Most Affordable, Online Bachelors Degree In Business
A Business degree is the 2nd most popular college major in the United States. Many working adults and since the pandemic, even high school graduates prefer getting an online bachelors degree in business.
Charter Oak State College offers the most affordable online bachelors degree in business administration. The college allows unlimited credits transfer and credits can be earned via ACE/ NCCRS accredited online courses via Study.com, Sophia and so on. There are no mandatory courses to take, low tuition fees and very little yearly fees.
There is also University of the People (UoPeople) which offers a tuition free, online bachelors degree in Business. The colleges charges an assessment fee of $120 per course. UoPeople is nationally accredited by the DEAC but the college does not have regional accreditation which is usually preferable.
What Is The Cheapest Online School For Business?
Charter Oak State College in Connecticut is the cheapest online school for a bachelors degree in business. The college allows you to take online courses are Sophia.org or Study.com, or Saylor.org, and write inexpensive exams such as CLEP, DSST and AP exams for college credit.
Sophia.org charges a monthly fee of $79 for unlimited courses and you can subscribe anytime and cancel anytime you’re done with their courses. The same is true for Study.com which charges $99 per month for unlimited courses.
If you have knowledge of some topics or if you are naturally good at some topics, simply take a few CLEP, DSST or AP exams on those subjects. These will give you anywhere between 3 to about 6 credits per exam, depending on the content of each individual test/ exam.
The other great thing about Charter Oak is that you can transfer an unlimited number of previous college courses to your business bachelors degree free of charge.
Charter Oak only charges a student services fee of about $250 and a $75 technology fee per semester. Students who are not enrolled in Charter Oak’s online courses that semester need not pay the technology fee for that semester.
It is entirely possible to earn all the credits for the degree via external sources such as Sophia, Study.com, CLEP and other exams, and without taking the college’s own online courses.
There is only a 3-credit Cornerstone course and a Capstone course that the student needs to complete via the college’s own online courses.
How Much Does An Online Bachelor’s Degree In Business Cost?
The cost of the bachelors degree at Charter Oak will depend on how many years it takes for the student to complete the degree requirements. Assuming that the student completes the CharterOak business bachelors degree in 4 years, with 12 credits in transfer, here is the cost breakdown:
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- Application Fee: $ 50
- Student Services fee: $295 * 8 semesters ($2360)
- Technology fee: $ 75 * 2 semesters (for cornerstone and capstone courses)
- Course fee for Capstone & cornerstone $ 419 * 6 credits ($
- Sophia for 1 Year (10 courses/ 30 credits) $79 * 12
- Study.com for 1 Year (30 credits) $99 * 12
- CLEP/ DSST for 10 courses (30 credits) ($89 * 10) + $216 (2 year) + ($50 * 10) admin fee
- Saylor 10 courses (12 credits) $0
Total Cost = $8,832
If the same degree is completed in UoPeople, along with the application fee of $60, the entire bachelors degree in business at the UoPeople would cost $4,860,
What is the cheapest way to get a bachelor degree?
The cheapest way to complete a bachelors degree is to choose one of the 4 year degrees at the UoPeople. UoPeople offers associate and bachelors degrees in Business Administration, Computer Science and Health Sciences.
With free online tuition, it doesn’t get any cheaper to complete a bachelors degree than the UoPeople. But there is still the assessment fee of $120 per course and the fact the UoPeople is nationally accredited by the DEAC and doesn’t have regional accreditation.
This means that if a UoPeople graduate wants to study further, s/he will have to choose another nationally accredited college. It will not be possible to get admission to a regionally accredited college for your Masters after graduating with a bachelors from the UoPeople.
The other option is to simply choose to study online with CharterOak State college which is regionally accredited.
Is a business degree worth it?
A business degree is a great choice since it opens up job opportunities in a variety of occupations such as:
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- Sales Manager
- Project Manager
- HR Specialist
- Financial Analyst
- Program Manager
- Accountant
- Operations Manager
- Supply Chain Manager
- Auditor
- Personal Service Managers
- Loan Officers
- Labor Relation Specialists
- Insurance Underwriters
- Fundraisers
- Claim Investigators/ Appraisers
- Event Planners
- Purchasing Managers
- Tax Examiners
- Training and Development Specialists,
- and so on.
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How much does a bachelor’s in business administration make?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median salary for someone with a bachelors degree in business administration is $62,000. For someone in a business and financial occupation, the median salary is $72,250.
The annual growth rate for business and financial occupations is 8%, adding up about 750,000 new jobs every year.
Can you get a bachelor’s degree for free?
There are few ways to get a bachelors degree for free:
1) Though UoPeople is tuition-free, students can apply for UoPeople scholarships to cover the fee of the course assessment tests and even the application fee. UoPeople has many generous donors who have contributed to their scholarship funds.
Students have to reapply every new term for the UoPeople scholarships.
2) Choose a work study college such as the College of the Ozarks or Berea college such that the entire tuition, and sometimes even the room-and-board expenses can be covered by having the students work on-campus or in the local area.
3) Get a full scholarship to cover the college tuition at any college. In case room and board costs is an issue, simple choose a college when is close to home and continue to live with parents or other close family until the completion of the college degree.
What is the quickest way to get a bachelor’s degree?
The quickest way to get a bachelors degree is at degree completion college such as the Charter Oak State college, Thomas Edison State college, or Excelsior college.
These college allow students to transfer in an unlimited number of credits from previous college courses completely free of charge. Many low cost external ACE/NCCRS accredited courses or CLEP/DSST tests can also be used to earn college credits.
Even work experience can qualify for college credits via a prior learning assessment.
For students who have completed some college courses years ago, or those who have considerable work experience in the same field as the college major, the 4 year bachelors degree can even be completed in an year or less.
What business majors are in demand?
Business majors in finance, marketing and project management are generally always in demand with an above average job growth rate.
Financial managers have a job growth rate of 15%, project managers have a median salary of about $77,000, and marketing managers have a median pay of about $141,000.
Can I get a bachelor’s degree in 1 or 2 years?
Yes, the best way to complete a bachelors degree in 1 or 2 years is to enroll into a degree completion program at a college such as Excelsior college or Charter Oak State college.
More information can be found in this article on What is the Cheapest Online Bachelor’s Degree?.
Are online degrees less valuable?
Online degrees are just as valuable as degrees from a traditional brick-and-mortar college with classroom courses. The advantage of an online degree is that it allows students to have a fulltime job while s/he is studying for their college degree.
Online degree are self-paced and students can choose when to study as per their convenience. Some online colleges also tend to be less expensive since the class lectures are recorded and can be delivered to more students.
With the recent pandemic, online degrees have become even more important so as to allow students to study in the comfort of their own homes without any break in their education.
Cheapest Online Associate’s Degree In Business
For the associate degree in business, the cheapest option would be Excelsior college’s Associate degree in Administrative and Management Studies. There is an annual student services fee of $495 and a graduation fee of $495 at Excelsior.
But Excelsior college allows an unlimited number of transfer credits and does not have any residency requirement. So students can choose to complete almost all of their credits via low cost, online ACE/NCCRS courses and CLEP/ DSST exams at Excelsior.
There is generally little to marginal need to take Excelsior’s own online courses which are much more expensive at $510/credit. Even in cases where you need to take some Excelsior courses, there are many scholarships available at Excelsior college and many students at the college who are working adults qualify for the Excelsior scholarships.
