Can UU直播s Offer Competitive Career Outcomes?
A Look at Salary and Employment Data at the Most Popular Online Schools
While the availability and popularity of online degree programs have grown rapidly in recent years, there is limited research available on contemporary online learning. Students, college administrators, lawmakers, and journalists frequently want to know, is online education as valuable as the traditional model?
One of the most important measures of this is the impact an online degree has on employment outcomes. To answer this question, we examined data for 10 popular online schools with Salary Scores over 50 at the bachelor's level to find out how online students fare in terms of salary and employment after graduation.
Key Insights:
- Military and government organizations hire a significant share of online students and likely contribute to high salaries in fields such as healthcare, computer systems, business, and criminal justice
- Healthcare and education are the dominant industries for online alumni
- Many online colleges offer competitive employment outcomes, beating even Ivy League schools in some cases
What is Salary Score?
Our proprietary Salary Scores database offers students an easy way to find out which colleges offer the best chance at a high salary in their field of study. We compare alumni earnings by major in the first year out of college to similar programs at colleges across the country. Alumni from schools with Salary Scores above 50 tend to be top-earners in their field of study, while scores below 50 indicate most students earn less than average for their major. For example, Harvard University is the top school for alumni salary in nearly every field with a Salary Score of 100.
Methodology
We selected popular online colleges with strong alumni outcomes, including some of the largest schools by enrollment in the country. Our list includes Excelsior College, Thomas Edison State University, Capella University, American Public University System, Colorado State University Global, Columbia Southern University, Western Governors University, Southern New Hampshire University, Grand Canyon University, and Liberty University.
Our Salary Scores come from federal earnings data provided by the U.S. Department of Education through College Scorecard. Our guide to Salary Scores provides more information on our calculations, methodology, and data sources.
We used software analytics company Burning Glass Technologies to examine the top five occupations, industries, and employers for each popular online college. Career outcomes data from Burning Glass includes the graduating classes from 2010 through 2020.
Most Popular Online Schools Salary Scores
| Schools | Salary Score |
|---|---|
| . See our list of the 100 Most Popular Accredited Online Schools for annual tuition and student recommendation rates for other well-known online colleges. Salary Score: 89Colorado State University Global alumni from nearly every field of study earned higher average wages for their major. The university's strongest Salary Scores are in business and management, communications, and criminal justice. It also ranks highly for human resources. Communications and media studies is the university's top major by Salary Score at 100, with median alumni earnings of $49,960. Degrees in management information systems, business administration and management, and public administration all score in the high 90s, with median alumni earnings between $62,210 to $80,110. CSU Global's criminal justice alumni also tend to earn more in their field of study, with a median salary of $46,670 and a Salary Score of 95. CSU Global really has no weak programs for alumni salary 鈥� even its lowest paying majors still have Salary Scores of 50 or higher. These include human services at 50 and marketing at 55, meaning alumni tended to earn salaries in line with the average for their major.    CSU Global graduates often pursue business-related career paths, including project management, accounting, operations management, general management, and human resources. Many of these graduates find jobs in finance, insurance, and public administration. One in four alumni work in K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and other education services. Another 21% work in healthcare and social services, largely at hospitals and health provider offices. CSU Global's top employers in the industry are UCHealth and Kaiser Permanente, both of which have facilities across Colorado. Professional, scientific, and technical services also top the list of CSU Global's most popular industries for alumni employment, and include services a company might outsource or hire someone for, such as management consulting, scientific research and development, accounting, or advertising. |