Do Employers Accept Online Degrees?

Fortunately, the answer is increasingly a resounding “yes.” According to Inside Higher Ed, around 53% of college students took one or more courses online in the 2022-2023 school year. While this number has been declining since a high during the COVID-19 pandemic, it still signals a significant portion of students choosing online classes, at least in part.

Employers have also realized that an online degree can be just as rigorous as one earned on campus. Below, we’ll take a deep dive into what that means for you.

Most Employers Accept Online Degrees

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook 2024 study, 87% of employers had hired new graduates with an online degree or credential. This is up from the NACE’s Educational Credentials Come of Age study published in 2018, which reported that 71% of HR professionals had personally hired someone with an online degree or credential. The Job Outlook 2024 also found that 100% of employers who responded to the survey reported that they paid those with online and in-person degrees the same wage.

As more colleges and institutions have adopted online programs, from Ivy Leagues down to local community colleges, it has become increasingly common for hiring managers to receive multiple resumes from online degree holders for every job available.

How to Market Your Online Degree

When writing your resume or in an interview, no rule says you need to explain how you earned your degree, whether online or in person. However, if an interviewer asks you, there is no harm in being honest.

You can turn this into a real selling point for yourself. How? Online students tend to be motivated, disciplined, and focused on maximizing the value of their degrees. This is worth pointing out to recruiters and HR professionals.

Writing your resume

When filling out the education section of your resume, there’s no need to indicate that your degree was earned online. In your cover letter, however, you may want to note that your online degree sets you apart from other candidates in a good way. Consider the following points:

• Because you earned your degree online, it’s clear that you’re tech-savvy and can work comfortably with technology.
• Many online students juggle multiple responsibilities, such as family or jobs. This indicates that you are experienced in time management skills and can handle more than one task at a time.
• Online students sometimes need to make an extra effort to connect with professors or fellow students. For example, asking questions when taking courses asynchronously is not as easy. This indicates you are willing to go the extra mile to build and maintain connections and find solutions to challenges that may present themselves.
• The fact that you did not have the chance to experience some of the more popular aspects of in-person education, such as weekend parties and school sporting events, means you are genuinely focused on your goals and can sift out the essentials from the extraneous. In other words, you are skilled at knowing what’s most important and making that your top priority.

Passing the interview

All the points we’ve mentioned above are fair game for your interview. You have one goal in an interview: convince your interviewer that you’re the best choice for the job. One way to do that is to look at the tasks involved in that job and apply them to your situation.

So, for example, if you are applying for a job that lists “must be able to multitask” as a requirement, you can easily use the example of your online education to show your skill in this area. This is particularly true if you worked during your education or have family commitments. Someone with young children is specially equipped to speak to this since juggling the needs of children with the demands of online coursework can be challenging.

When you choose an online program from an accredited educational institution and leverage the skills you learned to obtain a good job, you will get more than your money’s worth.

Explaining your degree

While an employer isn’t likely to know that your degree came from an online program unless you offer that information, it is possible that the hiring manager could ask about it in the interview. You don’t have to justify or defend your education. Instead, just let the employer know that the degree came from an accredited program, and then move the conversation back to your skills and qualifications and how that education prepared you for the role.

How to Find a Respectable Online Degree Program

Those statistics are promising, but it’s also true that some online programs are more respectable than others. You, the prospective student, must research to determine if your chosen institution is a solid, acceptable choice or a diploma mill that churns out graduates without offering much educational benefit.

How do you know the truth? Here are two ways you can tell legitimate schools from those to be avoided.

For-profit vs. nonprofit

There’s a big difference between for-profit and nonprofit institutions; the latter is far better for most students. For-profit colleges and universities exist primarily to make money for their owners or stockholders. To do this, they may cut corners wherever possible, hiring substandard professors and doing little to ensure their students receive a top-notch education.

On the other hand, nonprofits are created primarily to serve students rather than make money. You may pay more for a degree at a nonprofit institution, but you can be sure that your tuition dollars are being re-invested in the school, hiring well-educated professors, and supplying easy-to-use online interfaces to make learning accessible and simple.

All public colleges and universities are nonprofits. Many private institutions are as well. Private nonprofits tend to be expensive, but public institutions often have low tuition rates, especially for in-state residents. Nonprofits also have much higher graduation rates than for-profit colleges.

Accreditation

How can you be sure your chosen institution offers an education that HR managers will accept? Accreditation is one way of knowing. Most colleges and universities are assessed regularly, often every five to ten years, by an accrediting organization. These groups examine a school, ensuring that the programs are well-managed, teachers have the experience necessary to teach properly, and high standards are upheld across the institution.

To determine if a school is accredited, look on the website, often under an “about us” link, or ask an admissions counselor. Find out who the accrediting agency is, and then check the Counsel for Higher Education Accreditation website to be sure the agency is recognized. By doing this, you can be sure that your chosen institution is held to high standards and that its programs are robust and of high academic value.

Student support services and resources

If all other factors are mostly equal, consider what extra programs or services your top picks offer. If one offers more faculty networking opportunities or career placement services, it can increase your chances of success. Other important aspects to consider include tech support and help desk availability, student interest groups for online students, and whether the instruction is asynchronous or you must be present at specific times.

Frequently Asked Questions About Online Degrees

Interested in a degree instead?

Learn more about online degrees, their start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.