You're one of the lucky ones. You know what field you want to study. You've been passionate about criminal justice for almost as long as you can remember, reading true crime books as a teenager and watching television crime dramas every night. You even know that you want to get your criminal justice degree online because you want the flexibility of being able to work on your degree from remote locations. You feel like you're ahead of the game. Many people don't know what they want to study or what kind of college is right for them. But now you're stuck and you're not quite sure what to do about it. There are too many different types of criminal justice degrees to choose from and you aren't quite sure which will lead you to the career you'll love.

The good news is that you've done the hard part already. You've found your passion. Now you just need to take a look at your work habits, your career aspirations and your school preferences. These thinks will tell you what kind of criminal justice degree online program is right for you. By narrowing down your focus on specific careers and the length of time that you'd ideally like to spend in school, you can determine what type of degree is best for you. You may find that all you need is an Associate's and you'll be ready for your dream job. Or you might find that six years of school is just skimming the surface of meeting your educational goals. Answering some tough questions about yourself now will help you figure out where you are on the spectrum of criminal justice study.

The first thing to ask yourself is what kind of job in criminal justice you might enjoy. It may be that you be happy working as an assistant to a lawyer. If so, a program that allows you to get a paralegal degree could be where you want to start with getting your criminal justice degree online. Perhaps you know that you'll be satisfied with nothing less than being able to do consulting on criminal justice research projects. In that case, you may need to get an advanced degree through a criminal justice degree online program. If you happen to have an idea what kind of job you want to do, you'll be able to find the right program fairly easily.

If you don't know what you want to do, that's okay. You probably do know some basic information about yourself. Think about your education preferences and your work habits. If you start an extensive program, will you finish it or will you get bored? If you know that nothing holds your attention for more than a year or two, you'll want to look at short-term certificates or a criminal justice online Associate's degree. In contrast, if you really love school but aren't quite ready for the working world, you may want to spend a number of years in school getting advanced degrees so that you can postpone getting out there in the real world and doing your job.

It can be extremely frustrating to get stalled in the process of moving forward in obtaining your dream job. However, when you look at the big picture, you'll see that it's not as big of a dilemma as it may feel like it is. If you already know that you want to get a criminal justice degree online, you really have figured out the most difficult part of the program. Selecting the specifics just requires making a few choices and being honest with yourself. You'll have that job in no time.

About the Author

Andy West is a writer for Virginia College. VC Online offers an accredited Criminal Justice Degree Online program. Please visit Virginia College Online at http://www.vconline.edu/site/department.cfm?Department_ID=2 .