A post in 3 parts by Jaemi Sawyer, Guest Blogger. Jaemi is a Marketing Manager in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area. She is currently a student at Franklin Pierce University eCollege.

My online bachelor’s degree experience: If only I knew then what I know now.

There are so many reasons why people to return to college to get their degree, whether it is to finish a bachelor’s degree or get their MBA or graduate degree. I have to be honest: At first, my reason for going back was strictly peer pressure. Yep, I was sick and tired of being at Young Professionals mixers or even at bars or parties, where the first question out of people’s mouths was, “So where did you go to school? I went to… [fill in your fancy school here].” After all, this is Washington, D.C.

So I decided it was time to go back to school and finish my degree— and what better way than online, right? I could work on my own schedule; I could go to some fancy school at half the cost… all the prestige without having to leave my living room. Wrong!

I decided to enroll in the online college at Franklin Pierce University. I had attended this school on campus for several semesters and I figured that I could breeze right through the online program. I had no problem getting in. I told my counselor to put me on the fastest degree completion track with the credits I already had, which ended up being a Bachelor of Science in General Studies. (So now I tell people I am getting my B.S. in B.S.) But one of the lessons I quickly learned was: the online program is not half the cost of the campus program. When I realized that I was going to be $24,000 in debt after two years of college, I almost had a heart attack. The good news was that my counselor was really helpful and I was able to qualify for financial aid—so I might be in debt later but no money had to come out of my pocket to enroll. Comparing online college to live-and-in-person college, I think I might actually end up spending more for my online program. If you factor in the cost of the Internet and the time an online degree takes, you are much more financially and personally invested.