An online masters degree can cost as little as $5,500, or up to $33,000.
Research by Get Educated highlights the top things to look for in finding an affordable masters degree online. A quick view of this video buyer’s guide will help you Get Educated online without going broke.
The price you pay for your online masters degree will depend, first of all, on your chosen major.
Be a sleuth before spending money on your masters degree. Use this guide to suss out an online school that will give you a top education without leaving you drowning in debt.
In the video, Vicky Phillips, founder of Get Educated, uses an online masters in information systems (IT) to illustrate what a huge difference in price one can pay for a dgeree, depending on which online school they choose.
At University of Phoenix Online, tuition costs are nearly $25,000 for an online masters degree program in IT, whereas the cost for an information systems degree at Dakota State University Online, at $10,000, is half that of Phoenix – much more affordable.
Online Masters Degree: Average Cost
The average cost for an online masters degree ranges from $20,000 to $33,000. What you will pay for your online masters will depend on your degree major.
Based on research from Get Educated, here’s a list of the average costs of online masters degrees in the most popular major areas:
MBA – AACSB – $33,000
Engineering – $26,000
Computer Science IT – $25,000
MBA – Non-AACSB – $23,000
Psychology / Human Services – $23,000
Leadership – $23,000
Human Resources – $22,000
Management –$22,000
Healthcare – $22,000
Nursing –$20,000
Public Administration – $19,000
Criminal Justice, Law – $18,000
Education – $16,000
Online MBA candidates at AACSB accredited schools can expect to fork over the most money for their masters degrees, while teachers aiming for an online education masters will pay the lowest cost for their online masters degree.
Want more? See our Best Online Colleges, rankings of Affordable Online Degrees for the best tuition deals nationwide.
Use our free online degree search tool to Get Educated on online college costs If you need more advice, or have questions, start talking in our online degree forums.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, one-third of all bachelors degrees are business degrees.
Get Educated has published rankings of the best online colleges for more than a decade. Our surveys show that business degrees online don’t have to cost a fortune.
Earning a degree in administration or management is the best way to qualify for the highest paying jobs right out of college.
But it’s also important to pick the best business majors for the highest paying jobs later on.
Which business degrees online help you land the highest paying jobs after graduation?
Business Degrees are Better for the Highest Paying Jobs
There’s a good reason business degree majors make up a third of all college graduates: They stand to earn the most after college is over.
Someone with a liberal arts degree can start out earning an average of $35,000 a year in salary right after college.
Someone with a business degree, on the other hand, can start making about $50,000 in annual salary.
Four business degrees in particular are mentioned as the most likely to land you the highest paying jobs after graduation, because there is strong demand for these skills.
Best Degrees for the Highest Paying Jobs
Students who have studied accounting or finance are in highest demand.
Another option is to combine the study of business with computer science and information systems.
Both high-demand majors lead to high-paying jobs.
Cost of a Business Degree Online
The Get Educated online degree database lists over 300 bachelors degrees in business.
An online bachelors in business can cost as little as $13,560 with East Carolina University.
Or it can also cost as much as $111,600 with Drexel University.
Look to state colleges to find the lowest online tuition, because they’re already subsidized by your tax dollars. The average cost of an online bachelors in business is $45,000 to $49,000.
Education has changed dramatically since the digital revolution, and technology in the classroom is no exception.
When I began taking college classes at Dakota State University about 15 years ago, I had never sent an email or browsed this “Internet” that I was hearing so much about.
Even at a university recognized for embracing technology, DSU’s computer programming classes used methods that now seem archaic by today’s standards.
(Disclaimer: I now teach online and blended learning courses there in this very topic.)
Graphic courtesy of lgb06 (Flickr)
Back then, I was impressed by a 32-inch TV/computer monitor with a remote control that doubled as a mouse. The professor advanced PowerPoint slides from anywhere in the room!
Students used pencils and paper, antiquated predecessors to the stylus and tablet PCs students use today.
