Since 1942, more than 12 million adults have earned GED diplomas. Still, today there are over 39 million adults without a high school diploma, and the demand for a high school education is higher than ever. Because of this, there is a growing demand for the GED. Meanwhile, the Internet has given us many new options… online shopping, online gaming, and online classes. More and more people are asking: Can I take the GED online?

The GED cannot be taken online or at home. A lot of learners ask, why not? It’s just a test, isn’t it? The GED is not really just a test. Passing the GED is a significant accomplishment; GED certificate holders have higher skills than a third of high school graduates. The 95% of colleges and employers that accept and value the GED need to know that a GED credential is a substantial, meaningful achievement. The GED test is designed to be a valuable measure of basic skills in reading, writing, social studies, science and math as well as important skills in critical thinking, evaluation, and problem solving. To ensure the validity of these measurements, the GED is administered in a controlled environment by a proctor, where the identity of all test-takers can be checked. The careful design and administration of the GED test gives it value to employers, colleges, and ultimately test-takers.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous businesses are always ready to take advantage of people who are looking for an easy way to make up for not graduating high school. Online “high school” tests and schools are often worthless “diploma mills,” cheating customers out of $200 to $1,000 for a diploma that will be rejected by savvy employers and colleges.

A real GED can increase adults’ overall income by $350,000 over the course of their lifetimes, and if GED graduates go on to trade school, community college, or a university, their total lifetime income could be almost a million dollars higher. The value of the GED comes not just from a piece of paper but from having the measurable GED skills that are essential in today’s job market.

I remember many years back how hard it was getting a good education, especially with all of the partying that was going on in the dorm rooms and how long it ook to find a parking spot at the university. That alone with the long drive to school usually took at least 2 hours out of my school day back and forth that I could have used studying and getting better grades. I was always wondering why couldnt there be a more efficient system of education or even a home schooling type of system to make better use of time so that it could be devoted more towards studying.

Then one day I was looking though my university website and found out that they were offering an online class on marketing websites through the internet. I decided to pay the 99 dollar fee and took the course. It took a few months but I did pass the course which gave me my basic knowledge on how to market websites online to make a profit. As online education has evolved it has been better able to provide a wider range of courses in which a student can receive a much better education online now then when I took my first online university class, but the one thing that both time frames have in common is the goal, and that is to save time and make education more efficient in time and conveniency.

These days you can even get a doctoral degree or a Masters degree online from a University that is highly accredited such as Keller Graduate School of Management which offered masters Degrees to student thats specialized in doing commerce over the internet, or the University of Nebraska at Kearney which offers very eclectic business oriented fields of knowledge ranging from international business to understanding very complex economic concepts. Just remember before signing up for any online educational course to do your due diligence on the college that is offering these courses to make sure that they are accredited and are valued by the more established land based universities as once you put in your time to get your online degree you cannot get that time or effort back.

Today’s homeschooling parents have many services available to help support the education of their children. By far one of the most important services used by today’s homeschooling parents are those provided by distance learning schools. An increasingly popular option for parents that homeschool their children, distance learning schools have grown both in reputation and quality over the past few years and are now in direct competition with traditional public and private schools.

Although some parents may be weary of allowing an external source to contribute to the education of their children, there are many benefits to making the decision to include a distance learning program in an existing homeschooling curriculum. Among the many advantages to the idea of distance learning schools are their flexibility, their ability to be individually tailored, the individual attention they give students, and the high rate of college admission that is associated with them.

• Officially Accredited - For most parents, the idea of homeschooling comes from a belief that traditional schools simply cannot provide their children with a proper education. For parents who are concerned about the quality of the education their children receive, distance learning schools, especially those that are fully accredited, can provide just the right curriculum that they are seeking. Having official accreditation makes distance learning schools legitimate, to the point where they now compete directly with traditional schools.

• Extremely Flexible - In addition to being accredited, distance learning schools also offer the benefit of flexibility. Unlike traditional schools that are required to operate in a specific manner, distance learning schools can be individually tailored to the needs, cognitive or otherwise, of the students they serve. If a student has a particular deficiency, or a specific learning style that works best for him or her, a distance learning school has the freedom and flexibility to tailor the education and the curriculum to each individual student.

• Individually Tailored - Unlike the curriculum at a traditional school, the curriculum at a distance learning school can be individually tailored, both for the content and for the pace. If a student is particularly proficient in a subject, a distance learning program can allow him or her to move through the material at a faster pace in comparison to a traditional school where students have to follow a particular pace, regardless of proficiency.

• Personal Attention - Whereas a traditional school may not have the time or resources to provide individual and personal attention, a distance learning school can. Since programs of study are individually designed for one student, help is always readily available, unlike traditional schools where classrooms might contain 30 to 40 students.

• Higher SAT Scores - The individual attention, personally tailored programs, flexible scheduling, and accredited curricula all add up to increased success in the classroom and on standardized tests. In fact, some accredited distance learning programs have successfully produced students whose test scores are significantly higher than both the state and the national averages.

Ways to limit borrowing of funds required to study a BSBA include finding a degree course that balances quality with economy. Do a little bit of research and you will be surprised what you will find.

Top 8 tips:

1. Go for a DETC accredited university or community college without fail.

2. Choose a degree course at a university or community college where points can be transferred to other universities that may carry extra prestige, and save you a sizeable amount of money.

3. Try CLEP (http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html) and DANTES testing (www.dantes.doded.mil/) in order to meet some of the requirements

4. Don’t study a course that offers a degree within 2 weeks or 5 days or 3 months. This simply cannot be done so fast and is evidence enough that the degree pretty worthless.

5. Make sure the online degree you want to study, such as the BSBA, is at least a 40 course program with testing at the end of each course. The course will usually be spread over 3 semesters.

6. Take a free online FEMA course in emergency management. This course is transcribed by Frederick Community College for $60 per credit. Exams are open book and you may be able to transfer up to 1 year’s worth of credits.

7. Study at Clovis Community College for $37 per credit-hour. This is an in-state or out-of-state course with online exams and no proctor/proctor fee. This is regionally accredited too.

8. Mix and match courses across several universities. Often universities partner up and cross-promote courses, allowing students to take advantage of better deals and study periods often reduced in length when points are transferred.

Try this for a solution:

If you are starting with no credits you can earn a regionally accredited/AACSB-accredited Bachelor of Science in Business Administration through the University of Wyoming.

1. Review the BSBA curriculum sheet here: http://business.uwyo.edu/AAO/CurriculumSheet/BSAD%20(4).pdf

2. You’ll require 60 lower-level semester hours in certain classes. Check out Arizona Western College (2 courses for $258 per semester) and Clovis Community College (2 courses at $324 per semester). The most expensive would be around $3,300 from a community college for the first couple of years. Take two courses from each semester from Arizona Western and Clovis.

3. Two interesting statements from the document in item 1 above.

“Minimum of 48 semester hours of junior-senior-level courses. 30 of the 48 hours must be earned from UW.”

“50% of the business credit hours must be from the University of Wyoming.”

Based on 120 semester hours, that works out at 30 semester hours. So we have the backend covered for $4,050. Ten classes from University of Wyoming at $135 per semester hour (this includes fees) for 30 semester hours = $4,050. Our total now is at $7,350.

4. Take 10 classes at Louisiana State University, totaling approx. $2,300. Select only classes numbered 3000 and above for the upper-level credit. Apply to the degree plan. You must also pay proctoring fees for examinations.

You can study a BSBA for around $10,000 but the name of the game is to transfer.

Do your homework and you will be surprised what deals and surprises you will find.