An online bachelor's degree in general studies is, for most of the people who enroll, the last stretch of a degree they started years ago and set aside for work or family. The job now is fitting old credits into a new university's requirements and finishing what's left around a paycheck, from wherever you live. The best online programs below are the highest-scoring of the 54 ranked programs that ask nothing of you in person.
Source: IPEDS, as of September 2026.
universities offer a bachelor's degree in general studies fully online
80
of all general studies bachelor's programs can be completed at a distance
27%
median nonresident tuition and fees a year across ranked online general studies programs
$16,833
This online bachelor's ranking covers the 54 ranked general studies programs that need no campus attendance and lists the top 25.
The 25 Best Online Bachelor's Degrees in General Studies, Ranked
The 25 best online bachelor's degrees in general studies are the highest-scoring programs that universities report as fully available by distance education. Each carries the score it holds on the full bachelor's ranking, under the weights on the methodology page.
1
Southern Utah University
Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (BIS)
Utah
87.1- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 61%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $6,770 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 150
About the Program
Three tracks set how your disciplines combine, which matters when you're deciding how to spread your credits. With two disciplines of at least 21 credits each, Track One treats both fields as equals. Track Three spreads the degree across three disciplines, and the first two need 15 credits apiece with 9 of them upper-division. Whichever track you choose, you design it under advisor supervision instead of following a set major.
Whatever disciplines you combine, the core courses are fixed, because course substitution is not allowed in the foundation core. Those courses take you from an introduction to interdisciplinary studies through research methods to a capstone, inside a 12-credit core. Plan around the residency rule as well. Of the 120 credits, 40 are upper-division, and 20 of those are earned from SUU, so transfer credit can't supply all of your advanced work.
Timing matters, since your choice of disciplines needs approval from the BIS Coordinator or the INDS Department Chair before you reach 75 undergraduate credits. Later on, changes are blocked once you're inside your last 30 earned credits. So a change of mind about a discipline has to come before your last 30 credits.
Know the limits first. If teaching is the goal, this major can't be used for state certification as a teacher, and it stands alone, which means a double major with another bachelor's program is off the table. Inside your disciplines, a C- (1.7) is the floor for every course, so a lower grade in a discipline course doesn't meet the requirement.
2
Georgia Southern University
Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (B.I.S.)
Georgia
80.2- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 55%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $5,905 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 134
About the Program
Online and on-campus versions of this degree don't carry the same menu, because the college says there are significant differences in the concentrations and minors between the two. So check the fully online list before you plan anything. Whichever you choose, the major is one concentration of 21 upper-division hours, and the 34 hours of general electives can go toward one or two minors or an additional concentration.
Plan for a minimum of 3 credit hours of experiential learning or research, which the catalog requires. An internship, research, field study, practicum or study abroad all count, so if you're studying at a distance, think early about which one you can arrange. The major also opens with an introduction to interdisciplinary studies and closes with a capstone in the field, each worth 1 credit hour.
Previous classes transfer into this degree when they match a concentration or minor, which is why the college tells you to talk to a BIS or OLBIS advisor first. Lower-level credits can fill part of the 34 elective hours, but not all of them. The catalog requires 14 elective hours at the 3000 level or above, because a bachelor's degree here needs 39 upper-division hours in total.
If you want to teach, look at the BIS to M.A.T. concentration, which is designed for a later MAT degree and certification as a teacher. That makes the bachelor's the first of two degrees, so plan for the master's before you commit. The college lists State Farm, the U.S. Army, Abide Home Care, Fidelity Investments and Georgia Institute of Technology among the employers of its BIS graduates.
3
Arkansas State University
Bachelor of General Studies
Arkansas
78.8- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 55%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $7,754 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 205
About the Program
Two emphases, chosen with your advisor, give the online Bachelor of General Studies its subject. A-State names technology, communications, criminology, health and physical education among the areas, and Industrial Management is an emphasis built around management and leadership. Both emphases sit inside 73 credit hours of electives, which is far more room than the 9 credit hours of major courses take up, so what you pick shapes the degree more than what's assigned.
Expect to work on a problem from a professional setting, because Leadership in the Profession is an independent study that ends with you presenting a formal plan of action. Critical Thinking in the Profession is one of the major courses you're required to take. Your capstone, the Seminar in Professional Development, is open at senior-level standing, which the college defines as 90 or more earned college credits, so it comes late in the degree.
Credits you've already earned do a lot of the work here. You can transfer up to 90 eligible credit hours of prior college coursework, and bringing more than 12 means you won't be required to take the Making Connections course. But the credits need a 2.0 GPA behind them, and you apply with an online application and official transcripts.
Your home state doesn't change the bill, because the online Bachelor of General Studies charges the same tuition to all U.S. residents, with all fees included. You pay by the course, which comes to $906 per course at $302 per credit hour. Summer moves quickly, since the Summer 1 and Summer 2 terms are 5 weeks long for this degree.
4
Brigham Young University-Idaho
Interdisciplinary Studies (B.I.S.)
Idaho
76.2- Private nonprofit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 55%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $4,656 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 65
About the Program
Science, technology, engineering and math form one category, arts and humanities a second, and social sciences and business a third. You create your own degree by choosing from those three. BYU-Idaho says the result is skills in multiple areas instead of concentration on one main area, so expect breadth across the categories and plan for how you'll explain that mix to an employer.
AI tools come matched to your chosen areas of study, so the experience you gain with them, for research and for professional productivity, follows the subjects you picked. Among the courses in the major are an introduction to interdisciplinary studies and a course on interdisciplinary innovation. BYU-Idaho describes Interdisciplinary Studies as a relatively new major.