But there’s a difference between how students are used to plugging in, and truly effective blended learning. Continue reading →
Editor’s Note: If you have this hunch that just one, amazing, polished essay can make-or-break your chances for college admission or needed scholarships, you’re right.
Essays are a big deal, not to be rushed or scuttled in your haste to send an application in. This series provides a college essay sample and tips on writing a strong piece. This is the first post about great college essays among three.
Want to know what winning scholarship essays look like?
Paul is 22 years old. That’s a normal age for college, but he’s a nontraditional student.
For one, the Texas native will be attending school at Thomas Edison State College, a New Jersey school, fully online this fall.
He also works full-time, has traveled the world, is an active blogger, and was home-schooled his whole life.
He is keenly aware that his peer group is fully comprised of traditional brick-and-mortar college-enrolled students, and he honed in on that in his essay to illustrate just why he’s so different. Continue reading →
Get Educated has published rankings of the best online colleges for more than a decade.
We’re committed to helping students like you find great deals on colleges, and become a savvy consumer when it comes to spending money on your education.
In this video Get Educated’s founder Vicky Phillips outlines the three traits that the most expensive colleges for an online bachelors degree have in common.
When you can pay as little as $15,000 or as much as $112,000 for an accredited online bachelors degree, why wouldn’t you hunt for a deal?
If you’re reading this post, there’s a good chance you are interested in online learning, or are already involved in an online degree program that requires educational technology of some kind.
There’s also a good chance that, when you were in 5th grade, a language-arts class on the computer would have sounded ridiculous to your sensible 9-year-old brain.
“Do you remember being in elementary school and opening a book to do your research for a class activity? Well now students, especially fifth graders, are required to use technology to research their selected topics.”
A Keene, NH classroom in 1907. By Bion Whitehouse
It’s not some excerpt from a futuristic novel – this is the introduction to a plea by a public-school teacher in Los Angeles.
Ms. Acuna, who posted a request for two laptops on DonorsChoose.org, said the newest language arts requirements in her curriculum make the internet a mandatory component of their learning.
“Accelerated programs available. Finish your degree in as little as 18 months!”
How many times have you heard something like that?
Doesn’t that seem exciting?
Finishing an entire online degree program in less than two years is an impressive, and attractive, pitch to working adults.
What they don’t focus on is that students can graduate in “as little” as 18 months. While graduating in 18 months (or less) is technically possible if your plan of study allows it, life has a way of keeping us busy outside of class. Like it or not, dropping a class will at some point, probably be necessary.
Riveter, 1942. Howard R. Hollem, photographer. Library of Congress
What’s the toughest challenge you’ll face as an adult attending college online?
It won’t be finding the tuition money.
It won’t be finding the time.
Get ready for your biggest problem to be your own family – your spouse and your kids.
The ones you love the most may be the noisiest naysayers when it comes to your great back-to-college plans.
Say what? It’s so easy to going back to college online.
Online learning is such a blessing for the returning student who is also a time-strapped parent. Why would someone who loves you oppose your earning a college degree in this great convenient way? Continue reading →
Get Educated is committed to helping students find affordable online masters degrees. Our current college directory profiles 1,297 online graduate degrees — the largest directory on the web.
We profile 386 online education masters degrees. If that much choice overwhelms you, check out our video buyer’s guide.
Vicky Phillips, our founder, walks you through an online masters in education cost comparison. She offers tips to help you choose the best college using your personal values.
University Now, an educational startup, has put a twist on buying an online education with the for-profit New Charter University, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports today.
Ready for it?
At New Charter University, your tuition costs are just $199 a month for a bachelors degree program. It’s like an Early Bird buffet special, but for classes: Study all you can in four months, for one low price! Continue reading →
Christopher Olson, Professor at Dakota State University Online
“It was tough, really tough,” recalls Olson, who was stuck typing the coding required for his Master of Science in Information Systems degree using sticks fastened to wrist braces. The year before, a car crash had rendered him quadriplegic, with only the partial mobility of his arms.
