Top Affordable Online Bachelor’s Degrees with High Salaries

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Fields such as Com­put­er Sci­ence, Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion, and Engi­neer­ing offer online degrees with strong return on invest­ment due to high poten­tial salaries after graduation.
• There is a diverse range of afford­able online bachelor’s pro­grams avail­able across many fields, ensur­ing that stu­dents can find a pro­gram that fits their career goals and budget.
• Online degrees offer flex­i­bil­i­ty and are often less expen­sive than tra­di­tion­al pro­grams, sav­ing costs on things like com­mut­ing and cam­pus fees.

A col­lege edu­ca­tion can be expen­sive, espe­cial­ly if you get an advanced degree. For­tu­nate­ly, many afford­able bachelor’s degrees pre­pare you for high-pay­ing jobs that don’t require a master’s degree or above.

More­over, many bud­get-friend­ly online degree pro­grams offer plen­ty of oth­er fea­tures. These include flex­i­bil­i­ty, accel­er­at­ed course­work, and a diverse range of majors to choose from. The ques­tion is, which majors have the high­est upside in terms of return on invest­ment? This guide explores these and oth­er crit­i­cal ques­tions to con­sid­er when plan­ning your aca­d­e­m­ic future.

Relat­ed:

• Is an Accel­er­at­ed Degree Worth It?
• The Val­ue of Accel­er­at­ed Bachelor’s Degrees for High School Students
• How to Max­i­mize Career Impact With An Accel­er­at­ed Degree

Why Choose an Online Bachelor’s Degree?

A big rea­son to get an online bachelor’s degree is the lev­el of flex­i­bil­i­ty online learn­ing pro­vides. Rather than going to on-cam­pus class­es at spe­cif­ic times, online degrees allow you to com­plete your work as your sched­ule allows. You can work, take care of fam­i­ly respon­si­bil­i­ties, and the like, with less con­cern about your real life get­ting in the way of your studies.

Online learn­ing is also extreme­ly con­ve­nient. You can com­plete assign­ments from any­where in the world, so long as you have an inter­net con­nec­tion. Do your school­work from home, on your lunch break at your job, while you’re on vaca­tion, and so forth.

Oth­er advan­tages of online learn­ing include the following:

• Low­er costs: Many online bachelor’s degrees are less expen­sive than their on-cam­pus coun­ter­parts. Some online pro­grams charge in-state tuition regard­less of res­i­den­cy sta­tus, and there are no com­mut­ing costs (e.g., gas, park­ing). Some schools also waive cer­tain fees for online stu­dents, such as those for stu­dent activities.
• Added tech­nol­o­gy skills: You have to be tech savvy to learn online — a hard skill that’s applic­a­ble in vir­tu­al­ly any job setting.
• Improved time man­age­ment: With­out set class meet­ing times, online learn­ing forces you to become a taskmas­ter. Time man­age­ment is a val­ued soft skill employ­ers want!
• Accel­er­ate your degree: Some schools offer accel­er­at­ed degrees that allow you to fin­ish in less than four-years. Typ­i­cal­ly, fast online bachelor’s degrees can be com­plet­ed in three to three-and-a-half years.

Choos­ing an online bachelor’s degree is also easy — they’re ubiq­ui­tous across insti­tu­tions and majors. With many options from schools large and small, you can tai­lor your online learn­ing expe­ri­ence to your goals and objectives.

Key Factors in Choosing an Affordable Online Degree

Choos­ing among the best online bachelor’s degrees requires you to eval­u­ate each pro­gram with a crit­i­cal eye. Cost is the most impor­tant fac­tor for most stu­dents, but oth­er pro­gram fea­tures should be con­sid­ered when mak­ing a final decision.

Affordability

Get­ting the most val­ue from your edu­ca­tion means under­stand­ing the costs of get­ting an online degree. Com­mon costs include:

• Tuition
• Uni­ver­si­ty fees (e.g., tech­nol­o­gy fees, activ­i­ty fees)
• Course fees (e.g., lab fees)
• Books and supplies
• Appli­ca­tion fees

The biggest cost-relat­ed fac­tor is tuition, and it varies wide­ly from one school to the next. Accord­ing to the Edu­ca­tion Data Ini­tia­tive, pub­lic col­lege tuition aver­ages just under $10,000 per year for in-state stu­dents and around $27,100 per year for out-of-state stu­dents. Com­pare that with pri­vate col­lege tuition and fees, which aver­age near­ly $38,800 per year.

The afford­abil­i­ty of an online bachelor’s degree also depends on the avail­able finan­cial aid pack­ages. For exam­ple, School A might offer you a $2,500 per year schol­ar­ship to be used to pay for tuition and fees, while School B might offer you just $1,000. Dif­fer­ent col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties might have dif­fer­ent schol­ar­ships, grants, and oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties to reduce your costs, too.

Program Duration

The dura­tion of the pro­gram also impacts its over­all cost. Though most bachelor’s degrees take four years to fin­ish, the num­ber of cred­its can vary. So, a 120-cred­it pro­gram would be less expen­sive than a 124-cred­it pro­gram, assum­ing both schools charge on a per-cred­it basis.

Besides, focus­ing on accel­er­at­ed online degrees means you can fin­ish your degree faster and begin your career in earnest more quick­ly. This, in turn, allows you to begin mak­ing a full salary soon­er. With the poten­tial to begin earn­ing more mon­ey more quick­ly, com­bined with pri­or­i­tiz­ing cost-effec­tive pro­grams, you can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the finan­cial impact of your studies.