5
Texas Tech University
Bachelor of General Studies in Arts and Sciences Multidisciplinary Studies
Texas
75.7- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 69%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $11,852 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 209
About the Program
Coursework for this degree is 100% online and asynchronous, so you build the three concentration areas without attending at a fixed hour. Those areas stand where a major would, because the degree isn't based on a specific major or minor. Any academic minor TTU recognizes can serve as an area, and the curriculum of that minor then becomes the course list for that area.
Business Administration is one degree path the program page describes, but the path still has to fit the catalog's rule on concentration areas. Of your three areas, two must be within the College of Arts & Sciences, so the third area is the one open to a subject from outside that college. Decide early which subject gets that open place, because you have one of them.
Language is the requirement to check before you plan your concentration areas. Without two years of one foreign language from high school, you'll need two semesters of a single foreign language to graduate, so those courses take up room in your 120 credits. The junior and senior level matters too, because 40 hours in total must be taken there, and a transcript of introductory courses will leave that part still to do.
Per-credit pricing is how tuition works here, with the rate given as $415 to $500 per credit hour, so your tuition total rises with each credit hour you have left to take. The degree was designed for working adults and transfer students, and it's asynchronous, which means you won't have to attend class at a fixed hour.
6
West Virginia University
Bachelor of Multidisciplinary Studies (B. MdS.)
West Virginia
75.1- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 65%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,648 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 119
About the Program
Picking minors is the main decision in this degree, because the 51-hour major is built from three of them at 15 hours each. Two have to be minors from CAHS, the College of Applied Human Sciences, and the additional minor fills the third place. A career exploration course and a capstone complete the major, so the minors account for the bulk of what you choose.
Sport runs through a good share of the minor list. Sport Coaching, Sport Communication, Sport and Performance Psychology, Esports Management, and Sport Innovation and Global Industry Trends are all minors offered through CAHS. Others lean toward care and teaching, including Child Development and Family Studies, Health Coaching and Special Education. That spread matters because the degree is meant to meet a career aim in an applied human sciences field, so choose minors that point at one line of work.
General electives take up 33 hours of the degree plan, which gives you space for courses beyond your three minors. Use that space with the level rule in mind, because at least 60 credit hours must be 200 to 400 level coursework. The 120 total splits into 69 hours of university requirements and a 51-hour major, and a 2-credit first-year seminar is among the listed requirements.
Probation here comes with a set of obligations attached. If your GPA drops below 2.0, you're placed on academic probation, with added requirements such as required meetings with academic advisers and a retention specialist, study halls and tutoring. Two 3-hour courses frame the minors inside the major, a career exploration course in applied human sciences and the capstone experience.
7
Utah State University
Integrated Studies, BS/BA
Utah
73.4- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 59%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,305 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 47
About the Program
Career Focus Areas take the place of a fixed major in Integrated Studies, BS/BA. You follow one of six, among them Humanities and Arts, Business and Communication, and Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the area gives you a guided pathway in which you define outcomes and career options to create your major requirements. But if you study online, the choice narrows to one of two career focus areas, Business Communication or Social Science and Human Services.
Planning for work is taught inside the degree, because you take two courses taught by career specialists from the Career Design Center, and their purpose is to help you with career exploration and design. Internships come up as well, since the college says many Integrated Studies students participate in the Advanced Internship Course.
Declaring the major takes 12 USU credits, 60 earned credits and a 2.0 GPA, so you declare the Integrated Studies major partway through college. That fits who the degree is aimed at, which is students with existing college credit from Utah State or another accredited institution. If your credits come from somewhere else, you still need the 12 USU credits before you can declare.
Advisors build the plan with you, and it's an individualized semester-by-semester plan. That matters because your major requirements are ones you help create, so the plan is what tells you which courses are left. The degree is available at the Logan campus, at statewide campuses and through USU Online, and the online program has its own academic advisor.
8
American Public University System
Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies
West Virginia
72.8- Private for-profit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 57%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,400 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 71
About the Program
Two or more disciplines make up your focus in the Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, and you choose them from business and management, natural and social sciences, communication and media, and social services. The major is 39 semester hours and includes a required course, Applied Interdisciplinary Perspectives, while the degree closes with a separate 3-hour Senior Seminar in Interdisciplinary Studies as its final program requirement.
Electives take up 48 semester hours, and credits you earned toward a minor or certificate in an unrelated field can count toward them. That is a lot of room, and it suits the way the college describes the degree, as an online degree completion program where you build your own area of focus. If your earlier coursework wandered across subjects, the elective block is where it has a place to land.
Paying for the degree needs a plan, because the program does not qualify for federal student aid. Tuition is $360 per credit, $250 per credit at the preferred military rate, and $324 per credit with a Veteran Grant or Opportunity Grant. So check which rate applies to you before you budget, and work out where the money comes from if federal aid was part of your plan.
Courses start monthly, so you don't wait for a term to open, and they run online and vary from 8 to 16 weeks. Pair that with the transfer limit, up to 90 of the 120 credits, and the degree can be a short final stretch if you arrive with a lot behind you. Whatever you bring still has to fit the structure, which includes 30 semester hours of general education alongside the major.
9
University of Nevada-Reno
Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies
Nevada
72.1- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 61%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,994 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 62
About the Program
Rather than a single major, the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies asks you to complete two distinct minors and add a 15-unit breadth requirement outside both, with at least 9 of those units upper division. Those declared minors won't be earned at graduation, which means the degree itself is what you finish with, not the pair of minors beneath it. That arrangement fits if your academic or career interests fall outside the existing majors, because the degree exists for combinations no single major covers.