“If I hadn’t had any movement of my arms, I couldn’t have have done papers, couldn’t have written codes, I couldn’t have completed exams,” he says.
Olson 34, is now a business and information systems professor at DSU, but says he might not have gotten there if not for that small range of motion. A range that many quadriplegics, amputees, injured veterans or developmentally disabled individuals simply do not have. Continue reading →
I used to love road trips, and always enjoyed the chance to break up my usual routine.
Then I started online learning. Quickly, I found out that breaking up my routine, or sloppy learning on the go, could wreck my studies if I wasn’t careful.
Instead of risking it, I came up with these study tips to keep myself on track:
1.) Make backup copies of your documents online
Save your course work to a safe location online, in case your laptop gets damaged in transit while learning on the go.
Distance learners are often held to a higher standard by professors, and some have a dim view of students who don’t complete assignments due to hardware problems. It’s the digital equivalent of “my dog ate my homework.” Continue reading →
Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog from our friends at Singlemommyhood.com, Dr. Leah and Rachel. Dr. Leah has written The Complete Single Mother, and Rachel’s blog is Single Mom Seeking. Over at Singlemommyhood, we’re really impressed when we hear about single parents in college or returning to school on top of everything else they’re doing!
Getting an education isn’t just important for you – it’s crucial for your kids, too.
Dr. Leah knows what single moms in college face – she returned to school while also parenting two young kids on her own. It was not easy, but this was her dream.
And, of course, these credentials made a critical difference in how she was able to provide financially for herself and her kids.
We often hear from single parents in college who are:
Working full-time and going to school at night
Completing intensive internships on top of their jobs
Returning to school as ‘older’ students to earn or finish a BA
Advancing their education to get a Master’s degree – and a PhD!
Bravo to all of you! We know how frantic every day life can get: working and parenting can be overwhelming.
Editor’s Note: Online classes often require group projects to complete mid-terms or weekly assignments. Online group learning can make adult students feel uneasy – especially if it means being judged or graded on group projects.
Our student issues blogger, David Handlos, shares his tips for successful online learning when it comes to group work for students.
For me group projects were one of the toughest parts of my first online classes. Just like “pop quiz”, the words “group assignment” filled me with dread.
Coordinating hectic schedules, interpreting mixed messages from team members, and a mad scramble to pull everyone together to meet group projects deadlines can make group work online a nightmare.
My first online group project earned a passing grade, but it was the toughest part of class for me, and we all spent far more time on that assignment than expected.
Since then, I’ve learned 5 tips for helping online students succeed: Continue reading →
Editor’s Note: In the world of online education, school accountability can be tough to find. Without a national data set, or any requirements by the government for schools to report success rates, there is no source for reliable, consistent data on online colleges.
At Get Educated, we’re big fans of the efforts by independent educational groups that offer free, honest evaluations of online universities. CollegeChoicesforAdults.org is a non-profit devoted to helping you learn about learning outcomes in online universities and degree programs.
From the project director, Cali Morrison:
As an adult, the concept of returning to or starting college can be a daunting one.
How do you know what institution to choose? What program of study will help you gain the knowledge and skills to pursue the career path you’re interested in? How can you find the best online university?
In a web full of marketing messages and websites whose only mission is to redirect you to high-paying clients’ schools, how do you find information you can trust?
Visit CollegeChoicesforAdults.org. Our site came out of a collaborative of regionally accredited, adult-serving institutions that wanted to improve access to information on distance learning for adult learners. Our site provides data, not marketing fluff, for you to evaluate programs and institutions.
May you never have to tickle Google for a list of America’s top online colleges. If you do, you’ll get a steaming pile of doo-doo created by fake online school ranking sites.
You’ll get list after list of America’s top online colleges — the top online colleges that paid to be listed on these fake school ranking sites, that is.
