Personal Qualities Needed

Whether or not you get a high-quality education away from an ivy-covered university is up to you. While it's always preferable to have a good teacher to guide you in your students, true learning is not something that is done to you by someone else. Education is something you do to yourself. These are some of the personal qualities that can help you reach your goal:

• Self-direction - Can you get down to work on projects without having someone hovering over your shoulder giving you prods and reminders?
• Self correction - Without much immediate feedback about your studies, can you be objectively critical about your work? Are you able to independently check for and correct errors in your assignments?
• Self-containment - Can you maintain a high level of interest in your studies without much interaction with other students or teachers?
• Self-discipline - When the schoolwork becomes difficult, or the other demands on your time become onerous, can you still force yourself to sit down and study?
• Motivation - Do you have a clear idea of why you are pursuing a distance degree? This path to a university degree is going to make special demands on you and your family and you should have a clear goal if you want to stay motivated.
• Curiosity and interest - Are you curious about your field of study? If you have no intellectual curiosity or basic interest in what you are doing, you will find it difficult to stay motivated and disciplined.
• Self-pardoning - You can cnount on making mistakes or having a few false starts in your studies. Are you able to forgive yourself, reset our goals, and start again? If you are the kind of person who gets discouraged after one mistake or an initial failure, you are probably not the best candidate for a distance program.
• Forgiving of others - You can also count on your family and friends making some mistakes. No matter how understanding and accommodating they promise to be, it takes time for them to adjust to your study schedule. Can you forgive their initial slip-ups if they are honestly behind you?