Salary Potential

The expect­ed online degree ROI varies wide­ly, as demon­strat­ed by the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion from the Edu­ca­tion Data Initiative:

While mon­ey isn’t every­thing, you want to ensure your col­lege degree gives you sol­id earn­ings prospects upon grad­u­a­tion. Make the time and expense of get­ting an edu­ca­tion worth it!

Accreditation

Anoth­er fac­tor to con­sid­er in your online degree search is accred­i­ta­tion. Accred­it­ed online bachelor’s pro­grams can have vary­ing types of accred­i­ta­tion. On the one hand, insti­tu­tion­al accred­i­ta­tion is a process of qual­i­ty assur­ance that col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties vol­un­tar­i­ly under­take. The gold stan­dard for accred­i­ta­tion is region­al accred­i­ta­tion, which is offered by a num­ber of accred­it­ing bod­ies across the U.S.

On the oth­er hand, pro­gram­mat­ic accred­i­ta­tion can also be impor­tant. For exam­ple, Bach­e­lor of Social Work pro­grams should be accred­it­ed by the Coun­cil on Social Work Edu­ca­tion (CSWE). This type of accred­i­ta­tion ensures the cur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties you com­plete align with impor­tant career-relat­ed competencies.

Top Affordable Online Bachelor’s Degrees with High Salary Potential

As not­ed ear­li­er, many bachelor’s degree pro­grams are avail­able online that lead to good-pay­ing jobs. These high-salary online degrees are extreme­ly com­mon, too — you are like­ly to find these pro­grams offered by most col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties nation­wide. Get more details below, includ­ing salary poten­tial report­ed by ZipRecruiter.

Online Computer Science Degree Programs

Com­put­er sci­ence pro­grams focus on soft­ware devel­op­ment, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, and data sci­ence, to name a few pop­u­lar con­cen­tra­tions. Top afford­able online com­put­er sci­ence degree pro­grams are avail­able from Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty-Ida­ho, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Flori­da, and Fort Hays State Uni­ver­si­ty, to name a few.

Aver­age year­ly salary: $66,180

Online Business Administration Degree Programs

Busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion has long been a pop­u­lar under­grad­u­ate major. With options in man­age­ment, finance, and entre­pre­neur­ship, you can tai­lor your degree to the spe­cif­ic field of busi­ness that inter­ests you most. Top online busi­ness pro­grams are avail­able at schools like the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan-Flint, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia, and Indi­ana University.

Aver­age year­ly salary: $69,117

Online Nursing Degree Programs

A worth­while option for nurs­es is to enroll in an RN to BSN pro­gram. These degrees allow you to tran­si­tion from an asso­ciate-lev­el RN to a BSN, there­by qual­i­fy­ing you for bet­ter-pay­ing nurs­ing posi­tions. Big-name schools are at the top of our list of the best online nurs­ing pro­grams, includ­ing Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty, George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, and Saint Louis University.

Aver­age year­ly salary: $44,867

Online Engineering Degree Programs

Engi­neer­ing degrees focus on vary­ing top­ics, from elec­tri­cal to mechan­i­cal to indus­tri­al. Envi­ron­men­tal, civ­il, and soft­ware engi­neer­ing are fur­ther options. Explore top online engi­neer­ing pro­grams from Embry-Rid­dle Aero­nau­ti­cal Uni­ver­si­ty, Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty, Old Domin­ion Uni­ver­si­ty, and oth­ers to see which one is the best fit for you. 

Aver­age year­ly salary: $102,878 (mechan­i­cal engineering)

Online IT Degree Programs

Anoth­er broad under­grad­u­ate major that’s com­mon online is infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy. From cloud com­put­ing to web design and devel­op­ment to net­work admin­is­tra­tion, you can spe­cial­ize in any num­ber of very high-demand fields. Schools like the Uni­ver­si­ty of Flori­da, Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty, and Flori­da State Uni­ver­si­ty get high marks for their IT pro­grams.

Aver­age year­ly salary: $91,390 (infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy networking)

Online Healthcare Administration Degree Programs

As a health­care admin­is­tra­tor, you’re tasked with the smooth oper­a­tion and man­age­ment of health­care facil­i­ties. Health­care admin­is­tra­tors must be extreme­ly famil­iar with health­care laws, pri­va­cy laws, and have an abil­i­ty to man­age com­plex teams, among oth­er vital skills. Many online busi­ness pro­grams offer spe­cial­iza­tions in health­care admin­is­tra­tion, such as Amer­i­can Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Uni­ver­si­ty and Berke­ley Col­lege, both of which are on our list of the top 10 online busi­ness bachelor’s degree pro­grams.

Aver­age year­ly salary: $94,295

Online Marketing Degree Programs

Mar­ket­ing pro­vides an impor­tant func­tion for busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions of all sizes and types. With an online degree in mar­ket­ing, you can learn about con­sumer behav­ior, dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing, mar­ket analy­sis, and oth­er key top­ics that will help you start a high-pay­ing career after you grad­u­ate. Schools like New Mex­i­co High­lands Uni­ver­si­ty, Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas of the Per­mi­an Basin offer busi­ness degrees with inte­grat­ed mar­ket­ing course­work.

Aver­age year­ly salary: $67,990

Online Accounting Degree Programs

Under­grad­u­ate account­ing pro­grams pre­pare you for work in tax account­ing and cor­po­rate account­ing, and also pre­pare you to sit for the Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Accoun­tant (CPA) exam. Though this is a high-income poten­tial job, you can get a cheap bachelor’s in account­ing at schools like Brigham Young Uni­ver­si­ty-Pro­vo, Har­ris-Stowe State Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas of the Per­mi­an Basin, to name a few.

Aver­age year­ly salary: $95,659