10 Most Affordable Online Engineering Degree Bachelor Programs

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Day­tona State Col­lege is the #1 school for an afford­able online bach­e­lor’s in engi­neer­ing.
• Engi­neer­ing bach­e­lor’s pro­grams cov­er mul­ti­ple engi­neer­ing dis­ci­plines, allow­ing stu­dents to choose a spe­cial­iza­tion that fits their inter­ests and career goals.
• Despite their afford­abil­i­ty, these pro­grams main­tain high stan­dards, pro­vid­ing a qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion that can lead to suc­cess­ful engi­neer­ing careers.

As you decide upon your future career plans as an engi­neer and choose a direc­tion for an online bach­e­lor’s degree, it is impor­tant to exam­ine the many indus­tries that employ engi­neers as a reg­u­lar part of their busi­ness mod­el. Until you do an appro­pri­ate amount of research, it is chal­leng­ing to deter­mine which engi­neer­ing branch is best for future engi­neer­ing suc­cess. The best engi­neer­ing jobs for the future will pre­dictably be in those fields that show great job growth and strength in the com­ing decade. Iden­ti­fy­ing these fields will help you nar­row down the most afford­able engi­neer­ing degree programs.

For work­ing adults in con­struc­tion, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and sim­i­lar fields, an online bachelor’s in engi­neer­ing can make a big impact on their career oppor­tu­ni­ties. And to opti­mize the return on their invest­ment, find­ing an afford­able engi­neer­ing degree is your best option. A low invest­ment up front means bet­ter returns, espe­cial­ly if you choose one of the most in-demand fields. Whether it’s a low-cost region­al pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty or a pri­vate Chris­t­ian col­lege that keeps costs down, there are a wealth of options for afford­able online engi­neer­ing programs.

Methodology: Ranking the Most Affordable Engineering Degree Programs

To rank the most afford­able engi­neer­ing schools online, Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter began by research­ing all of the col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties offer­ing ful­ly online and hybrid engi­neer­ing and engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy pro­grams. While all of the insti­tu­tions con­sid­ered were accred­it­ed, rep­utable, and rec­og­nized for pos­i­tive career impact, one fac­tor is most impor­tant: all schools are ranked accord­ing to their tuition cost, from low­est to highest.

1. Daytona State College

The BS in Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy at Day­tona State Col­lege is designed for future engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gists as they take on the var­i­ous indus­tries through­out the econ­o­my. With logis­tics, prob­lem-solv­ing, and qual­i­ty con­trol as essen­tial skills that are taught and enforced in the pro­gram, many of these stu­dents find posi­tions that are not only in engi­neer­ing but also in a man­age­ment set­ting. This pro­gram is designed to pre­pare them imme­di­ate­ly for the work­force or for grad­u­ate school if they choose to pur­sue that imme­di­ate­ly. This pro­gram also offers an elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for those who want to spe­cial­ize in this field of engineering.

Day­tona State Col­lege has been oper­at­ing for approx­i­mate­ly 60 years in the Volu­sia and Fla­gler coun­ties in Flori­da. Day­tona is one of the lead­ing insti­tu­tions in Flori­da for afford­abil­i­ty, offer­ing one of the most afford­able online engi­neer­ing degrees for Flori­da stu­dents who are look­ing to enter a grow­ing career field.

Pro­gram: BS in Engi­neer­ing Technology

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

2. Thomas Edison State College

The Nuclear Ener­gy Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy degree pro­gram from Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty is a BS pro­gram that includes both the stan­dard engi­neer­ing prin­ci­ples nec­es­sary for such a degree, as well as the skills required to suc­cess­ful­ly main­tain in a nuclear envi­ron­ment, such as reac­tor oper­a­tions and con­trol tech­nol­o­gy to main­tain the envi­ron­ment at all times. Because of the chal­leng­ing cur­ricu­lum includ­ed in this pro­gram, grad­u­ates of this pro­gram are able to obtain a pro­fes­sion­al engi­neer­ing licens­ing fol­low­ing degree completion.

The Nuclear Ener­gy Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy pro­gram is one of the lead­ing Bach­e­lor’s degrees in engi­neer­ing avail­able across the nation and shows the growth of Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty over the course of its his­to­ry. This pro­gram includes accred­i­ta­tion by the Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy Accred­i­ta­tion Com­mis­sion of ABET. The School of Applied Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy at Thomas Edi­son State Uni­ver­si­ty is home to numer­ous accred­it­ed pro­grams that are both region­al­ly and nation­al­ly accredited.

