The Most Affordable Online Degrees with High ROI

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Afford­able online degrees in fields like Com­put­er Sci­ence, Busi­ness, Nurs­ing, IT, and Engi­neer­ing offer high ROI due to low tuition costs and strong salary potential.
• Choos­ing an accred­it­ed pro­gram in a high-demand indus­try ensures both job secu­ri­ty and long-term finan­cial benefits.
• Cost-sav­ing strategies—like cred­it trans­fers, employ­er tuition assis­tance, and pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty tuition rates—can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce total edu­ca­tion expenses.
• Careers in tech, health­care, busi­ness, and engi­neer­ing are not only grow­ing but also increas­ing­ly acces­si­ble through flex­i­ble, remote-friend­ly online education.

Col­lege can be crazy expen­sive, but it does­n’t have to be. Espe­cial­ly if you’re look­ing at online pro­grams that are not only afford­able but also lead to high-pay­ing jobs. That’s why it’s super impor­tant to look at two things: Afford­abil­i­ty and Return on Invest­ment (ROI).

Let’s talk about how you can actu­al­ly make mon­ey from your degree instead of just spend­ing it. In this arti­cle, we will explore the top most afford­able online degrees with high ROI. We will high­light career paths, salary poten­tial, and pro­gram costs.

Relat­ed:

• Self-Paced Online Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees
• Best MBA Pro­grams for the Work­ing Professional
• Fastest Online RN to BSN Programs
• Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for IT Professionals
• Afford­able Col­leges with High Accep­tance Rates

Defining ROI in Online Degrees

ROI = (Life­time earn­ings – Cost of degree) ÷ Cost of degree

The less you pay upfront and the more you earn after grad­u­at­ing, the bet­ter your ROI.

Some online degrees have a real­ly good ROI—especially if they’re in high-demand fields like tech, health­care, or business.

Here are a few things to keep in mind in eval­u­at­ing the best return on invest­ment online degrees:

• Tuition Costs: Low­er tuition = faster break-even point.
• Job Demand: If your field is boom­ing (think tech or health­care), you’re like­ly to earn more.
• Career Growth: Can you move up quick­ly? Will your salary increase over time?
• Accred­i­ta­tion: Make sure the school is legit. Accred­i­ta­tion means your degree will be tak­en seri­ous­ly by employers.

Top 5 Affordable Online Degrees with High ROI

Here are the five cheap­est online degrees with high salaries:

1. Computer Science (CS)

Why it has a high ROI: The world runs on tech—and com­put­er sci­ence is right at the heart of high-pay­ing jobs with afford­able degrees. From build­ing apps to keep­ing hack­ers out of sen­si­tive sys­tems, the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less. If you’re into prob­lem-solv­ing, log­i­cal think­ing, and you like the idea of work­ing remote­ly (or even free­lanc­ing), CS is a fan­tas­tic pick.

• Aver­age Tuition: $8,000–$15,000 per year
• Aver­age Salary After Grad­u­a­tion: $85,000–$120,000

Top Afford­able Pro­grams:

• Fayet­teville State Uni­ver­si­ty offers an online Bach­e­lor’s in Com­put­er Sci­ence with tuition of around $2,500 per year. The pro­gram cov­ers foun­da­tion­al top­ics like pro­gram­ming, data­bas­es, and sys­tems design, mak­ing it a great start­ing point for a career in soft­ware devel­op­ment or cybersecurity.
• Uni­ver­si­ty of the Peo­ple offers an online Bach­e­lor’s in Com­put­er Sci­ence with a total cost of around $5,000. They use a tuition-free mod­el, so you only pay small fees per course or exam. It’s ful­ly accred­it­ed, high­ly flex­i­ble, and designed for stu­dents seek­ing a degree that doesn’t break the bank.

2. Business Administration (BBA or MBA)

Why it has a high ROI: You could go into man­age­ment, mar­ket­ing, sales, finance, human resources—you name it. It’s also ide­al for peo­ple who even­tu­al­ly want to start their own business.

• Aver­age Tuition: $7,500–$12,000 per year
• Aver­age Salary After Grad­u­a­tion: $70,000–$100,000

Top Afford­able Pro­grams:

• East­ern Uni­ver­si­ty has an online Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion pro­gram with tuition rang­ing from $2,500 to $7,500 per year after grants. Thanks to finan­cial aid, it’s a very afford­able option, and the pro­gram cov­ers a wide range of topics—from eco­nom­ics to busi­ness ethics.
• South­ern New Hamp­shire Uni­ver­si­ty offers one of the most cost-effec­tive online degree pro­grams in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion at $330 per cred­it, total­ing around $39,600. How­ev­er, if you trans­fer in up to 90 cred­its from pre­vi­ous col­lege or com­mu­ni­ty col­lege expe­ri­ence, you can poten­tial­ly low­er the cost to under $10,000, mak­ing it one of the most cost-effec­tive online busi­ness degrees.

3. Nursing (RN to BSN)

Why it has a high ROI: Health­care is one of those fields that’s always in demand. If you’re already a reg­is­tered nurse (RN), a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Nurs­ing is key to land­ing lead­er­ship roles. With a BSN degree, you can also qual­i­fy for high­er pay and spe­cial­ize in areas like pedi­atrics or crit­i­cal care.

• Aver­age Tuition: $10,000–$18,000 per year
• Aver­age Salary After Grad­u­a­tion: $75,000–$110,000

Top Afford­able Pro­grams:

• West­ern Car­oli­na Uni­ver­si­ty has an online RN to BSN pro­gram with a tuition of just $2,800 for North Car­oli­na res­i­dents. It’s a fan­tas­tic val­ue for in-state nurs­es, and the pro­gram is accred­it­ed, flex­i­ble, and built to sup­port work­ing professionals.
• The Uni­ver­si­ty of Cen­tral Mis­souri also offers an online RN to BSN pro­gram, and what makes it stand out is that it does­n’t charge extra for out-of-state stu­dents. It is an afford­able choice no mat­ter where you live in the U.S.

