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Post University
Lilly Stokes
Elementary school teacher/child protective services worker in Germany
Bachelor’s degree in biology
Post University
As a student in Germany at the University of Vienna in Austria, Lilly Stokes dreamed of going to the United States to absorb the wonders of American culture and sharpen her English skills at the same time. She was also looking to continue her studies in equine science that she began in Germany. Stokes found the perfect on-campus program at Post University, a college she was attracted to for its small size and reputable equine science program. She completed two fun-filled semesters at Post, but eventually discovered that her real calling was in veterinary studies, so she switched her major to biology to better prepare for a transition into graduate school. It was in the biology program that she found herself too busy to take all of her classes on campus and decided to enroll in a couple of Post University’s online courses – statistics and algebra — at the advice of her advisor.
The two classes were Stokes’ first experience taking online classes, and she quickly learned that her online classmates were made up of not only her fellow on-campus students, but also students from across the U.S. She said she was pleased with how Post’s online classes helped her to better fit her classes into her busy schedule by allowing her to work on school in the evenings, especially since she was taking a total of six courses, which is a heavy course load by most college students’ standards. “What I liked about the online classes was that I could work on the assignments whenever I had time,” Stokes said. “I was captain of the dressage team [a competitive equestrian sports team] and therefore was always busy, and I was happy to be able to do the work late at night.”
While Stokes said she preferred on-campus courses overall, she pointed out that online courses had their perks. For instance, sometimes she was able to finish all of her assignments for the week for an online class in one day and then have the rest of the week off to relax from that class. “It was nice not to go to class and to work on the assignments whenever I wanted to!” Stokes said.
While not being able to speak with her online professors face to face was a challenge, she did point out that communicating via writing allowed her more time to look over what she wrote to make sure she was using correct English, helping to alleviate the language barrier a bit. Also, Stokes said exams in her online courses were more convenient because she could choose when she wanted to take them, and could take the exam alone instead of in a classroom. On the other hand, Stokes pointed out that her online courses required more assignments every week than her on-campus courses.
These assignments included weekly exams, short essays, and participation in regular discussions. Since her courses were in algebra and statistics, most of her assignments involved solving math problems, and she always had a week to complete them. Her online professors also gave her research questions where she had to solve a problem or a case using algebra or statistical evidence, depending on the course. Overall, Stokes’ online courses helped her to better manage a heavy on-campus semester, and to reach her goal of graduating with a bachelor’s degree.
She summed up her experience at Post University as the best time in her life. Some high points included the trips to places like Boston and New York that Post gave as an option to students, and the fact that her professors happily offered to take her and fellow students on trips to experience American culture in their free time. Stokes enjoyed her experience so much that she has visited the Post campus four times since she’s graduated. While she currently lives and works two jobs in Kaiserslautern, Germany — one as an elementary school teacher and the other as a child protective services worker — she said she’s thinking about going back to the U.S. to work because she had such a great time as a student here.
