Going to school online is far more convenient than regularly commuting to a campus. Especially for people with jobs, families, and other commitments that make it difficult to move or maintain a regular schedule. But does that convenience come at a cost? Are online degrees different than what you would earn on-campus?
Yes and no.
Accounting and finance are two sides of the same coin. Accounting tracks, records, and organizes financial information, while finance manages and manipulates money.
To put it simply, accounting analyzes the past, and finance analyzes the future. Accounting is reactive, and finance is predictive.
Getting into graduate school isn’t as simple as flashing your bachelor’s degree. Universities want to know that you have what it takes to contribute to their research programs, think critically, and ultimately, produce work that adds to their academic reputation.
No standardized test can fully prove what you’re capable of, but for over 60 years, colleges have used scores from the Graduate Records Examination to help filter applications. Even if a school doesn’t require a specific score, the GRE is a reputable evaluation tool that can give them useful information when they compare you to other potential graduate students.
If you’ve spent any time looking at colleges, you’ve probably discovered that out-of-state tuition is always higher than in-state tuition. And it’s not just a little bit higher. On average, out-of-state tuition costs over $15,000 more—and the gap grows wider every year.
Unfortunately, you can’t just hop across the border and pay in-state tuition.
It might seem weird, but “in-state” means different things in different states. You may have also noticed: not all schools charge separate tuition rates for in-state and out-of-state students. But something you might not know is that not all out-of-state students have to pay the full out-of-state rate.
So what’s going on here? Why is there a difference, and what does it mean for you? We’re about to let you in on some state secrets.
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If you want a degree that leads to working with computers, there are three main paths you should explore: computer science, information technology, and computer engineering. These are the pillars of the technology field, and most other tech degrees are iterations of them.
These fields are highly interconnected, so many of the foundational courses, principles, and skills you’ll learn in these programs will overlap. And while you can probably land a job in computer science with an IT degree, and vice versa, each program has a different focus.
If you’re going to invest in your education, you probably want to be sure it’s going to pay off, right? Not all degrees and careers are created equal.
As you’ll see in a moment, most of the highest paying jobs in the U.S. are in STEM-related fields. So if you’re not planning to major in some kind of science, technology, engineering, or math, your selection of top-tier careers is going to be a little slim. You’re pretty much looking for the almost highest paying jobs.
While an online education is often more affordable than an on-campus education, it still helps to have financial aid. Even with lower tuition costs and potentially lower living expenses, going to college online costs thousands of dollars. And unless you can cough up the money for your tuition, fees, books, and living expenses right now, financial aid is a must.
86% of all undergraduate students in the U.S. receive some form of financial aid. So you’re in good company.
But how do you get it? What do you get? And what’s the catch?
Getting an online degree doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. You’re already saving money by not relocating to live on campus and paying outrageous sums for mediocre cafeteria food. Depending on the school, you may even get a special tuition price for being an online student.
Plus, there are plenty of scholarships and financial aid opportunities you can take advantage of. Some of them are explicitly for online students, but you don’t have to limit yourself to those. You’re still eligible for a lot of general scholarships.
That being said, it’s really frustrating to get mentally and emotionally invested in a scholarship that sounds like it’s describing you, only to find out you aren’t eligible for it. So we want to help you find the scholarships that are worth applying for, and eliminate the ones that aren’t.
College is a big transition. It comes with new challenges, new opportunities, and new friends. While it’s probably nice to imagine freedom from your parents and the structure of high school, that independence can take a while to get used to. On top of that, your classes are harder, and the choices you make matter more. Plus, odds are you’ll be starting from scratch to make friends.
A pre-college summer program is a great way to get a feel for college life before you spend four or more years away from home. It’s a warm-up for one of the biggest decisions of your life. Even if you wind up going to a different school later, a pre-college program gives you a taste of real college-level courses, being on your own, and making new friends. (I’m not saying you’ll meet your new best friend here, but, I don’t know. Maybe. Probably not. But it’ll be good practice for when you do.)
Whether you’ve just finished high school or you’ve finally decided to take your next step in education, an online college is a great way to get the credentials you want without uprooting your life.
Distance education has come a long way over the last few decades, and now you can study almost any college-level course online on a schedule that fits your life. The challenge is finding quality schools and the right program.
There are hundreds of online colleges in the U.S., and not all of them are legitimate. To help you sort through the good and the bad, we’ve used data from The National Center for Education Statistics and ratings from school-ranking entities like U.S. News & World Report, TheBestSchools.org, CollegeChoice.net, OnlineU.org, BestColleges.com, BestCollegeReviews.org, AffordableCollegesOnline.org, and OnlineCollegePlan.com to make a list of the top 25 online colleges. These are the best of the best.