My girlfriend is looking into taking a few university courses by mail, but has reservations. She wanted me to ask you wonderful people if you’ve done it and you’ve had good experiences.
I think one of the things she’s worried about is how it looks on paper to see that you got a university degree by mail. I guess she equates that as something prisoners do.
I haven’t done it personally but one of my uncles has. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s through correspondence courses. The degree on paper doesn’t say correspondence degree or such. He was a truck driver when he did it and managed to buy a lot of his text books and such on tape and learned them by rote driving long haul across the country. He didn’t have time to attend a regular university and support himself then but it wasn’t important. After he finished his master’s degree in criminology he got a job as a probation officer (maybe there is something to your statement that prisoners do it often… or at least people associated with them) and is now going to a physical school for his doctorates. It took him a bit longer but the places he applied for only looked for a degree not where he got it from as most places in the real world do.
I proctored exams for my neighbor. She got her degree in Nutrition Science and immediately got a job in her field. Make sure the school is legit and not just a diploma mill and you should have no problems.