Pro­gram: Elec­tron­ics Sys­tems Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Nuclear Ener­gy Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Nuclear Engi­neer­ing Technology

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

3. Seminole State College

The BS in Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy — Project Man­age­ment from Semi­nole State Col­lege is designed to allow stu­dents the abil­i­ty to build the tech­no­log­i­cal sys­tems and infra­struc­ture nec­es­sary for tomorrow’s world. Many of those who have grad­u­at­ed from this pro­gram have found careers in Archi­tec­tur­al Engi­neer­ing, draft­ing, sur­vey­ing, and envi­ron­men­tal engi­neer­ing among oth­er careers due to the struc­ture of the pro­gram and the cours­es that devel­op strengths and engi­neer­ing skills. From math­e­mat­i­cal con­cepts to elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing and ther­mo­dy­nam­ics, these stu­dents are equipped with foun­da­tion­al knowl­edge that pre­pares them for any career in engi­neer­ing that they are seeking.

One of the most afford­able engi­neer­ing schools, Semi­nole State Col­lege has a mis­sion to pro­vide lead­ing skills and require­ments for their stu­dent pop­u­la­tion that will make them com­pet­i­tive and suc­cess­ful once they grad­u­ate from their pro­gram. With its begin­ning in Cen­tral Flori­da in the 1960s Semi­nole State Col­lege has tak­en advan­tage of the diverse stu­dent pop­u­la­tion and eco­nom­ic growth to offer pro­grams that fit the needs of their community.

Pro­gram: BS in Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy — Project Management

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

4. Eastern New Mexico University

At East­ern New Mex­i­co Uni­ver­si­ty, the BS or BAAS in Elec­tron­ics Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy is grow­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty as it is one of the most afford­able engi­neer­ing degree avail­able for stu­dents. They offer stu­dents who may already have an Asso­ciates lev­el degree the option to fur­ther that edu­ca­tion to a bach­e­lor’s pro­gram. Build­ing upon cur­rent skills in elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing is essen­tial for the stu­dents who are seek­ing this pro­gram and tech­nol­o­gy and com­put­ers become instru­men­tal in all fields, requir­ing the needs of an engineer.

At East­ern New Mex­i­co Uni­ver­si­ty, they proud­ly serve numer­ous stu­dents who are His­pan­ic, from New Mex­i­co and out­side states. This insti­tu­tion is also known for both its region­al accred­i­ta­tion in its engi­neer­ing and tech­nol­o­gy pro­grams, as well as its afford­abil­i­ty. For the last decade, East­ern New Mex­i­co Uni­ver­si­ty has been known to be one of the more afford­able insti­tu­tions for stu­dents in both New Mex­i­co and the South­west region.

Pro­gram: BS or BAAS in Elec­tron­ics Engi­neer­ing Technology

5. Tarleton State University

One of the lead­ing online bach­e­lor’s degree in engi­neer­ing is the BAAS in Man­u­fac­tur­ing and Indus­tri­al Man­age­ment from Tar­leton State Uni­ver­si­ty. This afford­able engi­neer­ing degree includes a cur­ricu­lum that includes work expe­ri­ence for stu­dents, as well as a chal­leng­ing skill that give them the abil­i­ty to be suc­cess­ful in the man­u­fac­tur­ing and indus­tri­al sec­tors. Because of this accep­tance of work expe­ri­ence and cur­ricu­lum, it is one of the more afford­able options avail­able for stu­dents pur­su­ing a degree in engineering.

The BAAS in Man­u­fac­tur­ing and Indus­tri­al Man­age­ment is accred­it­ed through South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges and Schools Com­mis­sion on Col­leges, which is com­pet­i­tive for stu­dents when they grad­u­ate and pur­sue the job mar­ket. This pro­gram is also ben­e­fi­cial to stu­dents who have com­plet­ed an Asso­ciates degree and need to ampli­fy their cur­rent skills. Since its found­ing in 1899, Tar­leton State Uni­ver­si­ty has been pro­gress­ing towards diver­si­fy­ing their edu­ca­tion to meet the demands of its students.

Pro­gram: BAAS in Man­u­fac­tur­ing and Indus­tri­al Management

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

6. Indiana State University

At Indi­ana State Uni­ver­si­ty, stu­dents who desire a bach­e­lor’s degree in engi­neer­ing have the option of dif­fer­ent pro­grams in the fol­low­ing: Elec­tron­ics Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment, and Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy. All of these pro­grams are made avail­able to stu­dents online, as they con­tin­ue to work full-time. This flex­i­bil­i­ty is essen­tial for those who are cur­rent­ly work­ing in the engi­neer­ing field and look­ing to increase their edu­ca­tion for pro­mo­tion­al pur­pos­es. In addi­tion to being flex­i­ble for the stu­dents enrolled, it is also one of the more afford­able options for stu­dents acquir­ing dis­tance pro­grams in the Midwest.

In an attempt to keep up with the needs and demands of stu­dents in the Mid­west, Indi­ana State Uni­ver­si­ty has worked to build online pro­grams for their stu­dents that meet the same chal­lenges and cur­ricu­lum as their tra­di­tion­al pro­grams, but give them the flex­i­bil­i­ty to obtain their edu­ca­tion in sit­u­a­tions where they oth­er­wise would not be able to due to the tra­di­tion­al format.

