There’s plenty of reasons why you might not have earned your bachelor’s degree in a traditional, four-year university right after high school like many students. Maybe you didn’t know what you wanted to do or maybe you thought you’d be better off going straight to work. Maybe you just didn’t want to go to school at that time. Or maybe you started but then didn’t finish, for one reason or another.
Going back to school for your bachelor’s online could be just the tool you need to finally take your career in the direction you’ve always dreamed about. If you have a family or a full-time job, an online degree program is easier to manage. Even if you don’t have those responsibilities, you can still save money and time going back to school online.
Go to School Without Moving to Campus
Enrolling in brick-and-mortar courses means moving closer to campus if it’s not a local school, and that can be a huge hassle. You might need to find a new job, rent a new apartment, get the kids enrolled in new schools and all kinds of other changes that will be time-consuming, stressful and expensive, all so you can live in your new community for four short years.
An online bachelor’s degree program from an accredited school lets you take the same courses as those offered to the students on campus, from where you are right now. Own your own home? Stay in it. Got kids in school? Keep them there, with their friends. Got a full-time job you like? You need the paycheck. There’s no longer any need to upend your life just for school. You can keep your life the way it is, and go to school in your spare time.
Fit Your Classes into Your Schedule
Online classes don’t have to take place in a specific location or at a specific time, so you’re not a slave to that schedule. You can listen to lectures late at night or early in the morning, during your commute or on your lunch break from work. You can block out an entire day on the weekend or work for two or three hours each weeknight after the kids are in bed. Your class schedule is entirely up to you, and you can learn at your own pace. You’ll have access to video, audio, text and images, and you’ll be able to engage with the material from multiple angles and in deeper ways than you might if your primary source of information was an in-person lecture you may not be allowed to record.
Save Money and Earn Your Degree Faster
Tuition rates for online degree programs tend to be about the same as for brick-and-mortar programs, but that’s not the primary way you’ll save money in an online program. You mostly save on the incidental costs involved in earning a degree — moving to a university town, renting an apartment, driving to campus every day (and putting miles on your car in the process), buying a parking pass, buying a meal plan and so on. All of that stuff adds up — especially things like moving and paying rent.
When you go back to school online, you won’t have to worry about any of those unexpected costs — all your living costs will remain the same, and you won’t incur any additional costs for transportation, moving, security deposits or anything else that could break the college budget. You’ll just have to worry about financing your tuition payments and books, on top of your regular expenses, and you might even save on books, too — many online courses use cheap or free digital versions of textbooks.
Are you looking to earn your degree as quickly as possible? Some online degree programs offer accelerated courses that condense the coursework of a normal 12- to 16-week semester into just four to six weeks. Some accelerated degrees let you finish an entire program in half as much time as is traditionally considered necessary. These accelerated programs aren’t for the faint of heart, but if you’re interested in moving your career forward sooner rather than later, you could make it work. Even just getting some of your general ed courses out of the way faster could shave a semester or a year off your degree.
Are you finally ready to earn your bachelor’s degree? Looking for an option that doesn’t involve moving far away from home and paying tons of extra fees? An online bachelor’s degree could be for you. Stay where you are, earn your degree in your own time and then move on to your dream future in your new field.
