Which would you hire

The education, in this instance, would really not affect my decision. If both of them have "relatively" the same educational experience then I would decide who to hire based on the interview. I would try to find the person that's personality would fit best with the rest of my staff, the person that is dedicated and willing to get in there and get the job done, and the person that I felt was most honest and sincere. In the above case, I would not make a decision just based on education, but also life experience.

@ christyrn05: If you mean they are both new grads with background experience in non-nursing areas, I would have to evaluate both their background references and the amount of clinical time in each program before making a decision. Purely on line would come in second, but I think all programs have an element of practicum I think. If not I would be very hesitant as nursing in books is a far cry from taking care of real people with real problems. If the question means you have two nurses with a similar nursing background/experience, the schooling itself isn't as important to me as the interview and their references.

If it is a good school (Many of the state universities, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Regis, Cincinnati, etc), the person who earned their degree online may be more self-directed and better able to manage their time very well. The for profit, do it as fast as you can, we accept anyone who can pay the $ are probably not so good, IMHO. Many of the folks I know who went to Walden, South U, Western Govs, etc. do very little practicum/clinical time. They often do "projects" at work, while many of these other schools do not allow work time to count as school time. There is a great benefit to being exposed to "how it is done" somewhere else. I do think, U Phoenix is good as far as the for profits go.

All else being equal (which it NEVER is), I'd go with Candidate No. 1.

I pay little attention to where someone received their education. Work experience, work history, attitude and personality are more important than where someone was educated. I have worked with people from high-powered schools who were an absolute disaster in the workplace, and people from non-descript schools who were excellent nurses.