Top 10 Cheapest Online Bachelors of Computer Science Degrees

Com­put­er sci­ence majors are ide­al for learn­ing the pro­gram­ming skills to devel­op cre­ative tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions that solve com­put­ing prob­lems. Trans­lat­ing ques­tions into com­mands that com­put­er machin­ery can eas­i­ly fol­low is what com­put­er sci­ence is all about. 

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in July 2016 and was last updat­ed in Feb­ru­ary 2024.

Many online col­leges offer com­put­er sci­ence degrees to make this rig­or­ous, sci­en­tif­ic major acces­si­ble and afford­able. Invest­ing in a com­put­er sci­ence pro­gram can pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant returns in the tech-dri­ven job market.

Com­put­er Sci­ence-Relat­ed Rank­ings and Valu­able Information:

• Top 10 Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree Programs
• What Is The Cheap­est Online Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree?
• Top Ten Online Schools For a Bachelor’s Degree in Com­put­er Science
• 25 Best Bachelor’s in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Degree Programs
• 15 Best Online Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Degree Bachelor’s Programs

Methodology

Since col­lege tuition prices are often astro­nom­i­cal, we’d like to rec­og­nize the top 10 cheap­est online Bach­e­lor’s of Com­put­er Sci­ence degrees. 

Thanks to the NCES Col­lege Nav­i­ga­tor tool, we weed­ed out online uni­ver­si­ties con­fer­ring bach­e­lor’s pro­grams with aver­age in-state tuition under $10,000. Poten­tial col­leges had to pro­vide a com­put­er sci­ence degree pri­mar­i­ly online with hands-on tech practice. 

Dis­claimer: All tuition rates are sub­ject to change and also are defined by the terms of your expe­ri­ence at any par­tic­u­lar col­lege. For exam­ple: How many cred­it hours you take per semes­ter changes the cost of our “per cred­it hour” val­ues below each school.

Every prospec­tive school had to be region­al­ly accred­it­ed rather than nation­al­ly accred­it­ed. Extra brown­ie points were bestowed to uni­ver­si­ties with pub­lished recog­ni­tion for top-rank­ing edu­ca­tion. Oth­er impor­tant fac­tors were finan­cial aid, cred­it trans­fer, stu­dent-fac­ul­ty ratio, job place­ment, and curriculum. 

Last­ly, we orga­nized the list from cheap­est to slight­ly more expen­sive. That said, here are the Top 10 Cheap­est Online Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees.

1. Brigham Young University — Idaho

Degree: Com­put­er Sci­ence (B.S.)
Tuition: $174 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 20:1
Accep­tance Rate: 97%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 51%
Relat­ed Majors Offered:

• Com­put­er Infor­ma­tion Technology
• Com­put­er Engineering

High­light­ed Career Paths:

• Appli­ca­tions Developer
• Game Devel­op­er
• Foren­sic Com­put­er Analyst

This 120-cred­it pro­gram devel­ops tech-savvy grad­u­ates for design­ing, devel­op­ing, and man­ag­ing com­put­er sys­tems. Online Com­put­er Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy cours­es are sup­ple­ment­ed with a senior practicum and a cap­stone project.

2. University of Florida

Degree: Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence with a major in Com­put­er Sci­ence
Tuition: $129.18 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 17:1
Accep­tance Rate: 30%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 88%
Relat­ed Majors Offered: 

• Bach­e­lor’s in Com­put­er and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence and Engineering
• Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Administration–Information System

High­light­ed Career Paths:

• Busi­ness Intel­li­gence Analyst
• Com­put­er Programmer
• Com­put­er Sys­tems Analyst
• Data­base Administrator
• Infor­ma­tion Secu­ri­ty Analyst
• Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Manager
• Net­work Sys­tems Administrator
• Soft­ware Appli­ca­tions Developer
• Tech­ni­cal Sup­port and IT
• Web Devel­op­er

The Accred­i­ta­tion Board for Engi­neer­ing and Tech­nol­o­gy (ABET) accred­it­ed Her­bert Wertheim Col­lege of Engi­neer­ing offers its Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Com­put­er Sci­ence online. 

For 120 cred­its, the cur­ricu­lum tai­lors to inter­ests in mobile appli­ca­tions, soft­ware engi­neer­ing, pro­gram­ming, and more. The eighth semes­ter is devot­ed to a cul­mi­nat­ing senior project.

3. Fort Hays State University

Degree: Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Com­put­er Sci­ence
Tuition: $242.76 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 15:1
Accep­tance Rate: 90%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 68%
Relat­ed Majors Offered: 

• Bach­e­lor’s Degree (B.S. or B.A.) in Infor­ma­tion Net­work­ing and Telecommunications
• Bach­e­lor’s Degree (B.S. or B.A.) in Infor­ma­tion Net­work­ing and Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, Infor­ma­tion Systems

High­light­ed Career Paths:

• Com­put­er Engineers
• Net­work Architects
• Web Devel­op­ers
• Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty Analysts

Fort Hays State Uni­ver­si­ty’s Bach­e­lor’s in Com­put­er Sci­ence cours­es are taught by ded­i­cat­ed pro­fes­sors with Ph.D degrees in the fields of com­put­er sci­ence and applied mathematics.

