10 Least Expensive Online Colleges for In-State Students

The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or graduate school search.

Though students can take online college classes anywhere with computer access and an internet connection, it's increasingly common for those taking exclusively online courses to be located in the same state as the institution offering them. As the cost of college continues to rise, students can take advantage of in-state tuition discounts by pursuing a local online education.

Among the 152 ranked online bachelor's programs that reported this data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average total cost for in-state tuition in 2018-2019 was $36,961, which does not take into account any financial aid, scholarships or additional student fees. By credit, classes cost about $305 on average.

But the average tuition costs are dramatically lower among the 10 least expensive online colleges for in-state students. Among these schools, the average in-state, per-credit cost was $102 in 2018-2019, amounting to an average total of $12,288.

For students who are residents of Florida or North Carolina, in-state tuition for online bachelor's programs can be particularly inexpensive. Among the 10 least expensive in-state online colleges, six of them are in Florida and three are in North Carolina.

The University of North Carolina—Pembroke, which offered courses for just $53 per credit for in-state students, tops the list. The school requires 120 credits for graduation, making the total cost that year $6,360. Among the 10 least expensive online programs for in-state students, the University of Florida was the only institution that ranked among the top 10 Best Online Bachelor's Programs for 2019. UF charged in-state online students $112 per credit in 2018-2019, for a total cost of $13,440.

Students who don't reside in one of these states might consider online college programs with the least expensive out-of-state tuition, such as Sterling College in Kansas, which offered out-of-state tuition for $135 per credit, totaling $16,740 in 2018-2019.

Below is a list of the online bachelor's degree programs where in-state students had the lowest cost per credit for the 2018-2019 school year. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.

U.S. News surveyed more than 350 colleges and universities for our 2019 Best Online Bachelor's Programs rankings. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Online Programs rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The tuition data above are correct as of July 23, 2019.