Hello everybody. I've posted here a few times, but this time it's more questions about the Open University. I'm thinking doing my degree through the OU might be best. Even with a few scholarships my undegrad degree is just too expensive here in the UK (I'm a dual american/british citizen, but haven't lived in the UK for 3 years yet). So unless there's a miracle of money in the next year, the OU sounds realy good. So a few questions for those of you with experience with the OU.
1) How long has it (or will it) taken to complete your undegrad degree? I read that one course at a time is good to start out with, but is 2 courses at once managable? If I could do 2 courses at a time I could finish the degree in 3 years, not too bad really.
2) How much local tutoring/interaction did you receive? Some of the course seem purely through the computer, but most mention local tutoring and I'd like to know what this is like.
3) Did you feel challenged by the material in the course? I did some distance learning for my associate's degree in the US, and some of the courses were excellent.
4) Did you feel as if you missed out on anything by learning through the OU vs a traditional uni?
5) Do you think studying 1-2 courses at a time and working full-time is managable? I don't have children and would need to work full-time like I did while studying in the US, so I'm just wondering if it's feasable and I won't burn-out much.
I'm just so anxious to get back into uni again. I was supposed to have started this month, but without a co-signer for my loans and with how much international student fees are, I just couldn't get the funding together. Right now I'm in the UK, but I have to head back to the US in a few weeks to sort out a few final moving things. If it helps to know the situation, my boyfriend is here in the UK. After spending the last 6 weeks here (after many many visits over the last 5 years) I definitely know this is where I want to be. Moving just feels slightly complicated. Need to get a NI number, find a job, a place to live, sort out school. But I'm up for a challenge. Any help/advice you can give is so greatly appreciated. Personal accounts of moving to the UK and starting work and uni would be great as well. Thanks.
Liberty
