both types of degree formats

purdue university global being one of

them you can earn your criminal justice

degree following the traditional bath

that i covered a minute ago where

there's 10 week terms or for select

students purdue global offers what they

call their excel track which is a

perfect example of the self-paced degree

format where you're in the driver's seat

and that about does it for this video i

know making a decision about something

as important as your education is

extremely difficult so i hope this was

some helpful advice around online

universities and gives you some guidance

in finding a criminal justice degree

program that fits your specific goals

budget and learning preferences again if

you want to learn more about online

criminal justice degree programs be sure

to check out the description below i'll

have a bunch of helpful information down

there for you including guides and

resources related to scholarships and

financial aid for you to check out

also if you're interested in another

degree area outside of criminal justice

be sure to check out the rest of the

videos on our youtube channel we have a

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