Mindful of the useless pile Google serves up in the “top online school” sector we, here at Get Educated, decided to tackle the task of creating a series of editorial opinion lists on some real top online degrees.
Here’s our first rating list, compiled from a review of 350+ online masters in education that we have stockpiled in our amazing online college guide.
These online masters degree options are not listed in any meaningful order (#1 is not better necessarily than #10). We note why each degree has managed to impress us, and why we believe it may also interest you, or your K-12 teaching colleagues.
Our emphasis here is largely K-12 education technology online, but stay tuned as we’ll soon have more top lists, aimed at higher education experts as well as corporate training types.
Gritty TV shows portray CSIs as having an inner ‘eye’ for whodunit. Crime scene investigators appear both glamorous and gifted. So much so that a million and one-half people a month ask Google, “How do I become a CSI?”
Real CSIs must hit the books to master the guts and glory of the trade. CSIs today are earning forensic science degrees online. Turns out blood spatter analysis can be taught extremely well using online video labs.
Can you really learn how to be a CSI online? You bet, says the online degree division at Champlain College, in Burlington, Vermont. Champlain offers undergraduate and graduate forensic science courses online ranging from Intro to Forensics to Digital Investigative Techniques.
Online students at Champlain don’t just read books and case studies about forensics. They also learn online by viewing a series of video labs that teach distance learning students how to master skills like blood spatter analysis using catsup, rulers and – er — paper dolls.
I’ve always enjoyed learning. If there’s something new worth knowing I enjoy the challenge of picking up that new knowledge. That’s why, as I graduated with my online Masters in Information Systems last year through a distance learning program from Dakota State University, my first thought was: “What can I learn next?”
After I finished my masters in information systems degree online I was planning on another masters degree, probably an online MBA. However, because that plan originated when I’d just begun online learning in 2006, several new online graduate degree options now existed for me to consider. Could I go further than a masters degree? Could an online PhD be an option for me?
According to the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy’s 2010 candidate report, graduates from Thomas Edison State College graduates have the highest pass rate for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Examination among all regionally accredited senior institutions of higher education in New Jersey that offer accounting programs. According to the report, 61.5 percent of Thomas Edison State College graduates who took the Uniform CPA Exam (2009) passed the exam. The TESC pass rate is more than 10 percentage points above the next highest pass rate for graduates of any university in New Jersey. We asked Susan P. Gilbert, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Business and Management at TESC to help us Get Educated about the high exam success rate of Edison’s non-traditional online students. Below is her great answer.
Many people have asked why students in the open enrollment, online undergraduate School of Business and Management program at Thomas Edison State College are outperforming students from more selective, traditional residential schools, like Rutgers, on the CPA exam. And those who have not asked often express quiet disbelief.
Before I came to the online world, I spent years as a professor in traditional colleges. There, as here, I believe that the vast majority of students are honest. But I also know that under pressure, people are capable of many things. Some of the more creative cheaters I encountered were students who:
Recorded formulas or facts in an .mp3 file, then played that file in a continuous loop on an iPod during the exam.
Requested a bathroom break during an exam. In the bathroom was a cheat sheet taped to a stall door.
Kept a plastic water bottle on the desk during an exam. On the inside label of the water bottle was written, in tiny script, formulas, etc. that could be seen through the water.
I share these not to give you ideas– trust me, savvy professors have seen it all anyway– but to let you know that we know.
Maybe I’m just getting cranky, but I’m increasingly irritated by attacks on online learning, especially those based on badly designed research, small sample sizes, or those using data from un-cited studies. “Why Are So Many Students Still Failing Online?” was the provocative headline of a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article.
Now to be fair, the article itself, aside from postulating that the only reason that institutions offer online course is that they are the “proverbial cash cow,” was not completely unreasonable. Although the author is clearly not a fan of online learning, most of us would at least agree with his point that learning online requires certain skills. But why the Chronicle devoted an entire article to something we have known for years while highlighting his solution of some sort of pre-test for students before enrolling, is beyond me.
