Are online degrees worth it? What to check before you enroll
The answer to "are online degrees worth it" comes down to two checks. An online degree from an accredited school, one an independent agency has reviewed, is a real degree. Its payoff depends on whether the jobs you want ask for a degree.
Before you pay anything, look the school up in the US Department of Education's list of accredited schools, then read 5 job ads for the job you want. The step-by-step check shows where to look.
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On this page
- What makes an online degree legitimate?
- How do you check that an online school is accredited?
- How do you spot a diploma mill?
- What are the downsides of online school?
- Do employers value online degrees?
- What can official pay data tell you about online degrees?
- Are online degrees on Coursera and edX real degrees?
- Are online programs worth it compared with a certificate?
- What is the best online degree for jobs?
- What should you do first?
- What we did not check
- Sources
What makes an online degree legitimate?
An online degree is legitimate when an accredited school awards it. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) describes accreditation as an outside quality review, carried out in the US by private nonprofit organizations. Schools seek it to show academic quality and to become eligible for federal money, CHEA says.
The US Department of Education (ED) says it "does not accredit institutions or programs." Private educational associations set the standards, and ED keeps a list of the accrediting agencies it recognizes.
Two traps sit close to this. CHEA says state approval and accreditation are not the same: approval to operate means a school meets a state's minimum rules, while accreditation signals a basic level of academic quality. A fake school can also name a fake accreditor, which CHEA calls an accreditation mill.
How do you check that an online school is accredited?
DAPIP is the deciding check; the others are second looks.
- DAPIP. ED describes its Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP; postsecondary means after high school) as a master list of accredited colleges, universities and career or trade schools. ED says DAPIP covers about 6,900 institutions and programs. Our rule: if your school is not there, treat that as a stop sign.
- CHEA directory. CHEA keeps its own database of institutions and programs accredited by organizations that CHEA or ED recognizes. CHEA's degree-mill page puts it at over 8,200 institutions and over 44,000 programs.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US consumer protection agency, suggests more checks. Confirm that the school's accreditor appears on ED's list of recognized agencies. Ask the registrar (the office that keeps student records) at a local community college or state university whether it would accept the school's credits. Then search the program's name with words such as review, scam or complaint.
How do you spot a diploma mill?
A diploma mill, which CHEA calls a degree mill, is a business that sells degrees without real study. The FTC's page on college degree scams lists the signs.
| Warning sign (FTC) | What a legitimate school does |
|---|---|
| No studying, exams or contact with professors | Requires substantial course work and contact with instructors, online schools included |
| A degree for work or life experience alone | May give some credit for directly relevant experience, not a whole degree |
| A degree promised in a few days, weeks or even months | May offer an accelerated (faster-paced) degree, the FTC notes |
| Spam, pop-up ads and high-pressure calls | Less likely to advertise this way, the FTC says |
| A name close to a well-known college, or a .edu address offered as proof | Appears in DAPIP or the CHEA directory |
Source: FTC, College Degree Scams; ED and CHEA for the database checks. Analysis: CertWorthIt.
The FTC is blunt on experience credit: "nobody legit will give you an entire degree based on your experience."
What are the downsides of online school?
The downsides the FTC and CHEA name come from unaccredited schools and diploma mills. The FTC says an unaccredited school can leave you with credits (the units a degree is counted in) that are hard to transfer or a license no one recognizes. Separately, it says people who use a fake degree risk not getting hired, being fired later and possibly being prosecuted. CHEA says other schools may not accept degrees from mills for transfer or graduate school.
Price is the other downside to weigh; the Coursera and edX section gives example tuition (the price of study).
Do employers value online degrees?
Employers may not acknowledge degrees and certificates from degree mills, CHEA says. The FTC adds that many online schools are legitimate. Neither says whether employers prefer degrees from online or campus classes (see What we did not check).
Our skills-based hiring guide covers US employers and states that dropped degree requirements.
What can official pay data tell you about online degrees?
Only pay by degree level: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports pay by the highest degree a worker holds.
The BLS Education pays table for 2025 (11-month averages, October excluded) shows pay and unemployment by degree level for full-time workers age 25 and over. Median weekly earnings were $1,578 with a bachelor's degree (the usual four-year college degree) and $1,876 with a master's degree (a degree after the bachelor's). The median is the middle value: half earn more, half earn less. In the same BLS table, unemployment was 2.8% for bachelor's holders and 2.6% for master's holders. These figures cover all degree holders and do not prove the degree caused the pay. Our certificate vs degree guide sets out the full table.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) says that in fall 2021, 61% of US undergraduates (students working toward a first degree) took at least one distance education course (instruction by technology such as the internet, student and instructor apart). Of all undergraduates, 28% took only distance courses. These figures count enrollment, not results after graduation.
Are online degrees on Coursera and edX real degrees?
The online course sites Coursera and edX both say accredited university partners award the degrees. Coursera says its online degree programs "are awarded by accredited university partners," and that they typically offer the same curriculum as the university's in-person programs.
edX says its online master's degrees are offered and awarded by accredited university partners, and that programmatic accreditation (accreditation of one program, not the whole school) varies by field, so each program page should be checked. Its undated FAQ says they start at $70 per credit.