Swapping one of your two minors for a custom minor is how you study a field that has no established minor. You develop it in consultation with your academic advisor, who has to approve it, and it must contain 18-24 units with a minimum of 9 upper division and a theme holding it together. Since the custom minor can't sit in a field that already has an established minor, this route is for proposing something new, not for loosening the rules of a minor that exists.
Studying the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies online means choosing minors from a short list, because minor availability is limited to Addiction Treatment Services, Communication and Political Science, and course availability is more limited as well. Your advisor works with you to determine which courses meet your requirements and can be completed online, and once a plan exists you complete a form outlining the online requirements. Combining online and in-person study is allowed too, but tuition and fees for online study are the ones listed for on-campus degrees.
Before you can declare the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies, you need a minimum of 60 undergraduate credits from an accredited institution, and you have to meet with an academic advisor in the Exploratory and Pre-Professional Advising Center, since declaring the major isn't possible until that meeting has happened. The degree also can't be used as a second bachelor's degree or second major, so it's for completing a first degree, not adding one. The degree was formerly listed as General Studies, so it's worth searching under both names.
10
George Mason University
Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Studies
Virginia
71.1- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 68%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $13,815 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 136
About the Program
Your concentration stands in for a major, so it's a real decision. The established list runs from African and African American Studies to Social Justice and Human Rights and Women and Gender Studies, but you can also construct an individualized concentration of 30 credits. You'll need the executive director to approve it.
Expect coursework that can take you out of the classroom, because the catalog mentions in-community projects, field work, internships and research with faculty. If you're studying at a distance, ask how each of those is arranged before you commit. INTS coursework runs to at least 30 credits, 15 at the 300 and 400 levels, and these 30 INTS credits cover the writing intensive and synthesis Mason Core requirements. The course on understanding integrative studies and the senior capstone are required of everyone.
Plan any study abroad with the cap in mind, since up to 15 credits of study abroad coursework apply to the major and anything past that won't move your concentration forward. Advanced Composition is required as well. And the courses you apply to the major need a minimum GPA of 2.00.
Where this degree takes you depends on the concentration, so choose with the end in mind. Pick Social Science for Education and you're meeting Virginia Department of Education content-area requirements, with the chance, if you qualify, to apply for a combined route to the BA and an MEd in Curriculum and Instruction within five years. Pick Legal Studies and, with advanced planning, you may be eligible for an accelerated law degree through Mason's Scalia Law School.
11
Southeast Missouri State University
General Education
Missouri
70.1- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 58%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,495 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 116
About the Program
Every bachelor's student at Southeast clears the same general education core, this degree included, so you need at least 42 credit hours of it before the degree is done. Those hours are split across set categories: 6 in written communication, 3 in oral communication, 3 in mathematics, 6 in social and behavioral sciences, 7 in natural sciences, 9 in humanities and fine arts, and 3 in civics. That leaves 5 hours you can put in any category, which is where you lean toward the subjects you'd rather spend your time on.
Two of those categories won't let you stay in one subject. The 9 humanities and fine arts hours must come from at least two disciplines, and the 7 natural science hours from two disciplines. The catch is how the university counts a discipline: Chinese, French, German and Spanish are one, European and world civilization are one, the music subjects are one, and art history with studio art are one. So French plus Spanish counts as a single discipline, which means you'll need to reach into a second field to finish the category.
One natural science course must include a lab, so ask how that works at a distance before you plan the term. No more than 3 credit hours can come from performance-based courses like studio drawing or a music ensemble, so fine arts hours can't all be studio time. Civics adds 3 credit hours of coursework plus an exam that carries no credit but is required to graduate. The two American history surveys sit on both the civics and social science lists but count toward only one requirement, so one course can't cover both.
If you're arriving with credits, two rules decide how much of this core is already behind you. Courses carrying the MOTR designation count as general education credit at any public college or university in Missouri. Most students also take a freshman seminar on connecting with the university, which counts toward the 5 additional-requirement hours, but it's waived once you transfer 24 credit hours. Credits earned in high school through dual credit or early college programs don't count toward that 24, which means hours banked in high school won't get you out of the seminar.
12
Marshall University
Regents Bachelor of Arts (RBA)
West Virginia
65.5- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 51%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,942 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 148
About the Program
Without required major courses, the Regents Bachelor of Arts (RBA) leaves the course plan to you and an advisor. That plan has to reach 120 credit hours, including 36 general education hours and 30 upper-division hours. You can shape it around an area of emphasis such as Anthropology, Communication Studies, Creative Writing, Criminal Justice, Cyber Forensics, History, Military Science, Psychology or Studio Art, so the degree can still point at a subject.
College Equivalent Credits are how the RBA counts what you learned outside a classroom. Examples the catalog gives include military credits, standard awards for certain licenses, certifications and corporate training, CLEP and DSST exams, and portfolio petitions for credit, and they count inside the 120 credit hours. But the credit is added after you've completed a semester in the program with a 2.0 GPA or better at Marshall and overall, so plan on passing a term before it shows up.
The average age of RBA students is 35. You must be at least 3 years out of high school unless you hold an A.A., A.S. or A.A.S. degree, which lets you enter directly. The limits are firm. You can't pursue the RBA if you already hold a bachelor's degree, and a cap of 72 hours applies to community college credit.
Old failing grades don't have to follow you into the RBA. Failing grades from three or more years before admission may be forgiven and disregarded in the GPA required for graduation. Residency asks for 24 graded hours at any West Virginia public institution, with at least 12 earned at Marshall, and you can take WVROCKS courses, which run online as accelerated eight-week courses.
