They differ in the amount of ''face time'' spent on campus. Requirements range from none at Colorado State to nine weeks to graduate from Syracuse. Ohio University students take part in annual weeklong ''residencies,'' presenting projects and attending lectures that lay the foundation for coming coursework. Business partnerships are frequently forged,'' says Richard Milter, director of Ohio University's MBA Without Boundaries program. Admission to most distance programs requires students to be employed and have an average of 10 years' work experience.
Employers often cover the cost, which can be steep.
You're going to get the same training, regardless of the method of delivery,'' says Thomas Russell, director of the office of instructional communications at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. And distance students have the advantage of melding work and school projects. Henze, for example, designed a statistical program that analyzes customer preferences, getting high marks from both her professor and boss. It takes greater effort because of the amount of self-discipline required to do the work,'' Russell says. As a result, distance learning programs tend to have far higher dropout rates.