Online Colleges with Open Enrollment and No Application Fee

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land Glob­al and Bak­er Col­lege offer open enroll­ment and no appli­ca­tion fee.
• Open enroll­ment poli­cies typ­i­cal­ly require only a high school diplo­ma or GED, mak­ing col­lege acces­si­ble to more stu­dents, espe­cial­ly those with less-than-stel­lar grades.
• These pro­grams are ide­al for work­ing adults, inter­na­tion­al stu­dents, and high school­ers seek­ing to advance their edu­ca­tion due to their flex­i­bil­i­ty and ease of admission.
• Open enroll­ment col­leges often offer con­tin­u­ous or mul­ti­ple start dates through­out the year.
• Despite the ben­e­fits, degrees from open enroll­ment schools may be per­ceived as less valu­able by some employ­ers, and stu­dents may face chal­lenges if they are not aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly pre­pared for col­lege-lev­el work.

Open enroll­ment is a non-selec­tive admis­sion pol­i­cy that typ­i­cal­ly only requires you to have a high school diplo­ma or its equiv­a­lent, like a GED, to apply. Usu­al­ly, this type of admis­sion pol­i­cy is used by com­mu­ni­ty col­leges, though some four-year col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties (espe­cial­ly those online) have open enroll­ment, too.

The appeal of open enroll­ment online uni­ver­si­ties is sim­ple: you can start col­lege, even if your pre­vi­ous grades aren’t that great. Like­wise, the flex­i­bil­i­ty of open enroll­ment col­leges is nice for work­ing adults, inter­na­tion­al stu­dents, and high school stu­dents who want to get ahead in their col­le­giate studies.

This guide explores some of the advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of easy admis­sion online col­leges and high­lights a few good options to con­sid­er for your education.

Relat­ed:

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• Five Ways to Get a Faster Bachelor’s Degree

What is Open Enrollment?

As not­ed above, open enroll­ment refers to an admis­sions pol­i­cy that requires you to have a high school diplo­ma or GED to apply — and noth­ing else. Often, open enroll­ment col­leges don’t require an appli­ca­tion fee, either.

Since enroll­ment isn’t com­pet­i­tive in this type of sys­tem, any­one can apply and be accept­ed. It’s a sim­ple mat­ter of fill­ing out the appli­ca­tion and sub­mit­ting it, then com­plet­ing the enroll­ment process by choos­ing cours­es and fill­ing out finan­cial aid documents.

Easy admis­sion online col­leges dif­fer great­ly from tra­di­tion­al schools with more strin­gent admis­sions cri­te­ria. For exam­ple, col­leges with tra­di­tion­al admis­sions typ­i­cal­ly take the fol­low­ing into account when con­sid­er­ing a stu­dent for enrollment:

• High school GPA
• Course selec­tion in high school
• Grade trends (e.g., did high school grades improve with time?)
• ACT or SAT scores
• Let­ters of recommendation

These and oth­er fac­tors are used to select cer­tain stu­dents for admis­sion while elim­i­nat­ing oth­ers in a tra­di­tion­al system.

Advantages of No-Application Colleges

As a prospec­tive col­lege stu­dent, you can reap quite a few ben­e­fits at open admis­sions online schools:

• Reduced bar­ri­ers to entry — With few­er require­ments for admis­sion, you can more eas­i­ly enroll in a degree pro­gram and get on with your education.
• Less appli­ca­tion stress — Con­tin­u­ous enroll­ment online pro­grams usu­al­ly have sim­ple, straight­for­ward appli­ca­tion process­es. It might only take you a few min­utes to com­plete the appli­ca­tion, in fact!
• Imme­di­ate start — Col­leges with open enroll­ment often have imme­di­ate start online cours­es with start dates through­out the year, allow­ing you to start your stud­ies sooner.
• Oppor­tu­ni­ty to improve grades - If you strug­gled in high school, tak­ing class­es from no appli­ca­tion col­leges is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to get your feet wet in col­lege, build your skills and con­fi­dence, and improve your aca­d­e­m­ic performance.

Flex­i­ble online degrees with open enroll­ment are also great for pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. For exam­ple, let’s assume you work in retail and want to gain addi­tion­al skills relat­ing to mar­ket­ing and man­age­ment. Enrolling in a pro­gram with no appli­ca­tion fee or strin­gent admis­sion require­ments enables you to get the train­ing you need faster and for less money.

Potential Drawbacks

If you search online for “online col­leges open enroll­ment,” “online col­lege no appli­ca­tion fee,” “or online edu­ca­tion open enroll­ment,” you’ll find a lot of poten­tial schools offer­ing degrees. How­ev­er, it’s impor­tant to con­sid­er the poten­tial neg­a­tives of enrolling in pro­grams like this.

First and fore­most, online edu­ca­tion open enroll­ment pro­grams tend to have less per­ceived val­ue than tra­di­tion­al pro­grams. While the val­ue of your edu­ca­tion might be quite high to you, some employ­ers might have con­cerns about the qual­i­ty of the edu­ca­tion you receive at an open enroll­ment institution.

Sec­ond­ly, with no admis­sions require­ments, you might be under­pre­pared for col­lege-lev­el work. If this is the case, you’ll need to work hard­er and uti­lize sup­port ser­vices like tutor­ing to help you stay on track with your studies.

