20 Affordable Online Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science/IT

Computer Science/ IT/ IS/ MIS (Management Information Systems) and related and cross-disciplinary fields such as business analytics, business informatics, healthcare informatics, data science, cybersecurity, information science library science, etc., are all dependent on computer programming and/or computer-related skills.

Some of these fields are severely lacking qualified professionals, a fact that is supported by employment surveys as well as data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In fact, certain computer-related occupations are expected to have as much as 21% growth in job numbers between 2014-2024, according to the BLS’ Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH). Visit their list of computer/IT-related occupations for more insight for certain types of jobs.

There are actually well over a hundred different Computer/IT/IS-related occupations, some of which are listed below, compiled from the Web pages of the 20 colleges ranked in this article. While many of the occupations require just a bachelor’s degree, some may require an advanced degree (usually master’s, more rarely doctorate) and/or professional certification.

A selection of computer science/ IT-related professional certifications is listed below. (This is not an exhaustive list.)

• Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA®)
• Cisco Certified Network Associate Security (CCNA® Security)
• Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA)
• CIW JavaScript Specialist
• CIW Web Design Specialist
• CompTIA A+
• CompTIA Linux+
• CompTIA Network+
• CompTIA Project+
• CompTIA Security+
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): Windows 8
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA): Windows Server 2012
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE)
• Oracle Certified Java Programmer
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
• Project Management Professional (PMP)

Online Learning Platforms

There are a variety of online learning platforms in use at colleges and universities. Some institutions have custom systems; others use commercial platforms. A few of the latter are listed below. Note: this is not a comprehensive list.

• Blackboard
• Brightspace LMS
• Desire2Learn
• I-Learn.
• WEAVEOnline

Curriculum Topics for Computer Science /IT /IS degrees

The list below highlights many of the typical topic categories covered by computer science/ IT/ IS bachelor’s programs. While there are hundreds of unique courses across all schools, most fall into the following categories and sub-categories.

The breadth of actual computer science/ IT/ IS courses comes from factoring in the variety of programming languages, operating systems, mobile platforms, server versions, database systems, etc.

If you are interested in a career in computer science, information technology, information systems or closely-related fields, this rankings list of relevant and economical online bachelor’s degrees may help you find a suitable college/ university. This is the first in a new series of “Affordable Schools,” focusing online programs. A summary of metadata / statistics for the 20 schools ranked here follows the NOTES section. The actual college summaries are after the summary.

NOTES:

• As accreditation can change or only be valid regionally, please verify accreditation of any college to which you are planning to apply.
• The methodology for this series on online bachelor’s degrees is essentially the same as for our 15-school college rankings list. For example, see the “Methodology” section of the ranking list article 15 of the Most Affordable Bachelor’s Degrees in Marketing for an explanation of the process we use to rank colleges in each list.
• NCES data is subject to change and some of these “affordable degrees” guides may use more recent data than described in the Methodology.
• For the full list of programs covered to date, please check our School Rankings page.
• Online programs are strongly self-directed and recommended only for students who are self-driven when it comes to studying and researching.
• Some online program selection tips:
  • Spend the time to carefully read the degree requirements.
  • Browse the course curriculum and make notes of the courses that interest you most.
  • Consider creating a spreadsheet to compare summaries of course/ programs across the schools referenced here. If you are looking for a minimum set of courses, make a list of those courses, one per column. Then list ranked schools vertically in the spreadsheet, one per row. Color code or make an annotation for each course offered by a given school.
  • Add other columns to record information about tuition, net price, #credits/ courses required, etc., and color code their cells as suitable.
  • This visual approach to online program selection can be quite effective compared to staring at bare numbers.
• Especially for online programs, some colleges have a waiver that can reduce the out-of-state portion of your tuition significantly — sometime by as much as 100%. In the latter case, that means an out-of-state student can enroll in an online degree at the same cost as an in-state student.
  -Some colleges have additional technology fees per course, in addition to stated tuition fees. If in doubt, contact any colleges of interest to you.

Statistics Summary

This is a summary of data available for the colleges/ universities mentioned in this college rankings list for bachelor’s of Marketing or related degree programs.

Yearly net price range:	$1,320 – $11,955 (avg. for all students per school after discounts/ financial aid).
In-state tuition range:	$3,474 – $11,367.
Out-of-state tuition range:	$3,950 – $23,352.
Lowest in-state:	Middle Georgia State University.
Lowest out-of-state:	Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Graduation rate range:	8-56%.
Transfer-out rate range:	9-41% (seven schools did not report).
Highest graduation rate:	Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Lowest transfer-out rate:	University of West Florida.
Student population range:	376-57,821.
Undergrad population range:	376-46,997.
Largest # students:	Western Governors University.
Largest # undergrad:	American Public University System.
Oldest school:	Columbia College (est. 1851).
Youngest school:	Western Governors University (est. 1997).
# states covered:	16.
States covered:	Alabama; Florida (2); Georgia; Idaho; Illinois; Kansas; Kentucky (2); Maryland; Missouri (2); Nebraska (2); Oklahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; West Virginia.

Alphabetic list of schools covered in this ranking:

The abbreviations used in the table below may not be official and in which case are used here for convenience only.

NCES Name	abbreviation
American Public University System	APUS
Austin Peay State University	APSU
Bellevue University	BU
Brigham Young University-Idaho	BYUI
Columbia College (Missouri)	CC
Fort Hays State University	FHSU
Jones College-Jacksonville	JC
Middle Georgia State College	MGSU
National American University-Ellsworth AFB Extension	NAU-AFB
Northern Kentucky University	NKU
Park University	PU
Peru State College	PSC
South Texas College	STC
Southeastern Oklahoma State University	SOSU
Troy University	TU
University of Illinois at Springfield	UIS
University of Maryland-University College	UMUC
University of West Florida	UWF
Western Governors University	WGU
Western Kentucky University	WKU

Interactive Charts

Directly below and with each ranked college’s entry, there are several interactive charts. Here is a summary on how to use them:

• A modern browser is required for most of the charting features.
• For the bar charts, including the one below and the individual ones in each school summary, the vertical Y axis represents cost in dollars, for net price and in-state and out-of-state tuition per college. The horizontal X axis represents the schools ranked.
• The chart directly below shows in-state tuition (blue bars), out-of-state tuition (orange bars) and net price (connected green dots). Hover your mouse over a tuition bar or net price point and a tooltip will pop up that shows the institution name and the two cost values – net price and tuition. Use your mouse’s scroll wheel to zoom in on a section in the main chart. The sub-chart below the main chart will indicate what section you are viewing. Hover your mouse over either of the three labels, “in,” “out” or “net” underneath the sub-chart to visually highlight just the selected chart.
• Each school ranked also displays two donut charts. The leftmost donut chart is a breakdown of number of students, with the total displayed in the middle, and the blue arc representing the percentage that are undergrads. The rightmost donut chart represents graduation rate of undergrads, with the rate displayed in the middle and also represented by the blue arc. Hover your mouse over any arc to get the student percentage or the graduation rate, depending on the donut chart.
• All the charts are built using C3.js JavaScript code library, which in turn relies on the D3.js data visualization library. See http://c3js.org if you want to explore further.