4. California State University, Monterey Bay

Degree: Com­put­er Sci­ence BS
Tuition: $525 per semes­ter unit
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 23:1
Accep­tance Rate: 93%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 81%
Con­cen­tra­tions Offered: 

• Data Sci­ence 
• Game Devel­op­ment
• Soft­ware Engineering
• Net­work and Security

High­light­ed Career Paths:

• Soft­ware Engineer
• Mobile App Developer
• Tech­nol­o­gy Project Manager

The School of Com­put­ing & Design offers a Com­put­er Sci­ence Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence degree com­ple­tion pro­gram online. Asso­ciate degree hold­ers must trans­fer 60+ semes­ter credits. 

Online cours­es blend com­put­er sci­ence the­o­ry with hands-on prac­tice in soft­ware engi­neer­ing and the “Tech­nol­o­gy Tutors” ser­vice-learn­ing project.

5. Thomas Edison State University

Degree: Bach­e­lor’s degree in Com­put­er Sci­ence
Tuition: $419 per cred­it reg­is­tered
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 15:1
Accep­tance Rate: 100%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 39%

Cours­es include:

• Dis­crete Mathematics
• Com­put­er Architecture
• Data Struc­tures

Requir­ing 120 cred­its, the online degree mix­es lib­er­al arts dis­ci­plines with tech­nol­o­gy and pro­gram­ming lan­guages. Up to 80 cred­its can be trans­ferred, includ­ing CLEP exams.

6. University of Maryland Global Campus

Degree: BS in Com­put­er Sci­ence
Tuition: $499 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 18:1
Accep­tance Rate: 100%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 28%
Course Top­ics:

• Think­ing Like a Hacker
• Risk Man­age­ment in Cloud Com­put­ing Video

Minors Avail­able:

• Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty
• Dig­i­tal Media
• Infor­ma­tion Systems

For mas­ter­ing Java and C++, UMUC offers its Com­put­er Sci­ence Bach­e­lor’s Degree 100 per­cent online. 

This 120-cred­it pro­gram devel­ops mod­ern com­put­ing knowl­edge for indus­try cer­ti­fi­ca­tions like Microsoft Cer­ti­fied Solu­tions Expert. 

7. Troy University

Degree: Bach­e­lor’s in Com­put­er Sci­ence
Tuition: $145 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 16:1
Accep­tance Rate: 95%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 45%
Cours­es include:

• Data­base Systems
• Machine Learn­ing
• Arti­fi­cial Intelligence
• Soft­ware Engineering

Relat­ed Programs:

• Bach­e­lor’s in Applied Com­put­er Science
• Bach­e­lor’s in Cyber Security
• B.A.S. in Resource and Tech­nol­o­gy Management

With a one-on-one tutor­ing pro­gram, his 36-cred­it major devel­ops real-world net­work­ing skills to solve com­put­er sys­tem prob­lems. On aver­age, bach­e­lor’s grad­u­ates from Troy obtain a $76,000 start­ing salary.

8. Dakota State University

Degree: Com­put­er Sci­ence (BS)
Tuition: $354.75 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 18:1
Accep­tance Rate: 86%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 42%
Relat­ed Programs:

• BS in Com­put­er Game Design
• BS in Cyber Operations
• BS in Net­work and Secu­ri­ty Administration

Cours­es include:

• Data Struc­tures
• Foun­da­tion of Computation
• Soft­ware Security

Dako­ta State Uni­ver­si­ty is a pub­lic, tech-cen­tric “lap­top” insti­tu­tion edu­cat­ing around 3,000 stu­dents in the Mount Rush­more State. 

Using DSUnix, stu­dents log into this 120-cred­it pro­gram and enrich their knowl­edge of com­put­er appli­ca­tions. Online learn­ers could also earn a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Com­put­er Game Design or B.S. in Cyber Operations.

9. Trident University International

Degree: BSCS
Tuition: $567 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 120 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 20:1
Accep­tance Rate: 49%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 33%
Con­cen­tra­tion Offered:

• Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty

Cours­es include:

• Tech­nol­o­gy in Society
• Net­work­ing Fundamentals
• Com­put­er Sys­tem Architecture
• Infor­ma­tion Security

This case-based, 120-cred­it pro­gram pro­duces com­put­er sci­en­tists with or with­out a Cyber Secu­ri­ty Con­cen­tra­tion. Designed for trans­fer stu­dents, the degree is tra­di­tion­al­ly com­plet­ed in 48 months.

10. Rasmussen College

Degree: Com­put­er Sci­ence Online Bach­e­lor’s Degree
Tuition: $248 per cred­it hour
Cred­its Required: 60 cred­its
Fac­ul­ty to Stu­dent Ratio: 16:1
Accep­tance Rate: 100%
Grad­u­a­tion Rate: 46%

Pre­pares You To Become:

• Soft­ware Sys­tems Developer
• Soft­ware Devel­op­ment Engineer
• Java Devel­op­er
• Com­put­er Programmer
• e‑commerce Devel­op­er
• Soft­ware Appli­ca­tions Developer

The School of Tech­nol­o­gy awards an 18-month, online degree com­ple­tion pro­gram for the Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Com­put­er Science. 

The 60-cred­it cur­ricu­lum offers mobile appli­ca­tion spe­cial­iza­tions for Apple iOS or Microsoft Uni­ver­sal Win­dows. Ras­mussen grad­u­ates have achieved suc­cess with Xerox, Ver­i­zon, Cit­rix, Best Buy, and more.

Frequently Asked Questions