Four example listings on Coursera's degrees page, not its full range, ran from $15,000 for Illinois Tech's master's in information technology (12 to 22 months) to as much as $51,360 for Georgetown's bachelor's in liberal studies, depending on transfer credits. Whichever platform lists a program, look up the awarding university in DAPIP.
Coursera's flat-fee subscription, Coursera Plus, does not include degrees. Course platforms such as Udemy give a certificate of completion, and Udemy says it is not an accredited institution.
Are online programs worth it compared with a certificate?
That depends on whether the job you want asks for a degree. For the project management, networking, security and data occupations in our certificate vs degree guide, the BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical education to start. For computer support, it says a high school diploma plus IT certifications may qualify. That guide also has the tuition math.
A certificate shows you finished a course, while a certification means you passed an exam set by an industry body. Our guide to certificate vs certification explains the difference. If the ads for your job name an exam rather than a degree, our list of certifications worth getting compares the entry exams.
What is the best online degree for jobs?
The best online degree for a job is the one that job's ads ask for, from a school listed in DAPIP. Start from the job and work back to the degree: the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, a free guide to what each job requires, gives the typical education needed to start each occupation. Then check whether the ads near you match it.
What should you do first?
Do the school check before you pay anyone, and the job-ad check before you pick a degree. Both are free. If you have a school in mind, look it up in DAPIP. If it is not there, our advice is not to pay; if it is, the CHEA directory and the FTC checks give a second look.
If you have no target job yet, our suggestion is to pick one job you could picture yourself in (for example help desk technician, bookkeeper or medical assistant). Search it on any job site with your city and read 5 ads. Note whether each ad asks for a degree, and at what level. If the ads for a job ask only for a certificate or experience, you may not need a degree for it yet. For more roles, see our certificate vs degree guide and career guides.
What we did not check
- We found no official data comparing the pay or job results of online and campus graduates, and none on whether employers prefer one or the other.
- Our job-ad data counts certification phrases in ads, not degree requirements, so this guide relies on official US sources.
- The sources we read do not say what to do when a school is only in the CHEA directory, through an accreditor CHEA recognizes but ED does not. That is why this guide treats DAPIP as the pass test.
- DAPIP is an interactive search tool, and we did not test its search steps.
- Coursera and edX statements are the vendors' own; we did not verify them program by program or read edX's bachelor's degree pages.
Sources
All pages below were read October 8, 2026.
- Federal Trade Commission, College Degree Scams, page dated May 2021.
- US Department of Education, Higher education FAQ on finding out if a school is accredited, from the archive copy captured September 11, 2026; and the DAPIP database.
- Council for Higher Education Accreditation, Important questions about degree mills, from the archive copy captured September 10, 2026; and About accreditation.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Education pays, 2025, from the archive copy captured October 4, 2026.
- National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts: distance learning.
- Coursera, Online degrees, and edX, Online master's degrees.
Edited by Jere Salmisto · Data checked October 8, 2026
Questions people ask
Are online degrees taken seriously?
Legitimacy and reputation are different questions. The sources we read confirm only that an online degree from an accredited school, one reviewed by an independent quality agency, is a real degree; they do not say how employers rate online versus campus degrees. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US consumer protection agency, says legitimate schools, online ones included, require substantial course work and contact with instructors.
What are the disadvantages of online degrees?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says credits from an unaccredited school, one no independent quality agency has reviewed, are hard to take with you if you move to another school. Separately, it says people who use a fake degree risk not being hired or being fired later. Cost is the other check: four example degrees on the online course site Coursera were priced from $15,000 to $51,360, not the site's full range.
What are the top 5 most regretted degrees?
The official US sources in this guide do not rank degrees by regret, so we give no top five. To lower the risk, do two checks before you enroll. Confirm the school is accredited (reviewed by an independent quality agency) in DAPIP, the US Department of Education's database. Then read ads for the job you want and note whether they ask for that degree.
Do employers like online degrees?
The official pages we read say nothing about online versus campus degrees. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), a US group that tracks accreditation, says employers may not acknowledge degrees from degree mills, which sell degrees without real study. So check the school's accreditation, a quality review by an independent agency, then read ads for your target job.
Are online degrees worth it, according to Reddit?
This guide quotes no Reddit posts. Whatever posters say, look the school up in DAPIP, the US Department of Education's database of accredited schools (schools reviewed by an independent quality agency). Then read job ads for the job you want and note whether they ask for a degree.
How can you tell if an online degree is from a diploma mill?
A diploma mill sells degrees without real study. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lists warning signs: no studying, exams or contact with professors; a degree for life experience alone; a degree promised in days, weeks or even months; and spam or high-pressure calls. A .edu web address does not prove a school is real, it adds. Check the school in DAPIP, the US Department of Education's database of accredited schools.
Does Coursera Plus include online degrees?
No. Our Coursera Plus page reports that the help center of the online course site Coursera lists degrees among the programs Coursera Plus, its subscription, leaves out. Coursera says its online degrees are awarded by accredited university partners (reviewed by an independent quality agency), and each degree lists its own tuition.
How much does an online degree cost?
It depends on the program. The online course site Coursera listed $15,000 in tuition (the price of study) for an Illinois Tech master's in information technology and $27,288 for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign online MBA (master of business administration). The course site edX says online master's degrees there start at $70 for each credit, the unit a degree is counted in, with total tuition varying by program.