Best Online Colleges in Arizona of 2024

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Arizona's economy is full of opportunities. Workers make their careers in industries such as real estate, which is the state's #1 industry, business services, manufacturing, finance, tourism, and more. In fact, the state continues to post gains in terms of wages and overall employment. For October 2021, Arizona reported a 4.8% increase in wages over the previous twelve-month period.

For total jobs, the governor's office projected that the state would add over 325,000 new jobs in the period between February 2021 and Spring 2021. That will represent a 5.5% annualized increase, according to Arizona's Office of Economic Opportunity. The state is excited for the post-COVID recovery, which should be a boon to their tourism industry, and the state's overburdened healthcare system will likewise feel relief once infection rates decline.

All of this economic data is fueled by a strong commitment to education. When Arizona residents complete online or traditional college degrees, they not only help themselves succeed but they make their state more successful, too.

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Online Higher Education in Arizona

The world of higher education has changed dramatically since the advent of online college degrees. These days, more than half of all Arizona's undergraduate students are attending online degree programs. Of the remaining students, nearly half of those are taking at least some of their courses online. Thus, of 500,000 students, only 100,000 of them take no online classes whatsoever.

As for costs, Arizona's college students pay an average of $4,000 for their tuition and associated fees. That number jumps to over $11,000 for out-of-state students who don't qualify for the Western Undergraduate Exchange. The state's most expensive college is Brookline College-Phoenix, a for-profit, private institution. Their students pay $85,000 for tuition and fees. The state's most affordable school is Dine College, a public four-year college in Tsaile, AZ, which charges $1,400 for tuition and fees regardless of whether a student is from Arizona or another state.

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There is no clear distinction drawn between the cost of online degrees versus traditional classroom degrees. It seems that Arizona's colleges and universities tend to charge the same regardless of content delivery methods. However, students who live in rural areas could choose to attend online classes in Phoenix schools without having to pay the increased costs of living in the city.

Arizona offers its students ample opportunities to study online. When considering all of the state's colleges, 127 of them offer some degree of online education. Larger universities likely offer whole degree programs online while smaller community colleges may be more likely to only offer a few online options. However, this is subject to change since online learning is becoming more and more popular. Students can also study a range of subjects, from skilled trades like trucking and cosmetology to traditional college degrees such as business, psychology, and computer science.

Our School Rankings Methodology

When our researchers assess a college or university, they consider a number of factors. Their goal is to arrive at an objective ranking for online colleges that will be useful to Arizona college students. For this list, they considered Arizona's online colleges and universities according to their retention rate, graduation rate, net price, how much graduates earn with their degree, and the student-to-faculty ratio.

The retention rate measures how well an Arizona college or university retains its first-year, full-time students into their second year. When students continue their learning into a second year, researchers can assume that they are finding a good academic value in the school. This often predicts the graduation rate, which top-ranked institutions report as close to 100%. When a school can boast high numbers like that for their distance learners, that is indeed an achievement. When these academic statistics are assessed along with financial matters, such as net price and alumni earnings, researchers are able to produce school rankings that students can believe in.