Is Online Learning Worth It?

Andrew Nektalov, a Baruch College senior majoring in business administration, spends most of his days chained to his computer at home in Forest Hills, Queens. Juggling a job and remote schoolwork, he has started to wonder about the value of finishing his education. “I have to work almost every day, and that excludes my education at Baruch,” said Nektalov. “The more this semester goes on, the more I come to the realization that the value I am getting for this current education is not equivalent to the price for the semester. Maybe I should have just worked at J.P. Morgan full-time.”

Nektalov’s complaints have been echoed by other students in the CUNY system who feel disgruntled with the pricing of the Fall 2020 semester. They wonder if remote learning is worth it.  

Since the start of the Spring 2020 CUNY semester, the students of the CUNY system have undergone a massive change in the routine of their typical learning, moving from in-person class sessions to remote studies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New York residents pay just under $7,000 for undergraduate studies at CUNY, while out-of-state tuition costs $18,600. As students continue their second semester of online classes, some ask themselves if they might be better off finding a job.     

Andi Rustani, a pharmaceutical medicine major, currently attends Hunter College. He attends Zoom classes from his home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and has grown increasingly frustrated with remote studies. “Well, personally, I believe the online learning methods are ineffective due to lack of genuine human interaction,” he said. “Learning is better in person for me.”

Rustani struggles with the high cost of his education during this pandemic. “I would say it is definitely not worth it to go to college at this time,” he said. “If I knew things would stay like this, then I would have worked full-time. The price of online education should never be equivalent to the price of in-person education.”

Nektalov agrees with Rustani. “I find it absurd that the price of tuition will more than likely be the same for the next semester, because it will also more than likely be the same type of learning we are doing now,” he said. “With the current situation I am in now, I am better off going into a career than finishing school. It is a lot of money.”

Nektalov mourns the time he was able to go to class and learn from a professor in person, absorbing all the knowledge organically and getting the full college experience. “I miss being able to go back into the classroom,” he said. “Being at college is more than just the knowledge one takes in. It is also the experience in which we are learning, and that is the one thing I really miss about college.”