Accounting Degrees Online

Become an Accountant

A.A.S. / B.S. / M.S.	Purdue University Global - Associate's, Bachelor's & Master's. Building on Purdue's mission to provide greater access to affordable, world-class education, Purdue University Global delivers a fully personalized online experience that's tailored to working adults. By opening the doors to adults who need flexibility to fit learning into their busy lives, they make it possible to achieve a high-quality education from a prestigious university system—completely online.
A.S. / B.S. / M.B.A.	Colorado Technical University - Associates, Bachelor's & Master's. A popular choice amongst students from the midwest and online, Colorado Technical University offers fully accredited campus-based and online courses.
A.A. / B.S. / M.B.A.	Liberty University - Associate's, Bachelor's & Master's. Liberty University offers affordable online degrees. They offer a Christian-based learning opportunity suitable for students at any stage of their career.
Accounting Specialist Private Sector Acctng	Virginia College - Associate's & Bachelor's. Virginial College offers courses taught by professionals with real-world experience and expertise. Their programs are set up to quickly get you from student to career.
A.S./ B.S. Forensic Accounting Cert. CPA Prep. Cert.	Post University - Certificates, Associate's & Bachelor's. Post University offers popular online options for students. In addition to associates and bachelors degrees, they also offer certificates for CPA preparation and forensic accounting.

Online programs offering degrees in accounting are plentiful. Just type “online accounting degrees” into a search engine and hundreds of programs will appear. Some are taught by faculty at traditional universities and colleges which are offering online classes or degrees as an option for students who are unable to attend classes on the traditional campus because of location or because they need the flexibility to take the classes at times other than when they are offered in the classroom. There are also many totally online institutions which only have virtual campuses. You can find associate, bachelors and master’s degrees in accounting online.

The advantages of online degree programs are obvious.  Online programs offer the student the flexibility to take the classes when and where they want. The online option is usually less expensive than traditional campus programs.

Not all students should consider an online option. To successfully complete an online program a student needs to be organized and self-motivated. A good online program will provide the student with the information, instruction and online resources they need to successfully complete their degree but an online student has to be disciplined enough to complete the assignments and keep up with the class work on a daily basis. If you procrastinate you will end up so far behind that you will not be able to complete the class or if you are able to complete the class you will not have put in the time to master the materials. This is particularly important in an accounting program where one class builds on the content of the prior class. You have to have a firm grasp on basic debit and credit accounting before you are ready to tackle intermediate and advanced accounting principles and practices.

If you decide an online accounting degree program will work for you the challenge is to find an online institution that is offering a quality accounting degree program. You do not want to spend your time and money on an online accounting degree only to find out after you earn the diploma that the program is not respected in the business community, accounting professionals or by other academic programs. Or worse discover after graduation that you are not well prepared for either a career in accounting or to pass the CPA exam. Legitimate online colleges are receiving increased respect from employers and their academic peers however there are still diploma mills and you will have to sort out the solid online accounting degree programs from the scams.

The first fact you want to verify is whether the online accounting degree programs you are considering are accredited by a reputable accreditation agency. Not all accreditation agencies are reputable. To find a list of accreditation agencies recognized by the US Department of Education go to their website. The Department also has a list of programs offering higher education degrees that are accredited.

The Online Education Data Base (ODEB at http://oedb.org/rankings) is another resource for checking out online accounting programs. ODEB provides a ranking of online accounting programs on its website. Their ranking is based on acceptance rate, financial aid, graduation rate, peer Web citations, retention rate, scholarly citations, student faculty ratio and years accredited. In the 2009, average of all metrics rankings, Nova Southeastern University was ranked first by ODEB followed by Regent University, Champlain College, Upper Iowa University and Letourneau University. The details of how these programs compared on individual metrics are provided on the website.

Once you have narrowed your online degree program choices down to a few legitimate programs you can do some more in depth research on those programs before making a final decision. Look through the online course catalogs and the course and degree descriptions to see if the program is offering the classes you are interested in taking.

Other questions you should ask to help you to determine which of the accounting programs you are considering best meet your needs and expectations are:

• What are the technical and technology requirements of the program; is special software required; is there a technology fee?
• Does the program have a technology helpline 24/7?
• Does the program assign you an advisor; how do you communicate with your advisor if you have questions?
• Does the program have an online library; does the library offer support to help the students access the materials they need?
• Does the program offer online tutoring and mentoring programs?
• What are the faculty credentials; are they full or part-time?
• What is your accessibility to faculty outside of the classes?
• What is the program’s recent graduates’ pass rate on the CPA exams?
• Which accounting firms and businesses recruit graduates of the program?
• What businesses and firms employee recent graduates?
• What graduate programs have recent graduates been accepted into?
• How well do the current the students rate the programs faculty on the student evaluations?
• If you are considering an associate degree online and a bachelor’s degree at a different institution you need to check into which institutions will accept the program’s credit hours as transfer credits.

Ask if you can sit in on an online class. The design of an online course is critical to student success. In many ways it is more difficult to deliver an online class than a traditional classroom class. Sitting in on an online class will allow you to evaluate the clarity of the course goals and objectives and assignment instructions, the quality of graphic design presentations, how easy the class materials are to access and how easy it is to ask questions and interact with your instructors and fellow students.

Investigating the quality of the online accounting programs you are considering might seem like a lot of time and effort but it is worth it. A college education is a huge investment of your time and money and you want to be sure you are making a good investment when you select your online degree program.

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