Completing a high school diploma often leaves a graduate contemplating whether higher education is for them. And, people already in the workforce may believe that they are not advancing in their careers and want an avenue to gain better opportunities.
Both of these populations have a route they can take to enhance their lives, their careers, and their incomes.
College at Your Own Pace in Your Own Home
For people who need direction about what to do after high school, taking online university courses provides flexibility to decide what their next step should be.
Why online? In your own home, you can study at your own pace from your own private room. Be comfortable. People with full-time jobs can often juggle online college coursework at the same time.
The distractions of a college campus with dating, events, and weather concerns are removed by online learning.
Is Online Learning Less Expensive Than On-Campus Courses?
If you’re seeking lower costs, online courses can give you motivation to succeed. Attending on-campus classes often requires dorm fees, meal plans, and various fees other fees on top of tuition. That can add up to over $20,000 to as high as $60,000 or more per year from more well-known private universities.
In comparison, taking online business classes from an accredited university can keep tuition costs to under $10,000 per year. The average tuition cost for a midrange college is about $6,600 per year; with graduate degree tuition at about $8,700. Many schools provide special rates for military members which can reduce tuition costs to closer to $7,500.
You won’t have meal plans or dorm costs to add on top of the tuition. That’s a lot of money you won’t be required to repay if you need to get student loans. Many universities also offer tuition assistance through loans, scholarships, and special arrangements.
Exploring Options for a Major and for Life
Online classes can help high school graduates who remain undecided about their major. A variety of required courses offer coursework in general education, science, math, art, history, social sciences, and English composition. Once an enrolled student studies the initial, required courses, he or she can decide which subject area they’d like to focus on for a major.
Does a College Degree Guarantee Higher Income Than People Without College?
The short answer is yes. It truly depends on who you are, what degrees you attained, whether you’re a woman or a minority, and what career path you choose.
If you’re a woman or minority, more is less. Even with a master’s, Ph.D., or professional degree, a woman’s or minority’s earnings are not equal to a man’s. They must earn a Ph.D. to have more lifetime income than a man with a bachelor’s degree. A master’s degree for Latinos and African-Americans brings their lifetime earnings about equal to white workers who have bachelor’s degrees.
Even if a woman earns a bachelor’s degree, her accomplishments make her earnings about equal of that with a man just out of high school or with no college degree.
To earn as much or more than a man, a woman has one possible solution – choose a field that is technical, in demand, like engineering. And, for all bachelor’s degree recipients, if they’d gone on to earn a Ph.D., they’d see nearly an additional $1 million in lifetime earnings.
In general, bachelor’s level graduates in management and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) positions are paid more than people with advanced degrees in education, sales, and community service careers.
And, a bachelor’s degree in business administration is the most popular online degree, according to U.S. News and World Report. Those with a business administration degree will have lifetime income exceeding the average earning of all other bachelor’s degree graduates by about $200,000.
Indications are that the differential for advanced degrees will lead to even more of a disparity for those without college. This makes a good case for hunkering down at home to keep the tuition down, but investing in more education to get ahead.
What’s a degree worth? Actually, quite a lot. Especially if it’s in business. An online degree is also useful if you want or need to earn work experience, allowing you more flexibility.
