2022 Best Online Bachelor's Degrees
Online Colleges with the Highest Return on Investment
By the OnlineU team | Updated 5/20/2021
Earning a bachelor's degree has strong positive effects on earning potential and employment prospects, but it can be difficult to make an informed decision about where to apply. This is especially true now that more colleges offer online bachelor's degrees. Our ranking list of top online colleges is the first to highlight the online bachelor's degrees with the best return on investment (ROI) using student salary and debt data from the government.
To rank these schools, we first calculated a 10-year ROI for each online bachelor's degree program, then calculated the percentile by comparing the ROI against the average for comparable programs. Schools were then ranked by their average ROI percentile. We also required that each school offer online bachelor's degrees in at least three different subject areas. View our methodology for more details. We've also published an appendix that lists all of the program salaries and debt figures for these ranked schools.
The fields that are most commonly represented on this list are business, psychology, nursing, and computer and information science. You can view the complete list below, along with information about earning a degree online, accreditation, how much an online bachelor's degree will cost, and whether enrolling in a program will be worth it.
Overview of Online Bachelor's Degrees
#1 University of Virginia$14,64098.9%
#2 Northeastern University$16,23097.6%
#3 Excelsior College$15,30096.9%
#4 Capella University$9,60094.8%
#5 SUNY Empire State College$10,94394.7%
#6 University of Alaska Anchorage$25,44094.3%
#7 Roger Williams University$12,99092.9%
#8 Thomas Edison State University$9,27892.1%
#9 Rider University$45,12089.9%
#10 Colorado State University Global $10,50089.0%
#11 Drexel University$23,85088.5%
#12 University of Maryland Global Campus$14,97088.0%
#13 Concordia University - Saint Paul$12,60087.9%
#14 Saint Joseph's University$47,74087.8%
#15 University of Massachusetts Global$15,00086.7%
#16 Bellevue University$13,60086.3%
#17 Miami University-Oxford$10,85084.2%
#18 Western Governors University $6,45084.1%
#19 American Public University System$8,55083.4%
#20 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide$12,87082.8%
#21 University of Northwestern - St. Paul$14,08081.9%
#22 Trident at AIU$12,15080.5%
#23 The University of Texas Permian Basin$10,62080.1%
#24 University of
Bridgeport$17,25079.3%
#25 National University$16,65078.2%
Those interested in earning an online bachelor's degree will find many options on our best colleges list. We also offer the following comprehensive list of accredited online bachelor’s degrees, which covers 463 schools and 5,184 programs. Prospective students will find information about their desired field and other popular areas of study, including the number of online schools and programs in each field. Average salaries for each program were calculated using earnings in the first year after graduation sourced from the 2020 release of the Department of Education's College Scorecard.