In general avoid courses offered buy for-profit colleges such as University of Phoenix, or the worthless “American Pubic University” (which is not public in any way). Take online courses either from reputable “brick & mortar” schools, or for non-profit purely online schools such as:

Athabasca U
Excelsior College
Western Governors U

1. As opposed to going to class at a specific time every week; with online, you work on your own time. There is no specific time you have to log on and do work, UNLESS it’s for tests or a paper/quiz is due at a certain time, etc.

2. I found online classes to be easier to deal with simply because all the information you need is there. All the study materials, the class roster, etc. You don’t have to worry about getting notes because you got sick and missed class; everything is online for you at all times.

3. The class roster is a good thing to have because you can find your online classmates on facebook or you can just email them and set up study groups and what not. I never found this necessary for my online classes, but I know ppl who have.

You’re basically getting the same education online as you would in class; only it’s less social, no oral presentations, it’s more self-taught, and you work on your own schedule. The downside is that some ppl forget the deadlines, test dates, or they get bored or find that they aren’t motivated enough to teach themselves.

I have never known anyone to complete the process in under 3 and a half years, and I know hundreds of PhDs.

However, residency requirements can vary. You might be done with your coursework by summer of 2008, and if you pass your language exams by then (you can usually take them anytime), then you might not be required to remain in residency. You could, for example, move elsewhere and then come back to campus for your qualifying exams when you are ready, and then come back yet again to defend your dissertation.

I took a fellowship out of state right after my comps, and then got a job as a visiting assistant professor right after that, so it took me a couple of years to finish my dissertation since I was teaching full time. So I just stayed in touch with my advisor and my committee members for a couple of years, and eventually returned to campus to defend.

1) Programs that will only accept students whose undergrad degrees are related to their proposed field of graduate study.

2) Programs that will give provisional acceptance to students with unrelated undergrad work but an otherwise promising record. Students in these programs will have to fulfill special requirements (e.g. taking some undergrad courses in the field or taking some specially-designed grad-level courses) before being granted regular status.

3) Programs that will accept any student with any undergrad major as long as they have a promising academic record.

Of course, having an undergrad major in the field you want to study in grad school makes your life easier because you have more grad school options open to you and you will have the background knowledge necessary to successfully complete your graduate degree (without having to struggle to gain that knowledge in the first semester or two of your grad program).