Pro­gram: Elec­tron­ics Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment, Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing Technology

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

7. Grantham University

The var­i­ous online engi­neer­ing pro­grams avail­able at Grantham Uni­ver­si­ty include majors in the fol­low­ing areas: Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Elec­tron­ics Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, and Engi­neer­ing Man­age­ment Tech­nol­o­gy. Because of the diver­si­ty of these pro­grams, stu­dents have the abil­i­ty to spe­cial­ize their career and pur­sue the par­tic­u­lar field of engi­neer­ing in which they are seek­ing, mak­ing them more mar­ketable when job hunt­ing. These pro­grams come from one of the most afford­able engi­neer­ing schools across the Unit­ed States.

Engi­neer­ing pro­grams that are accred­it­ed are essen­tial for stu­dents enter­ing the engi­neer­ing field. In order to pre­pare these stu­dents for lead­er­ship and busi­ness oper­a­tions, these pro­grams include the fun­da­men­tals to busi­ness func­tions and lead­er­ship skills that are nec­es­sary for their engi­neer­ing roles as they take lead on oper­a­tions and infra­struc­ture with their employ­ers. Tuition for these cours­es is afford­able for stu­dents who want to con­tin­ue work­ing or are active mil­i­tary stu­dents study­ing across the globe.

Pro­gram: Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Elec­tron­ics Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy, Engi­neer­ing Man­age­ment Technology

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

8. American Public University

At Amer­i­can Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty, the BS in Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing is one of the more desired pro­grams that allow stu­dents to gain their edu­ca­tion while work­ing online. These stu­dents are often of mil­i­tary back­ground or work­ing stu­dents who want to advance their career while main­tain­ing full-time employ­ment. With a BS in Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing, grad­u­ates of this pro­gram can take advan­tage of numer­ous career oppor­tu­ni­ties across the nation in an area that is grow­ing in demand and in des­per­ate need for engi­neers. This pro­gram is also one of the most afford­able online engi­neer­ing degrees that is sought out by students.

Amer­i­can Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty prides its insti­tu­tion on the abil­i­ty to pro­vide afford­able pro­grams to stu­dents in a vari­ety of dis­ci­plines that are both accred­it­ed and also afford­able for both pri­vate cit­i­zens and mem­bers of the Amer­i­can mil­i­tary who will be seek­ing civil­ian careers after they reach retirement.

Pro­gram: BS in Elec­tri­cal Engineering

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

9. Lamar University

As the need for engi­neers in the indus­tri­al sec­tor con­tin­ues to grow, obtain­ing a BS in Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing is essen­tial to reach their career goals. The BS in Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing at Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty allows stu­dents to com­plete their final two years from home in an online for­mat so that they are able to obtain the nec­es­sary work expe­ri­ence for their career, or just unable to reach the insti­tu­tion due to geo­graph­i­cal dis­place­ments. This afford­able engi­neer­ing degree pro­gram comes rec­om­mend­ed for its flex­i­bil­i­ty and abil­i­ty to assist stu­dents who may have sched­ul­ing issues con­tin­ue their stud­ies in the engi­neer­ing field.

Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty is locat­ed in Hous­ton TX, and is rec­og­nized both region­al­ly and nation­al­ly for its var­i­ous aca­d­e­m­ic pro­grams. Stu­dents are able to study either on cam­pus or online, whichev­er for­mat fits their sched­ules and lifestyle so that they can obtain their edu­ca­tion with­out disruption.

Pro­gram: BS in Indus­tri­al Engineering

10. University of Southern Mississippi

At the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Mis­sis­sip­pi, the BS in Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy pro­gram is offered online for stu­dents who are unable to trav­el to the insti­tu­tion reg­u­lar­ly or are cur­rent­ly work­ing in a posi­tion and seek­ing advance­ment. Also, this is one of the most afford­able engi­neer­ing degree pro­grams for stu­dents who are study­ing engi­neer­ing in the South­east. This cur­ricu­lum includes a num­ber of man­age­ment cours­es and skills that pre­pare them for roles in leadership.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Mis­sis­sip­pi includes a vari­ety of fac­ul­ty mem­bers that are well versed in their dis­ci­pline through expe­ri­ence and research. They have also been pro­vid­ing qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion to stu­dents in the south­east for near­ly a cen­tu­ry. Stu­dents who decide on their engi­neer­ing pro­grams will find that they are accred­it­ed through the Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy Accred­i­ta­tion Commission.

Pro­gram: BS in Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing Technology

Learn more about this afford­able online engi­neer­ing bachelor’s!

What Kinds of Engineers are in Most Demand?

