Hi,
I am enrolled in in the online MSW program at BU and I wanted to put my two cents into this discussion. The BU program costs about half of what the USC online MSW costs ($40,000 vs. $80,000). The BU program is proving to be very rigorous... far more challenging than I could have imagined and I am very pleased with this. You are required to have a field placement and field supervision that is just as extensive as it would be if you were physically attending school. In addition to the field work, you are required to have almost daily contact with your classmates and instructors/professors and there is a lot of reading and writing with in depth assignments due each week. I am finding that I have more contact and more of a relationship with the professors than I would in a classroom situation. I have several degrees at this point in my life, I have a degree from Boston College, Hunter College and many, many classes from local city and state colleges. In comparison, I would say that the quality of instruction in the BU program is superior to a classroom situation in a state school. It seems to me that BU is intent on not degrading the reputation of their SSW program through this new venture.
In addition to all of this, there are many benefits to doing an online program depending on where you are in your life. As a mother with a job and a mortgage in the Bay Area, I couldn't afford to stop working and go back to school. Yes, I am taking out student loans to pay the tuition but if I went to UC Berkeley I would have to stop working so even if the tuition were free it would cost me more than the BU program.
Time is another factor. With children, I don't have time to go to school every night. With an online program, I can be in school at 2 am if that is what works for me.
I read a lot of deprecating comments about online degrees in these forums and I can see the point if we are talking about a degree from an online diploma mill. On the other hand, times have changed. Online technology and distance learning are quickly becoming legitimate learning environments and though I was initially skeptical, I have been won over. I am doing more work than I ever did in a classroom environment. As far as job prospects and the bias of others, getting an online degree from BU will look just like any other degree from BU... it doesn't say on your transcript that your work was done online!
All in all, I am more than pleased with this program.