4. Information Technology (IT & Cybersecurity)

Why it has a high ROI: Whether it’s man­ag­ing cloud servers, set­ting up net­works, or fight­ing off cyber threats, there’s no short­age of career paths. IT, being one of the top low-cost online degrees with high earn­ings, is espe­cial­ly good for peo­ple who like tech but maybe don’t want to dive deep into programming.

• Aver­age Tuition: $9,000–$14,000 per year
• Aver­age Salary After Grad­u­a­tion: $80,000–$110,000

Top Afford­able Pro­grams:

• Ken­ne­saw State Uni­ver­si­ty pro­vides an online Bach­e­lor’s in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy with tuition at $4,770 per year. It’s very bud­get-friend­ly and deliv­ers a well-round­ed IT edu­ca­tion, includ­ing top­ics like hard­ware, soft­ware, and sys­tems security.
• West­ern Gov­er­nors Uni­ver­si­ty (WGU) offers one of the most afford­able online bach­e­lor’s degrees in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy at $3,835 per 6‑month term. This pro­gram is self-paced and com­pe­ten­cy-based, which means if you already know some of the mate­r­i­al or learn quick­ly, you can move through the pro­gram faster—and save mon­ey in the process.

5. Engineering (Electrical, Software, Industrial)

Why it has a high ROI: It’s chal­leng­ing, yes—but it’s also one of the top online degree pro­grams with the best ROI, lead­ing to high salaries, job secu­ri­ty, and the abil­i­ty to work in tons of dif­fer­ent indus­tries. Engi­neer­ing grads are often in demand both in the U.S. and inter­na­tion­al­ly. Plus, many of these jobs are shift­ing to remote or hybrid mod­els, espe­cial­ly in soft­ware and sys­tems engineering.

• Aver­age Tuition: $12,000–$20,000 per year
• Aver­age Salary After Grad­u­a­tion: $85,000–$130,000

Top Afford­able Pro­grams:

• Day­tona State Col­lege has an online BS in Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy that costs $15,025 for Flori­da res­i­dents. The pro­gram focus­es on elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy and offers a very com­pet­i­tive price for an engi­neer­ing degree.
• Old Domin­ion Uni­ver­si­ty is one of the best val­ue online col­leges that offers an online Bach­e­lor’s in Engi­neer­ing with sev­er­al con­cen­tra­tions, includ­ing civ­il and mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing. ODU is known for offer­ing a strong com­bi­na­tion of afford­abil­i­ty, flex­i­ble course for­mats, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for research, all backed by a sol­id rep­u­ta­tion in the field.

Additional Cost-Saving Strategies for Online Students

Pur­su­ing bud­get-friend­ly online degrees is great—but there are also ways to make it even cheap­er.

1. Choos­ing Pub­lic vs. Pri­vate Uni­ver­si­ties: Pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties tend to have way low­er tuition than pri­vate ones—especially if you qual­i­fy for in-state rates.
2. Uti­liz­ing Employ­er Tuition Reim­burse­ment: A lot of com­pa­nies are actu­al­ly will­ing to help cov­er the cost of your degree—especially if it’s relat­ed to your cur­rent job. For exam­ple, Ama­zon has its Career Choice pro­gram that helps employ­ees pay for school, and Google offers IT cer­tifi­cates that can kick­start or boost your tech career.
3. Apply­ing for Online-Spe­cif­ic Schol­ar­ships & Grants: Yep, there are schol­ar­ships just for online stu­dents. Try web­sites like Fastweb.com, Scholarships.com, and fed­er­al aid like Pell Grants!
4. Test­ing Out of Cours­es & Cred­it Trans­fers: Take CLEP exams or trans­fer in cred­its from com­mu­ni­ty col­lege to cut your total tuition bill. Knock out your gen­er­al ed class­es at a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege, then transfer.

Future Job Outlook for High-ROI Degrees

Will these degrees still be use­ful in a few years? YES! And not just useful—in demand. Here’s a quick look at the types of jobs that are expect­ed to grow big time over the next decade:

• Com­put­er Sci­ence & IT
  • Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, AI, cloud tech
  • Job Growth 2023–33: 26 per­cent from 2023 to 2033
• Health­care
  • Nurs­ing, health admin­is­tra­tion, med­ical tech
  • Job Growth 2023–33: 6 per­cent
• Busi­ness
  • Fin­tech, sup­ply chain man­age­ment, project management
  • Job Growth 2023–33: 9 per­cent
• Engi­neer­ing
  • Green ener­gy, automa­tion, robotics
  • Job Growth 2023–33: 12 per­cent

The good news? A lot of these careers don’t require you to clock in at a phys­i­cal office every day. Fields like tech, busi­ness, and even some parts of engi­neer­ing are shift­ing to remote or hybrid mod­els. That means more flex­i­bil­i­ty for where and how you work—and, in many cas­es, bet­ter salaries.

Conclusion

The best online degree is the one that’s:

• Afford­able
• Accred­it­ed
• In demand

If you’re look­ing for a smart invest­ment in your future, con­sid­er afford­able online degrees with high ROI, like Com­put­er Sci­ence, Busi­ness, Nurs­ing, IT, and Engi­neer­ing. And thanks to online learn­ing, you don’t have to go into mas­sive debt to get them.

So take your time, do your research, and pick a path that’s right for you and your wallet.