A third draw­back to con­sid­er is that the range of cours­es and degree pro­grams might be lim­it­ed at an open enroll­ment school. When search­ing for a col­lege to attend, be sure that it pro­vides edu­ca­tion­al path­ways that align with your goals.

Ulti­mate­ly, deter­min­ing whether an open enroll­ment pro­gram is right for you comes down to the fol­low­ing factors:

• Col­lege readi­ness — Are you aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly ready for col­lege-lev­el work?
• Time con­sid­er­a­tions - Can you add col­lege stud­ies to your exist­ing plate of home and work life?
• Oth­er path­ways — Con­sid­er if there are bet­ter path­ways for get­ting the edu­ca­tion you need, such as a cer­tifi­cate pro­gram or on-the-job training.

Top Online Colleges with Open Enrollment

The table below of online edu­ca­tion open enroll­ment col­leges offers insights into some of the top options cur­rent­ly avail­able. In each case, you’ll find unique fea­tures and offer­ings that make these schools pop­u­lar for stu­dents look­ing for a bar­ri­er-free education.

How to Choose the Right Program

Here are a few tips for find­ing the right 100% accep­tance rate online colleges:

• Check the school’s accred­i­ta­tion sta­tus. It should be region­al­ly or nation­al­ly accred­it­ed to ensure a lev­el of qual­i­ty of your education.
• Deter­mine the school’s cost. Exam­ine how much cours­es cost per cred­it and check on the fees you’re required to pay. Also include asso­ci­at­ed expens­es like books and sup­plies when cal­cu­lat­ing the cost of get­ting an edu­ca­tion.
• Eval­u­ate the school’s rep­u­ta­tion. As not­ed above, some peo­ple look down on open enroll­ment schools. That doesn’t mean there aren’t well-regard­ed options out there, though.
• Inves­ti­gate course and degree offer­ings. Ensure a school has the pro­gram you want and at the lev­el you need (e.g., cer­tifi­cate, associate’s, bachelor’s, etc.)
• Con­sid­er flex­i­bil­i­ty — Pro­grams and schools have vary­ing course sched­ules and start dates. Select­ing one that aligns with your sched­ule makes your life all the easier!

Application Process and Next Steps

The pur­pose of search­ing “online uni­ver­si­ties no appli­ca­tion need­ed” is to find schools that don’t take a lot of time to apply. As such, the pro­grams described here have very sim­ple, straight­for­ward appli­ca­tion policies.

In fact, many open admis­sions col­leges sim­ply require you to fill out an appli­ca­tion and pro­vide evi­dence you’ve grad­u­at­ed from high school. This can be done by sub­mit­ting your high school diplo­ma or GED cer­tifi­cate. Oth­er required doc­u­men­ta­tion might include the following:

• Proof of Eng­lish proficiency
• Immu­niza­tion records
• Place­ment test scores

Some open enroll­ment schools have no appli­ca­tion dead­lines, so you can apply year-round. Oth­ers have spe­cif­ic win­dows dur­ing which you can apply. Just be aware of this as you begin apply­ing to colleges.

Once enrolled, you should be pre­pared to par­tic­i­pate in some kind of ori­en­ta­tion. As an online stu­dent, this might be a quick tele­phone or video call with your aca­d­e­m­ic advi­sor. You should expect to take basic assess­ments, too. For exam­ple, you might be required to take a math entrance exam so school offi­cials know what lev­el of math class you should enroll in. 

After enroll­ment, you’ll also be onboard­ed to online learn­ing plat­forms. You’ll get login infor­ma­tion for the school’s dig­i­tal cam­pus, details about class meet­ing times, and access to stu­dent sup­port ser­vices as well. Then, you’ll begin your coursework.

Success Tips for Online Learning

Though it’s easy to Google “accred­it­ed online col­leges no appli­ca­tion” and “best online col­leges open admis­sion,” the work you’re required to do in these pro­grams can be tough. To suc­ceed in an online learn­ing envi­ron­ment, you should con­sid­er the fol­low­ing tips:

• Attend all online course meet­ings and be engaged in the learn­ing process. Doing so will help you stay on top of your stud­ies and retain more information.
• Cre­ate a sched­ule that sets aside spe­cif­ic time each day to do assign­ments and study. Be con­sis­tent with your sched­ul­ing so you get into a rou­tine more quickly.
• Have a ded­i­cat­ed study space that’s qui­et and com­fort­able and that min­i­mizes dis­trac­tions so you can concentrate.
• Ask for help when you need it, be that from class­mates, pro­fes­sors, or stu­dent sup­port staff.
• Use the resources avail­able to you to be suc­cess­ful. Tutor­ing, stu­dent study groups, and indi­vid­ual help from your pro­fes­sors are just a few exam­ples of resources you can use.
• Focus on your­self by tak­ing time to eat right and exer­cise, which will help you man­age the stress of being a col­lege student.

It’s also help­ful to use strate­gies to man­age your work­load. For exam­ple, take care of more press­ing tasks first, like assign­ments that are due tomor­row, ver­sus work­ing on assign­ments due in two weeks. Pri­or­i­tiz­ing tasks allows you to keep pace with each course and meet all nec­es­sary deadlines.

Keep in touch with your instruc­tors, too. Ask ques­tions when you’re con­fused, give them a head’s up when you’ll be gone, and take advan­tage of their office hours to check in and get extra help when need­ed. If you can imple­ment these sim­ple study tips and strate­gies, you’ll be more like­ly to be suc­cess­ful in your online program.