EVEN in these days of the Internet, there are still people who would opt to take up their full undergraduate studies consisting of eight academic semesters in a traditional correspondence school. There are still several places in the country which do not have any Internet connection, even wirelessly, because they are too far from any cable wire or DSL central office. They can be reached through satellite though but this is not feasible because the speed of a satellite Internet connection is akin to that of dialup and it is too costly at $69 per month.

So people in the boondocks who would want to enhance their career opportunities need to take up college in a correspondence school. They do not want to go down to the urban centers and take up college here because of the lot of expenses involved in four or five years of studying. There’s the boarding rent, not to mention all the utility expenses associated with it. You have to spend for your own food whereas in the rural areas, all you need is eat at whatever is served on the table by your parents.

This does not happen in the cities. In the cities, you have to spend for electricity, water and landline expenses. You also have to spend for your cell phone bills. In the rural areas, one doesn’t need to spend for mobile phone expenses anyway because the carrier signal doesn’t simply reach there. Besides, one needs to text his or her classmates in a traditional college for advice related to the lesson of the day. This is not true in distance learning. In correspondence education, one doesn’t need to communicate with his or her classmates as each individual student is sent letters per week. The letters contain the lessons of the week and the quizzes of the previous week which must be mailed back. Therefore, all you need to spend is the weekly mailing of quizzes.

Also in a traditional college, one must spend for other extra things in your dormitory room such as a gaming console or LCD television or high definition DVD player. You can have that too in your own home in the boondocks but then again, they belong to your parents.

Other things that you have to spend when in a traditional college are money for the snacks and meals at the college campus cafeteria and the transportation in going from your dormitory to the school and back. Also in the cities, you cannot definitely turn yourself from temptations of luxuries such as going shopping in the mall, hanging out with classmates by the beach or simply chilling the wee hours of weekend nights in your car with a beer or two.

Anyway, nothing is different from the degree you will achieve between a traditional college and a correspondence school. The catch is that there are some traditional colleges and universities nationwide now offering a distance learning counterpart. Tuition of these reputable educational institutions can be costly but not as expensive as when you are really enrolled in a classroom setting type of program.