13
Southeastern Louisiana University
Bachelor of General Studies
Louisiana
64.7- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 45%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,373 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 223
About the Program
One major concentration and two minor concentrations form the center of the Bachelor of General Studies. The major concentration is 30 hours from one of the concentration groups numbered 1 to 5, and each minor concentration is 15 hours drawn from a second and a third group, so your coursework has to reach across three groups. Group 3, Applied Sciences, shows the range, because it holds Computer Science, Construction Technology, Horticulture, Child Life, Nursing and Health Systems Management.
Fifteen of the 30 hours in your major concentration must be completed at Southeastern, so transfer credit can cover part of that concentration and no more. Fifteen of the 30 must also be at or above the 3000 level, and the concentration requires a 2.0 degree GPA. Across the whole degree, 36 of the 120 semester hours have to be at or above the 3000 level, which is the number to check your transcript against.
Business coursework has a ceiling. No more than 30 hours of marketing, management, economics, finance, accounting or business courses can be applied to the degree, so a transcript heavy in those subjects won't all count. A major concentration in Group 1 or 2 requires 6 hours of one world language, which can count as elective hours or as part of a concentration. And if you earn a second bachelor's, your major concentration can't contain courses in the same subject as that other degree's major.
Becoming a General Studies major takes a curriculum plan that you create with a faculty advisor in the General Studies Program, so the plan comes before the status. The curriculum includes From College to Employment, a 3-credit course, which puts the move into work inside the degree itself. Eighteen hours of additional courses complete the plan, and the catalog describes them as courses that enhance knowledge and enrich skills.
14
University of Louisiana at Monroe
Bachelor of General Studies
Louisiana
64.5- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 54%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,190 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 79
About the Program
Distance study is on the table here, because ULM offers the Bachelor of General Studies 100% online. What you're signing up for is a degree in two parts, a major concentration group of 30 hours and a secondary group of 12 hours, with 33 hours of electives beside them. Those electives can be arranged to include a minor, and a professional academic advisor for General Studies directs that planning, so you aren't assembling the degree alone.
Expect a large block of this degree to be advanced coursework. The catalog sets 45 hours at the 3000 or 4000 level, 15 of them at the 4000 level and 12 of them in your major concentration group, inside a 120-hour minimum. That means you'll want to check how your earlier credits are numbered before you plan your terms. Choosing a major concentration in Group I, II or III adds 6 hours of one foreign language, so factor that in too.
Credit from the College of Business Administration counts toward this bachelor's up to a limit of 30 semester hours, and the limit comes from AACSB accreditation rules. That bites hardest if you're switching out of a business major, and ULM says people who change college majors late are among those the degree is meant for. So sort your business credits first, then plan the concentration groups around the ones that count.
After the degree, ULM lists law school, health professions and other graduate programs among the paths open to you. If a health field interests you, the Applied Sciences group pulls from nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, radiologic technology, speech-language pathology and toxicology, along with military science. The General Studies curricula are administered by the College of Arts, Education, and Sciences.
15
University of Idaho
Bachelor of General Studies (B.G.S.)
Idaho
64.4- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 57%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,816 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 35
About the Program
Breadth is written into the rules of the Bachelor of General Studies (B.G.S.). Your credits are capped at 36 credits in any one discipline, so you can't turn the degree into a major under another name. Apart from the general university requirements, no specific subjects are required, which leaves you and a faculty advisor to plan a custom curriculum across the sciences and humanities.
What appears on your diploma is General Studies, because no other major will be certified on the diploma or official transcript. But you can complete one or more minors, and your transcript will reflect these minors, so a minor is the way to put a named subject on your record. The one named required course is a 1-credit course in career and leadership development.
Holding a bachelor's degree already rules you out of the B.G.S., and so does being a candidate for another degree at the university. The catalog also advises you not to make a firm decision about the B.G.S. before the end of the freshman year. For guidance on designing your program, the contact is the director of general studies.
If you're coming back with college credits but no degree, the general studies page points you to Vandal Finish. The B.G.S. is offered online as well as in person. Whatever credits you bring, the degree totals 120 credits and a minimum of 45 upper-division credits, which means lower-level credits alone won't complete it.
16
Western Kentucky University
Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies
Kentucky
63.9- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 56%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $11,436 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 137
About the Program
Building the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies is your job. You select complementary courses from different disciplines and shape them into a course of study that suits your interests. The rules then stop you from quietly rebuilding a single major, because no more than 24 semester hours can come from one academic discipline and no more than 30 from courses run by the Gordon Ford College of Business. All of it is fully online.
You complete a concentration of at least 36 semester hours, chosen from Arts, Business, Education, Health, Humanities, Organization and Communication of Ideas, Social and Behavioral, Science, Social Justice and Equity Studies, Sustainability, and Technology. Those hours include a capstone course, which you choose from two options, so the capstone counts inside the 36 hours and not in addition to them.
If none of the listed concentrations fits, you can ask for a broad concentration of your own, but it takes a written request based on specific objectives and approval from a BIS advisor, the Director, and the Dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences. So treat it as a proposal you have to argue, and start early. Pairing the major with a minor has its own rule: 54 hours total between the two, with 48 hours unduplicated.
Upper-level credit is the requirement to check against your transcript first. You need 42 hours of upper-level credits, including 12 upper-level hours in the concentration, inside a degree of at least 120 unduplicated semester hours. That matters if you're bringing a lot of lower-level credit, because those hours can't fill the 42. Since the degree is fully online, you can take those upper-level courses without coming to campus.
