My previous job morphed from being something quite interesting, to a company running a jobs website that sold education leads. Before I left, I ran the traffic to a website selling education leads. It was many of the big online players. You should be aware that many of these schools had a pretty shady business model. Their students would get student loans, fail to finish their degrees, and default on their loans. That was Ok from the schools point of view, because for a year or two the schools were charging fairly high tuition rates. They were essentially programs for transferring money from the federal government (in the form of loans) to the schools. These are the so-called "for profit" schools. It is not their "for profit"-ness that was the problem, if you will, but the way they treated their students. The government is starting to really crack down on these abusive practices (bad for both students and the government). Many of the students were of a fairly low income background, who had never been to college. There are a number of news documentaries about this, under the "for-profit" label. It seemed from me, on the outside, that most of these students would have been better served taking classes for much less at a local community college.

I am only aware of SNHU in the sense that they were buying leads in the same space as the for-profit companies. You are right that technically they seem to be a traditional non-profit college, that has started an online program. However, that online program seems to be the tail wagging the dog in this case.....

http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2012/so...

I am not saying that they are bad - I certainly don't know that. But before I signed up, I would spend a few evening Googling their specific reputation. I would worry that this school is simply trying to hide the same "for profit" motives in a non-profit cover. I know there are other players that are doing this exact thing, by taking over a small traditional school. In particular, find out what their graduation and retention rates are for their online students. What educational backgrounds do the students have? Is their program going to be of a quality that you'll be happy with?

There are a lot of very shady schools in this space. Make dead sure that you're not getting into something you'll regret. I guess, in short, Caveat emptor, there are lot of bad online degree programs.

Feel free to contact me directly (email in profile) if you have any other questions.