

Berkeley and 2U to launch online data science degree - davelester
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/b93503a4-ed4c-11e2-ad6e-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fbusiness-education%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz2ZJYmKzAh

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glesica
Wait a second, $60,000 for a one-year program?! Wasn't online education
supposed to be cheaper to deliver, more efficient? They claim class sizes of
no more than 20, but this is a graduate program, small class sizes are the
norm in graduate school, so that's not really anything terribly impressive.
I'd really like to hear someone explain why this program is so expensive...

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changdizzle
It also looks like the other 2U online college program (MBA@UNC) is about
$93,500[1] over the course of the degree.

[1] [http://onlinemba.unc.edu/admissions/tuition-financial-
aid/](http://onlinemba.unc.edu/admissions/tuition-financial-aid/)

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narenl
IMO This is not targeted towards individuals applying on their own.

I went to a walkabout of a similar online education company's office and asked
them about the high cost for an online degree. The answer I received was

1\. there is demand for this and

2\. Most of the demand comes from people in the military serving in remote
locations or people working inside other large organizations which foot the
cost. and

3\. They provide online infrastructure to courses of schools like UC-B, UNC
etc and the colleges set the price so as not to dilute their "brand" because
the online degree does not mention the fact that the degree was obtained
online (this could have changed).

All in all, my initial shock was a bit tempered after hearing the realities
involving all 3 parties : the school, the student and the online enabler.

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1337biz
_which has tuition fees of $60,000_

Uhm, looks like they did get something wrong about the internet-degree thing.