17
Eastern New Mexico University
Bachelor of University Studies
New Mexico
62.9- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 45%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $6,738 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 76
About the Program
Two areas of concentration are required in the Bachelor of University Studies, each a minimum of 15 hours completed with a C or better, while combined coursework must total at least 120 hours and you're required to complete a minimum of 40 hours of upper division courses. The college says this could be the right degree if you have gained significant learning through your work and life experiences, and the degree plan is one you propose.
Your degree plan isn't final until the dean approves it. You map the plan with the College of Education and Technology university studies advisor, an Instructor of Education Foundations, and the CET dean has final approval for each proposed plan. Choose concentrations with format in mind, because the degree may be completed online depending on the concentrations you select. Full-time and part-time students can both take the degree.
Career pathways the college lists include management positions in private and public sector. The list also includes civil and governmental service and positions requiring a completed bachelor's degree, which means that for some of these jobs the finished degree is the requirement you're meeting.
18
Winston-Salem State University
Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies
North Carolina
62.4- Public
- Fully Online Option
- HBCU
- College graduation rate
- 47%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $6,735 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 58
About the Program
Combining coursework from two or more academic areas is how you build the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies, and you name one area as primary and one as secondary. In both, you take foundational courses in research, writing and presentation, so the areas you combine share a set of skills. The electives named on the page include Black Writers in American Literature, Native American Studies, Cultural Diversity and Sociology of the African American.
Distance study runs through the Integrative Studies Concentration, which the Department of Liberal Studies offers inside this degree. The condition is order: once your general education requirements are complete, you can take all upper-level integrative studies courses fully online. The college says the degree suits transfer students looking to apply their credits, and you can attend full-time or part-time, on campus, online or in a hybrid format.
Careers the college names for its graduates include education, advocacy and social services, media and the arts, law and government, and business. The college words this as fields such as these, which means the list is a set of examples and not a full account of where graduates work. You can choose your primary and secondary areas with one of those fields in mind.
19
McNeese State University
Bachelor of General Studies (B.G.S.)
Louisiana
62.2- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 47%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,460 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 121
About the Program
Concentrations give the Bachelor of General Studies (B.G.S.) its shape, and they point in different directions. Arts and Humanities covers art, foreign languages, music, theater and philosophy, while Applied and Natural Sciences takes in ecological sciences, physics, chemistry and computer science. Behavioral Sciences includes criminal justice, economics, health and human performance, and psychology. So your first decision is which of these families your interests already lean toward.
Applied English and Professional Writing is a concentration with a job skill written into it. You step into STEM-related writing, which means you discover how to develop content for marketing high-tech products, and you practice writing proposals for potential business customers and instructions for software developers. So the writing you practice in this concentration has named readers, business customers and software developers.
Delivery is your call, because the degree is available 100% online or as a combination of online and on-campus classes. Either way it's 120 credit hours, which the college lists as 4 years. Within that, you design and individualize your own curriculum track around your interests or career goals, so two people in the same degree can take quite different courses. An associate's degree in general studies is offered too, on campus and online.
Graduates are pointed toward office and analysis roles. The college's list of potential job titles includes administrative or executive assistant, operations or general manager, program manager, project coordinator and market research analyst. If you'd keep studying instead, the page names a Master of General Studies and a Doctor of Philosophy in General Studies as graduate programs to pursue.
20
University of the Cumberlands
Bachelor's Degree in General Studies
Kentucky
61.5- Private nonprofit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 50%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,875 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 266
About the Program
Four required courses form the 12-hour core of the Bachelor's Degree in General Studies, and they're practical ones: Personal Finance, Business Communications, Strategies for General Studies and a Capstone. So alongside your chosen subjects, everyone on the degree covers money and workplace communication. Around that core you add two specialized areas and then strategic electives, which fill whatever hours remain.
Each of your two emphasis areas is 15 credit hours, and in each one 9 or more hours must be at the 300 or 400 level, so you can't build either emphasis from introductory courses alone. Options include Media Studies, drawn from COMM, JOUR or IDC courses, and Christian Studies, drawn from MSMN courses. If you'd prefer a minor, you can complete one emphasis area and one minor in place of the second area.
Language study is the difference between the two versions of the degree. A Bachelor of Arts in General Studies requires the same courses as the Bachelor of Science plus one foreign language sequence through the intermediate level, but foreign language courses are offered on campus, not online. So if you're studying online, choosing the Bachelor of Arts means getting to campus for that sequence.
Credit you already hold can go toward the total. A bachelor's here requires a minimum of 120 hours, and transfer and prior learning credits may be counted toward it. Because the core is 12 hours and the two specialized areas are 30 hours together, any hours they don't cover are filled by strategic electives.
21
Wichita State University
Details: Aging Studies, Field Major or Bachelor of General Studies, CHP
Kansas
60.4- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 51%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $9,322 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 81
About the Program
Some 16,689 students attend Wichita State University, a public university in Wichita, Kansas. Tuition and fees run $9,322 a year in state and $19,240 out of state, which is the gap to ask about before enrolling from elsewhere. During the most recent year on record it awarded 81 bachelor's degrees, a count at the 73rd percentile for size. Across the whole college, 51% of students finish, which is a higher rate than 53% of the institutions behind this list. Admission is selective enough to plan for, with 94% of applicants accepted. On the number of degrees it awards it does best, reaching the 73rd percentile.
22
Northwest Missouri State University
General Studies (B.A., B.S., B.A.S.)
