These days it has come to the point where further education is needed in order to secure any type of decent paying job. In previous times, it was possible to secure a well-paying job or career with only a high school diploma. Although not totally impossible by today’s standards, the chances of this happening are small, and it’s therefore recommended to enroll in an accredited bachelor’s degree program.

Life catches up with us a little too fast sometimes. The unexpected always comes up; maybe you need to take care of a loved one or you are on active duty in the military. These types of situations make attending college more difficult, and online schooling is often the solution.

Recently, since the inception of online degrees in the early 1990’s, there has been a surge of online universities to meet the demand of people looking to advance their education remotely. Listed below are some of the top bachelor degrees that are sought after by online students.

1. Business Administration

One of the most popular bachelor’s programs, that encompass a wide variety of careers and jobs, are for those seeking a business administration degree. When enrolling in a business administration program, students should expect to get a fundamental understanding of how a company, and its individual departments, functions. They should expect to also learn how the communication between these departments, as well as within each department, is crucial for their success. Practical courses such as public speaking and business communication will improve their marketability, as well as getting their foot in the door to possibly take on internships along-side their academic workload.

Aside from what will be taught, when procuring a business administration degree, the financial benefits also make that degree very enticing. As of 2012 the average salary of business administration majors was more than $50,000/year, which is several thousand more than the United States’ starting salary average. (Credit BLS.gov)

2. Finance

Enrolling in the bachelor degree program of finance has a promising outlook as financial manager jobs are “projected to grow 7% from 2014 to 2024.”[1] Courses offered to finance students will concentrate on banking principals and math courses such as macro and micro economics. Understanding how banking and investments work will be taught in real life situations. To further this knowledge, it is often required that students enroll in multiple career-related internships.

Concentration courses taken at an accredited online college will give students skills to apply for an entry-level job in their field. Another benefit is that the skills learned in a bachelor degree program of finance will directly transfer into, not only entry-level positions, but potentially a career-level occupation.

3. Web Development

A web development bachelor program is a popular degree for online students because of the high level of demand for web developers now and in the future. Employment of web developers is, “projected to grow 27% from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations.”[2] Using a mixture of multimedia, information technology, and graphic design courses, web developers help create web pages that Internet users access. In addition to performing functions for web pages, web developers can also be required to create applications for the World Wide Web, ensuring that they perform when transitioning from a web server to a web browser.

Students should expect to take other concentration courses such as computer programming, database management, and computer networking. In addition to taking a bachelor degree program online, students can also make themselves more marketable, to their future employers, by acquiring professional certifications from companies such as Microsoft or Cisco.

4. Marketing

Currently thriving in the online environment are many different careers in marketing, making pursuing a business degree in this field a viable and promising endeavor. Here, students will be engaged in fast-paced roles where they will be expected to use their creative potential to help develop and sell products to an array of consumer markets.

In a marketing online bachelor program, concentration courses should include, but are not limited to: consumer behavior, marketing research, professional selling, social media, business communications and marketing principles. These courses will lay the foundation for a vast array of different careers as well as many different entry and mid-level positions.

Employment of market research analysts is “projected to grow 19% from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations.”[3]

5. Accounting

Accountants and auditors are often the backbone of top financial companies. Employment of accountants and auditors is, “projected to grow 11% from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations,” according to the US Department of Labor Statistics[4]. Accountants ensure financial organizations are running smoothly, as well as taxes are prepared and filed accurately and on time.

Accounting is a refined financial degree, focusing mainly on accounting principles, while also having courses on subjects such as business law and individual income tax. Other concentration courses include, but are not limited to: business writing, business ethics, advanced auditing, regulation and more.

Apart from earning this type of degree in order to become a certified accountant, a student must possibly attain a certification before an employer will consider them. A degree in accounting should prepare you to sit in on the Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA®), and Certified Management Accountant (CMA®) exams.

There are many other online bachelor’s degrees for the aspiring student, and programs are ever evolving. Be sure to do your due diligence when researching which program is right for you. Always start by deciding what you want to do as a career and work your way backwards to the appropriate degree.

The bachelor’s degrees outlined above are very promising and the jobs in those fields are numerous and they are not going away. The degrees aforementioned are by no means not comprehensive, but should give you an idea on how to pursue what is right for you.