Current Least Expensive RA Masters (As of March 2020)

The least expensive I'm aware of are WGUs competency based programs. For the right person in the right circumstance, it's possible to finish a degree in Education in one semester for a $3385 flat fee. Their Business and IT programs are similarly, though slightly higher, priced. More realistically, for most people most of the time, you can feasibly finish in 2 semesters for exactly twice the costs I just described.

Bradman University offers a competency-based MAOL for $3500 per semester. As best as I can understand it (from reading the literal fine print in the footnotes), you are forced to complete it in 2 semesters at a minimum and can't rush through it in 1. That brings the degree to $7000 for a year of study.

Similarly, John F. Kennedy University offers competency based MBA for $8500 per year. Finish in a year, and that's your total cost.

I doubt there's much out there less expensive, but I'm putting this thread out there to share and, maybe, for one of you to add something else I'm missing.

Are these the best deals out there?

 

Oh, and I'd be curious to know the least expensive non-competency based degrees.

 

Competency - Walden Tempo Learning has a special 50% off tuition for the life of the program. $1330 (Half of $2660) for a 3 month term, if you finish in 6 months (yes, it's possible - very likely) you can get it for a whopping $2660 - a RA MS General Psychology OR I/O Psychology Degree.

My previous post: https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/low-cost-ma-ms-psychology-degrees-worldwide.56878/#post-533226

For non-competency: I usually recommend these two schools, Amberton & Fort Hays
Amberton - $265/grad credit: https://www.amberton.edu/choosing-amberton/tuition/fee-structure.html
Fort Hays - $287.75/grad credit : https://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege/admissions/tuition/

 

I didn't realize Amberton and FHSU's tuition were both still under $300. That's fantastic. Even ENMU's MBA is over $300 per credit now, when you include the online fee.

Total estimated cost for a 36 credit degree at Amberton, per their price calculator, is $11,490. That price includes books.

FHSU's MPS is 30 credits, so that's $8632.50, not counting books or other fees.

Hellenic American University has a few online Master's degrees that fall into the less expensive category. They list their MA in Applied Linguistics as $10,500 and their MBA at $11,000, but they don't have a breakdown of what the costs are, and don't mention if it includes books.

So far, this is what we have in terms of least expensive.

Competency Based: WGU's various degrees in Education that cost $3385 (6-months) or $6770 (1 year).

Traditional Semester Structure: Either FHSU's MPS at $8632.50 (books not included), or Hellenic Americans's MA in Applied Linguistics for $10,500 (unclear if books and other fees are included). It's hard to tell which one of these is less costly due to the lack of complete cost information.

 

I would skip anything that's to do with DEAC, since they're NA, further to that - if you wanted to know, New Charter University seems to be having issues. I read through a few of their "accreditation updates" and it may be going the way of Brighton College (coincidentally, Brighton College got renewed after being on show cause directive - but their Paralegal Institute is still on show cause)

Anyways... these two are the ones I would recommend, I confirmed that Capella does allow you to finish faster, if you finish in two terms it'll be $5600, so it's not going to cost all that more expensive than Walden at $5320 (if you can't get the 50% off tuition from Walden).

Essentially, Walden Tempo Learning has a special 50% off tuition for the life of the program. $1330 (Half of $2660) for a 3 month term, if you finish in 6 months (yes, it's possible - very likely) you can get it for a whopping $2660 - a RA MS General Psychology OR I/O Psychology Degree.

For Capella, in addition to Gen Psych & I/O Psych, they have several Flexpath options. It's $2800 for a 3 month term, so if you finish in 6 months, that's only $5600 for a "different" area of Psychology if Gen or I/O isn't your fancy. I mean, here's two cheap RA MS Psychology degrees for under $6 grand/6 months.

 

I agree.

Competency based degrees weren't really what I wanted to focus on in this thread, but I brought them up because they satisfy the question. I feel more comfortable looking at them in terms of how much they would cost for a year of study, since that is a more realistic goal.

Now, maybe I should have explained why I'm even asking this to begin with. Really, I made this thread as sort of an analogy of my car buying experience. I'm currently in the market for a car, and while I never buy the cheapest one, I like to start looking at the cheapest first and then working my way up from there. Basically, it gives me a better idea of what the range of the market looks like. It can also give me an idea of what I can get if I'm low on funds or if I just need a clunker to putt-putt-putt in for a while.

I'm sure there are others interested in the same question, especially since it changes so often.