The huge abundance of online universities offering distance learning online degree programs is truly staggering. They seem to have popped up like so many virtual mushrooms.

Don't let appearances fool you, though. The ultramodern Web sheen these online universities have given themselves belies the fact that they and their degree programs enjoy histories that go back decades, if not centuries.

Standing out among its rival online universities is Bryant & Stratton College, whose online degree programs represent only the newest facet of a tradition that has shown with gem-like brilliance since 1854.

Part of this tradition - which, though it has since come to include online degree programs, began in the old-fashioned brick-and-mortar days - owes to the fact that Bryant & Stratton College has always been ahead of the curve in terms of developments in the higher education industry. "Through individual institutions and admirable text-books the sphere and limit of business education have been as clearly defined as those of law, medical, and theological schools," writes Cheesman Abiah Herrick in his 1904 book, "Meaning and Practice of Commerical Education." This state of being clearly defined owes in no small part to the pioneering efforts of Bryant & Stratton College in this area.

These efforts on the part of Bryant & Stratton College were not in vain; Bryant & Stratton College has graduated some legendary talent. Most notable among Bryant & Stratton College alums are the giants of industry, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford. "Tall and lanky, with sandy-colored hair, John dreamed of becoming the first Rockefeller to attend college," writes Grant Segall in his 2001 biography, "John D. Rockefeller: Anointed with Oil." "So the boy ... spent three months at a more specialized college than he'd had in mind: a commercial college about to merge with the flagship of the Bryant and Stratton business schools."

Already in the time of Rockefeller Bryant & Stratton College had big ambitions for itself. "These schools would sweept the country soon," continues Segall. "For a onetime fee of $40, students ... studied bookkeeping, banking, business ethics, and more."

This "more" has come to be a whole lot more. Though Bryant & Stratton College remains business-oriented in terms of its curriculum, it has expanded its course offerings - for those seeking either traditional or online degrees - to reflect the ever-changing and expanding nature of the field.

And business has proven a fertile field, indeed, having nourished the towering figure of Henry Ford, who, thanks to Bryant & Stratton College, gained a head for the game and a nose for the sound deal. In 1884 Ford "entered a business school, Goldsmith's Bryant & Stratton Business University," writes Sidney Olsen in his 1963 book, "Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years."

Ford's matriculation at Bryant a& Stratton College was short, but it must have had the desired effect, as he thereafter would go on to achieve the status of a legendary business innovator. Indeed, Olsen is led to speculate that Ford's instructors at Bryant & Stratton College "must have been miracle men," because their soon-to-be-famous pupil "attended there only a few months in all."

Perhaps your vision for yourself and your career isn't as grand as was Ford's, but this doesn't mean you need sell yourself short. The traditional and online degrees offered by Bryant & Stratton College can help you advance your career in a reasonably short amount of time.

Indeed, the online degrees offered by Bryant & Stratton College marry the cardinal virtues of study via distance learning - convenience, flexibility, ease of access - with the strong academic tradition Bryant & Stratton College has built over the past nearly 160 years. Get yourself a piece of that tradition. Check out Bryant & Stratton College's online degree programs today!