Missouri
55.5- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 54%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $10,181 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 46
About the Program
Vocational and technical credits have a route into a four-year degree here. The Bachelor of Applied Science is for transfer students pursuing a vocational, technical or associate degree, and it's built to maximize the transfer of those courses, which shortens your time to the degree. The B.A.S. also requires fewer Northwest Core courses, the general education courses, so general education takes up less of what you have left to do.
Picking between the B.A. and the B.S. doesn't change the size of the major, because each is a 69-hour major with no minor required. Those hours give you a broad education across the university's disciplines, which leaves room for additional electives in any discipline area and still enough room for further study in one particular area. An online program is available in general studies.
Every major in the school must have a school advisor from the appropriate area who approves all programs, deviations or options, so you don't assemble this degree on your own say-so. Credit by examination through the School of Humanities and Social Sciences isn't available for courses in its catalog.
Careers Northwest lists for the major include academic advising, humanitarian services, case manager, community relations, freelance writing and lobbyist. That list runs wide, which fits what the catalog says the major is meant to provide, a broad education across the disciplines.
23
Sacred Heart University
BA/BS in General Studies
Connecticut
55.1- Private nonprofit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 73%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $48,460 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 30
About the Program
Beyond the 45-credit University Core Curriculum, the degree rests on a 36-credit emphasis in one area, while candidates must complete at least 120 credits in all. Business Studies is one of the emphasis areas, which takes in Accounting, Economics, Finance, Marketing, Management and Sport Management. The design was developed for adult and transfer students.
Part-time students can earn the degree fully online, and the plan of study is built so they can complete their major in two years through eight-week AHEAD terms. If you'd rather be in a classroom, daytime, evening and Saturday classes run on campus, and the degree can be taken part-time or full-time. The two-year plan is for the major, so count your other credits separately.
Grades inside the emphasis are held to a line. A grade of C or better is required for each class in the 36-credit emphasis, so a lower grade means the class won't count toward it. Twelve of those credits must be at the 200 level or higher. At least half of the major must be completed at SHU, which limits how much of the emphasis you can bring in from earlier study.
Transfer credit is capped by where you earned it, with a maximum of 66 credits accepted from a junior college and a maximum of 90 from a four-year institution. Arriving with 60 credits or more from another institution changes your core, because the foundational core is waived at that point. A seminar course is the exception, which every student takes.
24
Northwestern State University of Louisiana
Bachelor of General Studies
Louisiana
53.8- Public
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 43%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $8,864 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 91
About the Program
Based in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Northwestern State University of Louisiana is a public university with 8,523 students on its rolls. Online students should check which rate applies to them, because residents pay $8,864 a year and nonresidents $19,652. It conferred 91 bachelor's degrees in the latest reported year, which is more than 77% of the bachelor's programs ranked at this level. Of the students who start at Northwestern State University of Louisiana, 43% graduate, and that beats 31 in every 100 institutions on this measure. Admission is selective enough to plan for, with 93% of applicants accepted. Its strongest mark is the number of degrees it awards, at the 77th percentile.
25
University of Mary
North Dakota
53.8- Private nonprofit
- Fully Online Option
- College graduation rate
- 67%
- In-state tuition and fees
- $21,468 a year
- Degrees awarded, latest year
- 22
About the Program
Some 3,861 students attend University of Mary, a private nonprofit university in Bismarck, North Dakota. Tuition and fees hold at $21,468 a year for residents and nonresidents alike, which is what matters when you study from elsewhere. It conferred 22 bachelor's degrees in the latest reported year, which is more than 31% of the bachelor's programs ranked at this level. Of the students who start at University of Mary, 67% graduate, and that beats 88 in every 100 institutions on this measure. Applicants are admitted at a rate of 75%, which leaves room for a rejection. On the graduation rate of its college it does best, reaching the 88th percentile.
How We Rank
Every eligible program at this level is scored out of 100. Each figure becomes a percentile against the 54 ranked programs, and the percentiles are weighted as below. The methodology page explains each choice.
- College graduation rate: 45%. Share of first-time, full-time students at the college who finish within 150% of the normal time. It describes the college, not this one program.
- In-state tuition and fees: 30%. Published in-state tuition plus required fees for a full-time year. Lower cost scores higher.
- Degrees awarded, latest year: 25%. General studies degrees the program conferred in the latest reported year. The one figure here that belongs to the program itself.
Reading the cards. Every program here is reported to IPEDS as one a student can complete entirely at a distance. Cost is published tuition plus required fees for a full-time year, 2023-24, for residents and nonresidents of the university's home state. Percentiles compare a program with all 164 ranked bachelor's programs, online or not.
Source: federal IPEDS records for each college, as of September 2026. Scores are this site's own.
Can You Finish a Bachelor's Degree in General Studies Online?
You can finish a bachelor's degree in general studies online at 80 universities, which is 27% of the 291 that award the degree, on what each reports to IPEDS. Of those, 54 graduated enough students in the latest year to be ranked, and the 25 programs on this page are the highest scoring among them.
The federal online flag has a precise meaning, and you should know it before you read "fully online" on a university's own page. IPEDS asks each university whether all, some or none of the programs under each degree code can be completed entirely by distance education, and a program counts as distance education when all of its instructional portions can be completed remotely. Distance education itself means instruction delivered by technology to students who are separated from the instructor, with regular and substantive interaction between you and that instructor, whether live or on your own schedule.
The flag doesn't rule out two things. In-person requirements that aren't instruction don't stop a program being reported as fully online, and the federal guidance names orientation and testing as its examples. So a degree on this list can still send you to a testing center for proctored exams. And the flag describes the general studies degree as a whole. The emphasis areas inside it borrow upper-level courses from other departments, and nothing in the federal record says whether each of those courses runs online.
