Guide to Online Education > Online Education In-Depth > Meet Real Online Students > Terry, M.S. in Computer Information Systems
Name: Terry Parnell
Age: 44
Children: Two
Current Location: Boston
Advice to Online Students: "Distance learning requires just as much, if not more, work as a land-based degree program."
School: Regis University
Target: Master's in Computer Information Systems, 2003
Because engineering is a computer-intensive field, having his Bachelor's degree in the field was a huge plus for him. But getting the Master's degree 12 years later in computer information systems has allowed him to take advantage of better employment opportunities. He says he has gotten jobs with more responsibility and a pay increase of about 25 percent along the way. He is currently a systems engineer in the transportation industry, and his job involves high-level hardware and software design.
Although he is pleased with where he is education-wise, he says he would still like to still like to go into embedded SW programming.
We asked Terry about his experiences as a distance learning student, including some of the challenges and perks of learning online.
What was your biggest challenge as a distance learning student?
Getting used to the distance-learning environment was the biggest challenge for me. Although classmates and professors were available by email, IM, chat, board discussions, fax, online conferencing, and telephone, it's quite a change going from a physical classroom to an online environment.
What is the best thing about distance learning?
Distance learning has allowed me to concentrate on my academics with less distractions than there would be in a traditional classroom.
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