The honest starting point is a gap. The federal College Scorecard does not publish a national average cost for online degrees against campus degrees, so any article giving you that comparison as a figure has produced it somewhere other than the federal data.
What the Scorecard does publish is better than an average anyway, because it is institution by institution. Three fields do most of the work, and they only mean something read together.
The three fields
| Field | What it is | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Average net price | What students actually paid after grant and scholarship aid, reported for 2023-24 in the current data. | Sticker price is close to meaningless. Net price is the number that behaves like a price. |
| Completion rate | The share of students who finished, measured over eight years in the Scorecard. | A cheap programme you do not finish is the most expensive outcome available, because the debt survives and the credential does not. |
| Median earnings | Earnings of former students, reported at four years after entry. | It gives the cost something to be measured against. On its own it says as much about who enrolled as about what was taught. |
Read singly, each of the three misleads. A low net price at a programme with a poor completion rate is not a bargain. High earnings at a highly selective institution partly reflect the students it admitted. The comparison worth making is net price against completion against earnings, for the specific institutions you are actually choosing between.
Note the timeframes rather than glossing them. Completion is measured over eight years and earnings at four years after entry, so these are not snapshots of one cohort moving together. Comparing two institutions is legitimate; treating either number as a prediction about you is not.
Where the online-versus-campus question actually lands
Because no federal average compares the two formats, the comparison has to be made institution by institution, which is more work and produces a better answer.
Look up each institution you are considering, note the three fields above, and compare like with like. Frequently the same institution offers both formats, in which case you are comparing delivery rather than schools, and the accreditation is identical because it attaches to the institution.
Costs the Scorecard does not carry are worth listing separately in your own arithmetic: technology fees, proctoring charges, travel to any required in-person component, and the income you do or do not give up. Those differ by format more than tuition often does, and they are the part a net-price figure cannot capture.
Before the numbers matter at all
Two checks come first, because they can disqualify a programme regardless of how its figures look.
Accreditation, verified in the public records rather than taken from the school’s own page, which is the subject of our note on verifying accreditation. And, where a licence is the destination, whether the relevant state board accepts the qualification, covered for nursing in evaluating a nursing programme.
If the goal is a specific occupation, the wage data belongs in the same calculation rather than after it. Our notes on the medical pay range, the nursing career path and hospital jobs with no experience set out what the federal figures show, and working while in nursing school covers studying alongside a job.
Nothing here is admissions or financial advice. Keith is not an academic, an admissions officer or a financial adviser. This describes what the federal data contains and how to read it.
Questions readers actually ask
Are online degrees cheaper than campus degrees?
The College Scorecard publishes no national average comparing the two, so there is no federal figure to quote and we will not invent one. Compare net price at the specific institutions you are considering, and add the format-specific costs the Scorecard does not carry, such as technology fees, proctoring and travel to any in-person requirement.
What is net price and why not use the sticker price?
Net price is what students actually paid after grant and scholarship aid, reported for 2023-24 in the current data load. Published tuition is a starting figure that many students do not pay. Net price is the number that behaves like a price, which is why it is the one to compare across institutions.
Why does the completion rate matter more than the cost?
Because not finishing is the worst financial outcome available: the borrowing remains and the credential does not arrive. A low net price at a programme with weak completion is not the bargain it appears to be. The Scorecard measures completion over eight years, so read it alongside price rather than separately.
Do the earnings figures predict what I will earn?
No. They report median earnings of former students at four years after entry, which reflects who enrolled and what fields they studied as much as what the institution taught. Use them to compare institutions against each other, not as a forecast of your own income.
Sources
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Every figure in this article traces to a government record or to a named independent, non-commercial research body. We do not cite insurance marketplaces or affiliate comparison sites for data.
- U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Published 2026-06-10Supports: The College Scorecard publishes institution-level average net price (what students paid after grant and scholarship aid, reported for 2023-24 in the data load of 10 June 2026), completion rates measured over eight years, and median earnings of former students measured four years after entry. It does not publish a national average cost comparing online with campus programmes.
- U.S. Department of Education Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP) Published 2026-01-01Supports: DAPIP records institutional and programmatic accreditation status and is a lookup rather than a ranking.
- U.S. Department of Education Accreditation in the United States Published 2026-01-01Supports: Institutions must be accredited by an agency recognised by the Secretary of Education to participate in federal student aid programmes under Title IV; the Department recognises accreditors rather than accrediting institutions itself.
Figures last verified August 30, 2026.