So put two questions to every program you shortlist. Which emphasis areas can be completed online from the first course to the last, and where do exams take place. Get the list of online emphasis areas in writing, because it decides whether the degree you finish is the one you set out to earn.
Who Is an Online Bachelor's Degree in General Studies Built For?
An online bachelor's degree in general studies is built for the student who already holds credit and can't get to a campus, and the federal figures show the programs are built at scale for that student. The median ranked online program awarded 53 general studies degrees in the latest year reported to IPEDS, against 33 for the 110 ranked programs that run on campus only. 17 of the 54 online programs awarded 100 or more, compared with 19 of the campus-only programs.
Size matters more online than it does on campus. A program that graduates a hundred people a year has a reason to schedule every required course every term, to staff an advising office that reads transcripts all year, and to keep an online section of each course its emphasis areas need. A program graduating a dozen is more likely to run its online courses in rotation, and a rotation is what pushes a part-time student's finish date back.
35 of the 54 ranked online programs are at public universities and 19 at private colleges. That split shapes the price question below, because a public university's tuition depends on where you live and a private college's usually doesn't. If you'll be studying at six credits a term around a full-time job, the two figures to carry into every conversation are the credits you still owe and the per-credit rate for a student in your state.
How Does an Online Degree Completion Program in General Studies Work?
An online degree completion program in general studies works in three steps: the university evaluates the credit you already hold, maps it onto the degree's requirements, and writes you a plan for the credits that remain. The evaluation is the university's decision alone. The U.S. Department of Education states that acceptance of credit is always the prerogative of the receiving institution, and accreditation on its own doesn't oblige a university to take a single credit from anywhere else.
Read the evaluation as two columns. One is credit accepted, which the university agrees to put on your record. The other is credit applied, which fills a requirement of the degree. Credit can be accepted and land as free electives, and free electives count toward the total only after every named requirement is met. The figure to compare between universities is the number of credits you still owe, and two universities can give the same transcript two different answers.
Then there's residency. Every university sets a minimum number of credits you must earn from it before it puts its name on your degree, and the Higher Learning Commission's guidance is that institutions typically require at least 30 of the 120. Residency has nothing to do with living near the campus. For an online student it means credits earned in the university's own online courses, and it's the floor beneath how short the degree can be, whatever you bring.
Ask the admissions office for the evaluation before you pay an application fee, and ask for it as a degree audit rather than a transfer summary. A degree audit lists each requirement, what filled it and what's still open. That one document tells you more about how long and how much than anything on this page can.
How Much Do Out-of-State Students Pay for an Online General Studies Degree?
Out-of-state students pay a median of $16,833 a year in published tuition for an online general studies degree, against $9,488 for residents, across the 54 ranked online programs in IPEDS. The gap sits almost entirely at public universities. Across the 35 public programs, median resident tuition and fees come to $8,868 and the nonresident median is $17,391, while the 19 private programs charge a median of $16,450 to everyone.
20 of the 54 ranked online programs publish one rate for every student, and only 1 of those are public. The other 34 public universities publish two rates, and the median distance between them is $10,020 a year. The ten lowest nonresident rates among the 25 best are below, each beside the resident rate at the same university.
The published nonresident rate is a ceiling more often than a bill. A public university can charge distance students the resident rate, a flat online rate, or a per-credit online rate that the federal record doesn't hold, and it can change which one applies from program to program. So the figure to get in writing from the bursar is the per-credit charge for an online student living where you live, with required fees listed beside it. Then multiply it by the credits on your degree audit, because that product, not the annual rate, is what the degree costs you.
How Long Does an Online General Studies Bachelor's Degree Take if You Have Credits?
An online general studies bachelor's degree takes as long as the credits you still owe divided by the credits you can carry each term, and nothing about being online changes the arithmetic. The degree is 120 semester credits, the commonly accepted minimum for a bachelor's degree, and the plan you receive after your evaluation states what's left.
The residency requirement sets the shortest version. If the university requires 30 credits earned with it, then even a student arriving with more than 90 accepted credits owes those 30. At 15 credits a term that's two terms. At six credits a term, which is the load most people can hold beside a full-time job, it's five terms. Between those, a student who owes 60 credits is looking at four terms full time and ten terms part time.
What shortens it isn't speed, it's availability. Ask how many start dates the program has a year, whether every required course runs online every term, and whether the courses in your emphasis areas run in rotation. A required course offered online once a year can add two terms to a part-time plan on its own, because you wait for it and then wait for whatever it's a prerequisite for.
What lengthens it is credit that was accepted but didn't apply. Every course you take to replace one that landed as an elective is a term's worth of money and evenings, so settle the applied count before the first tuition payment, not after.
Is an Online General Studies Bachelor's Program Authorized to Enroll Students in Your State?
An online general studies bachelor's program is authorized to enroll students in your state when its university holds that state's approval, and most universities hold it through the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, which were established in 2013 by state regulators, accreditors, the U.S. Department of Education and the institutions themselves. A university approved to take part may offer distance education programs to students in other member states without applying to each of those states on its own.
Taking part carries conditions that work in your favor. A SARA institution must be degree granting, must be accredited by an agency whose federal recognition covers distance education, and must agree that where it can't deliver the instruction you paid for, it will provide a reasonable alternative or reasonable financial compensation. NC-SARA also publishes a student complaint process for students of participating institutions, which is a route you don't have with a university that's authorized in your state by other means.
