2024 Top Online Colleges in New Jersey

New Jersey hosts a healthy mix of community colleges, public four-year universities and private institutions, many with first-rate online degree programs. Great! So now what? Where are the most affordable options? How do you ensure you enroll in a quality program? Read this guide for our answers.

Online Degrees in New Jersey: What to Know

1. Private Colleges Compete on Price with Public Ones

With the exception of Ramapo College and The College of New Jersey, each of the Garden State’s four-year public institutions runs online degree programs. Usually, if you reside in a state with plenty of distance learning options, you can go to a public school to save money. Not so with New Jersey, whose public colleges charge the fourth-highest tuition in the United States. When you consider that private college endowments allow them to whittle down their sticker prices, it makes sense to expand your search to all New Jersey schools.

2. New Jersey’s Community Colleges Have Fully Online Degrees

There is one simple way to make your four-year degree cheaper: Spend the first two years of it studying online at a community college. The New Jersey Distance Education Affinity Group (NJDEAG) maintains a handy list of the state’s community colleges with online degrees. (You can cross-reference this with the list of all programs — traditional and distance — from the New Jersey Council of County Colleges).

If you choose this route, use the NJ Transfer website. By going to the “transfer programs” section, you can see what coursework you should take from a community college to seamlessly transfer to a major at one of New Jersey’s 25 participating four-year colleges. Enter where you’re transferring from, where you’re transferring to, and what your intended major is. The site will show you active courses being offered at the community college you want to attend (although not necessarily online ones).

3. You Can Pay for Online High School Courses

New Jersey Virtual School makes Advanced Placement (AP) and credit recovery courses available to New Jersey high schoolers on a course-by-course basis, but they’re not free. Still, if you’re at a secondary school with limited AP options and you’re confident in your ability to ace the exam, the tuition represents a decent investment. That’s because a good score on the AP exam almost always leads to college credit — and credits don’t get any cheaper once you’re out of high school.

4. New Jersey Is Strong for Business

New Jersey’s schools run a lot of Graduate Business programs, probably because new graduates are always needed to fill jobs in nearby New York City. Several are pretty good, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings of the Best Online Graduate Business Programs (Excluding MBA). Pay particular attention Rutgers and the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Affordable Online Schools in New Jersey

Despite the state’s generally higher rates of tuition, a couple of New Jersey schools managed to meet our affordability criteria for quality, flexibility, price, and use of financial aid money. (See the CAG score next to their profile in our ranking). For more stats on school graduation rates, student debt loads and earning potential, look to College Scorecard.

• Rutgers University

  Rutgers’ three campuses — New Brunswick, Newark and Camden — pretty much act as one when delivering distance education programs. You can find those programs in a couple of spots: Rutgers Online, which provides links to current programs from multiple schools and departments, or via the Division of Continuing Studies, which lists all programs, regardless of whether they’re currently being offered. We’ll recommend starting with the latter, as it’s got more information.

  It can take you to a schedule of individual classes, including summer and winter sessions that can get a degree in your hands quicker. That same site will link you to tuition details, where you’ll discover that nonresidents who study online pay the same price as their New Jersey peers. Last, if you’re in the market for professional development, you can sign up for noncredit courses.

• Rowan University

  Online at Rowan Global is the place to go for the full scoop on Rowan’s online programs (there are a lot)! Tuition rates are the same for residents and non-residents. High school juniors and seniors can also take Rowan University online courses for dual credit. If you’re a prospective graduate student, we recommend a good look at the engineering & criminal justice options—two subjects that do well in U.S. News & World Report rankings for Rowan’s online programs.

  Are you a teacher? Be sure to check out Rowan’s New Jersey Teacher Outreach Program (NJTOP), which aims to make online graduate education programs accessible to teachers affiliated with New Jersey school districts. Most courses are only eight weeks long, there’s a tuition discount on all courses, and you don’t have to pay an application fee!

Online Schools in New Jersey with Accreditation & Quality Concerns

The state of New Jersey takes a hard line against unaccredited institutions, so you’re unlikely to find diploma mills operating there (with the notable exception of University of Northern New Jersey, which U.S. immigration officials established as part of an elaborate sting operation). However, you should keep tabs on your chosen college’s accreditation status. Here’s how:

• The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) is the regional accreditor for New Jersey. Going to a MSCHE-accredited college means you can qualify for financial aid and, typically, transfer credits to other schools. The Commission’s Institution Directory lists all schools with MSCHE accreditation.
• MSCHE informs the public every time it penalizes a school. A warning indicates that, “although the institution is out of compliance, the institution has the capacity both to make appropriate improvements within a reasonable period and to sustain itself in the long term.” If the school fails to do so, MSCHE may place it on probation. The most serious action, a show cause, “is a non-compliance action requiring an institution to demonstrate why its accreditation should not be withdrawn.” View the Non-Compliance Public Disclosure Statements page to see if your school is mentioned. Fingers crossed that it isn’t.
• If your school is unaccredited, nationally accredited or a branch of a chain holding accreditation elsewhere, it won’t be listed in the MSCHE’s Institution Directory. To check that it is accredited by someone, hop over to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) database. CHEA lists all schools with government-recognized accreditation, whether from a regional or national body.

There are a few schools in New Jersey with a suboptimal accreditation status or reputation:

• DeVry University

  DeVry University-New Jersey is just one cog in a for-profit chain with an online branch and campuses across the country. Although its schools are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a regional accreditor similar to Middle States, DeVry agreed to pay $100 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit over using false graduation and employment statistics in its marketing materials.

• Essex County College

  Middle States placed Essex County College, a two-year community college that offers online courses, on warning in 2016 for insufficient evidence that expenditures are under control, leadership is regularly assessed, and enrollment is properly managed. The college remains accredited while on warning. Read the full statement at the MSCHE website.

New Jersey Online Education Resources

Accreditation

• Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE): See which schools are accredited and which have received negative sanctions from New Jersey’s regional accreditor.

Distance Learning Resources

• New Jersey Distance Education Affinity Group (NJDEAG): NJDEAG is a useful gateway to distance learning options at the Garden State’s community colleges. The site will take you directly to your chosen school’s degrees or courses, so you can bypass all the other noise on their websites.

Online Degree & Course Catalogs

• New Jersey Virtual School: Find and pay for individual high school classes offered in a distance format, including Advanced Placement and credit recovery courses.