2020 Best Online Colleges for Earning Potential
Our top online colleges represent the schools offering fully online degrees whose graduates go on to be high earners. We feature 10 of the most popular majors that span over 1,900 individual college programs, as well as starting salary data from over 800,000 graduates, making ours one of the most comprehensive online college rankings. While the majority of these students likely did not complete their degrees online, these schools offer fully online options for these degree programs and all students graduate with the same credentials regardless of format.
For this year’s rankings, nursing is the highest earning online program. Graduates from top schools Mercy College, Pacific College, and University of Providence earn a median salary of more than $96,000.
Below are our rankings for online bachelor's programs. We also offer rankings of popular online master's programs. You can also see rankings for the best bachelor's degrees, best master's degrees, and best associate degrees.
Popular Online Bachelor's Programs
| College | Salary | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | University of Massachusetts - Amherst | $60,300 |
| #2 | Pace University | $59,900 |
| #3 | Pennsylvania State University | $56,200 |
| College | Salary | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Golden Gate University | $62,500 |
| #2 | Northeastern University | $61,500 |
| #3 | Colorado State University Global | $59,300 |
| College | Salary | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Mercy University | $98,600 |
| #2 | Pacific College | $98,400 |
| #3 | University of Providence | $97,000 |
| College | Salary | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | National University | $37,300 |
| #2 | The University of Texas Permian Basin | $37,000 |
| #3 | Rider University | $37,000 |
| College | Salary | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Baptist Health System School of Health Professions | $72,800 |
| #2 | University of St. Francis | $60,500 |
| #3 | Capella University | $56,400 |
| College | Salary | |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | University of North Dakota | $40,300 |
| #2 | Metropolitan State University of Denver | $36,200 |
| #3 | Our Lady of the Lake University | $34,100 |