Accord­ing to the fed­er­al agency known as the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics (BLS), when decid­ing which engi­neer­ing branch is best for future engi­neers, there are 29 dif­fer­ent engi­neer­ing jobs from which to con­sid­er. It is not­ed that the indus­tries list­ed below will offer the best engi­neer­ing jobs for the future:

• Agri­cul­ture Engineering
• Bio­med­ical Engineering
• Civ­il Engineering
• Com­put­ers & Data Science
• Envi­ron­men­tal Engineering
• Infor­ma­tion Technology
• Petro­le­um Engineer
• Robot­ics Engineering

The best engi­neer­ing degrees to get also depends upon your career objec­tives and per­son­al inter­ests. When decid­ing upon which are the best engi­neer­ing degrees for jobs for future engi­neers, be cer­tain to include the indus­tries in which you would pre­fer to work. As the old adage goes, you will nev­er work a day in your life if you do what you love doing in your choice of careers.

Which engi­neer­ing branch is best for future engi­neers? An indus­try where strong job growth is pre­dict­ed, and an indus­try that you believe would be a good fit for your career goals.

How Much Can I Make with an Engineering Bachelors?

Have you asked your­self — Is mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing a good career? The more help­ful ver­sion of this ques­tion is to ask your­self is mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing a good career for me!

Like most indus­tries, salary and com­pen­sa­tion pack­ages are con­tin­gent upon one’s lev­el of expe­ri­ence, edu­ca­tion, and spe­cial­ized skills. Sev­er­al exam­ples of the vary­ing lev­els of an engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy degree salary are detailed below -

Mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy jobs in the Unit­ed States had a medi­an 2022 salary of $65,990 per year. These mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy jobs employ more than 41,100 with addi­tion­al 300+ jobs cre­at­ed through the year 2032.

The medi­an elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy salary, for the year 2018, was slight­ly above $66,390. Near­ly 102,500 indi­vid­u­als work as elec­tri­cal engi­neers. The elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy salary and job growth are expect­ed to grow at a 1% pace through 2032.

A medi­an com­put­er engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy salary exceeds the medi­an engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy degree salary for mechan­i­cal engi­neers and elec­tri­cal engi­neers. In 2018, the medi­an com­put­er engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy salary was $132,360 annually.

The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics not­ed salary stats notes that engi­neers, when ana­lyzed as one occu­pa­tion, had a medi­an annu­al salary of $97,000. It is not­ed that this medi­an salary is more than dou­ble the medi­an annu­al salary for all work­er, in all occu­pa­tions, combined.

Those inter­est­ed in enter­ing the engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sion, it is required that you earn a bac­calau­re­ate degree in the engi­neer­ing dis­ci­pline that inter­ests you most. More advanced degrees in the engi­neer­ing field will increase your chances of posi­tions of lead­er­ship and high­er salaries.

What Kind of Engineers Make the Most Money?

As you research your edu­ca­tion and career options, it is like­ly that you have been curi­ous about which of the many engi­neer­ing dis­ci­plines fall into the high­est-paid engi­neer­ing field cat­e­go­ry. Do you know which engi­neer­ing has the high­est salary? Read on to learn which.

Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, the high­est pay­ing engi­neer­ing jobs fall into three categories.

• Petro­le­um Engi­neer is not­ed as one of the high­est pay­ing engi­neer­ing jobs in the world. For 2018, a petro­le­um engi­neer earns a medi­an salary of $142,800 per year. Job growth is expect­ed at an impres­sive rate of 4% through 2032.
• Aero­space Engi­neer is anoth­er engi­neer­ing spe­cial­ty that is con­sid­ered one of the high­est pay­ing engi­neer­ing jobs. For the cal­en­dar year of 2022, an aero­space engi­neer earned a medi­an annu­al salary of $126,880.
• Nuclear Engi­neer is anoth­er high­est paid engi­neer­ing field. Dur­ing 2022, a nuclear engineer’s annu­al medi­an salary was $122,480.

It is not­ed that the answer to the ques­tion — Which engi­neer­ing has the high­est salary? — is sub­ject to change as over­all eco­nom­ic activ­i­ties shift over time. Deter­min­ing — Which engi­neer­ing has the high­est — is, there­fore, an impor­tant facet when research­ing which of the high­est pay­ing engi­neer­ing jobs will fit your career objec­tives and offer a lucra­tive com­pen­sa­tion package.

Addi­tion­al­ly, bear in mind that the 21st Mar­ket­place relies heav­i­ly on infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, automa­tion and the world of data sci­ence. Engi­neer­ing spe­cial­ties in these areas are like­ly to lead job growth pro­jec­tions sim­ply by the ever-increas­ing demand. Per­haps one of the near­ly 188,000 new jobs cre­at­ed through 2032 is the engi­neer­ing job that meets your career goals and salary expectations.

Relat­ed Rank­ings:
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