General studies gets one thing easier here. NC-SARA keeps a separate professional licensure directory for counseling, nursing, psychology, social work and teacher education, because a program in those fields has to satisfy the licensing board of the state you'll work in as well. A general studies degree leads to no license, so that second check, the one that trips up out-of-state nursing and teaching students, never applies to you.
So the check is short. Ask the university whether it takes part in SARA, and confirm that your state is a member. If either isn't, the university needs your state's individual approval to enroll you, and it's the university's job to show you it holds that approval before it takes your money.
What Should You Ask an Online General Studies Program Before You Apply?
Ask an online general studies program six things before you apply, and ask for each answer in writing, because these answers set the length and price of your degree more than any place on a ranking does.
- How many of my credits apply to requirements, not only to electives? Accepted and applied are different columns on an evaluation, and only applied credit shortens the degree.
- How many credits must I earn with you? That residency figure is the floor under your time and your cost, whatever you bring.
- What is the per-credit charge for an online student living in my state, with required fees? The published resident and nonresident rates can both be the wrong number for a distance student.
- Which emphasis areas can be completed entirely online, and how often does each required course run? The federal online flag covers the degree as a whole, not each course inside an emphasis area.
- Are exams proctored, and where? In-person testing doesn't stop a program being reported as fully online, so the answer can be a testing center an hour away.
- Are you authorized to enroll students in my state? A university outside the reciprocity agreements needs your state's own approval before it can take you.
A program that answers all six before you've paid an application fee is showing you how it treats students. One that answers with a link to the catalog is showing you something too, and you should weigh it the same way.
How Do You Check That an Online General Studies Program Is Accredited?
You check that an online general studies program is accredited by looking up the university, not the program, in the Department of Education's accreditation database, because general studies has no accrediting agency of its own and the online version of a degree carries exactly the accreditation its campus version does. There's no separate online accreditation to look for, and a university advertising one is describing something that doesn't exist.
What does differ online is the accreditor's scope. A university enrolling distance students across state lines under the reciprocity agreements must be accredited by an agency whose recognition by the Department includes distance education. The database entry names the university's accreditor and its current status, so one search settles whether the university is accredited and by whom, and a second question to the university settles whether that accreditor's scope covers what you'll be enrolled in.
Do it for every university on your shortlist, and do it before the application fee. Accreditation by a recognized agency is what makes a university's students eligible for federal student aid, and it's the first thing a graduate school or an employer's verification service checks when your degree is on the table. What it doesn't do is guarantee that another university will accept your credits if you move again, which the Department says in plain terms. Accreditation gets you into the room. The degree audit tells you what your credit is worth once you're there.
How Were the Best Online General Studies Bachelor's Programs Ranked?
The best online general studies bachelor's programs were ranked on university graduation rate, weighted 45%, resident tuition and fees, weighted 30%, and general studies degrees awarded, weighted 25%, and then filtered to the programs reported as completable entirely at a distance. Each program carries the score it holds on the full bachelor's ranking, where all 164 ranked programs are scored together. Nothing is added or taken away for being online.
That design has a consequence you should read into the order. The price factor uses resident tuition and fees because it's the one figure every university publishes on the same basis, and it favors public universities, whose nonresident rate on this list runs as high as 3.4 times the resident rate. 20 of the 25 programs shown are public. If you'd be billed as a nonresident, the chart of nonresident rates above reorders this list for you better than the scores do.
Degrees awarded is the one factor that belongs to the program rather than the university, and it counts every graduate of the program, online or on campus. The reasoning behind each weight, and the threshold of 10 graduates a program needed to be ranked at all, is on the methodology page.
What Does This Online Bachelor's Ranking Leave Out?
This online bachelor's ranking leaves out how each university treats transfer credit, which for a degree completion student outweighs every figure on the cards, and it leaves out what an online student is billed, which can differ from both tuition columns.
It also can't tell you how many people finish the degree online. The federal online flag records whether a program can be completed at a distance and does not capture the number of students who completed a program that way, so degrees awarded counts everyone who finished, in person or at a distance, and a large program isn't proof of a large online program. The graduation rate is the university's, earned by a cohort that mostly sat in classrooms.
Nor does it see inside the degree. Which emphasis areas run online, how often each course is offered, and whether exams are proctored in person are decided course by course and reported to nobody. Treat the list as a way to choose which universities get your transcript, and let the degree audits decide between them.
Common Questions About Online General Studies Bachelor's Degrees
Are Online Bachelor's Degrees in General Studies Accredited?
What Is the Cheapest Online Bachelor's Degree in General Studies for Out-of-State Students?
Can You Finish a General Studies Bachelor's Degree Online in One Year?
Does an Online General Studies Degree Look Different to Employers?
Do Online General Studies Programs Accept Military Credit?
What Does Fully Online Mean for a Bachelor's Degree in General Studies?
Can You Enroll in an Online General Studies Bachelor's Program From Any State?
Where Do the Figures on These Online Bachelor's Programs Come From?
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
- Distance Education in IPEDS, National Center for Education Statistics
- Assumed Practices, Higher Learning Commission
- Accreditation in the U.S., U.S. Department of Education
- Overview of Accreditation in the United States, U.S. Department of Education
- National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements
- SARA for Students, NC-SARA
- The Military Guide, American Council on Education
- Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs
The figures on these online bachelor's programs come from federal records that each university reports about itself, as of the dates shown.
Show the federal record for all 25 colleges ranked, in 16 states and territories
Southern Utah University Georgia Southern University Arkansas State University Brigham Young University-Idaho Texas Tech University West Virginia University Utah State University American Public University System University of Nevada-Reno George Mason University Southeast Missouri State University Marshall University Southeastern Louisiana University University of Louisiana at Monroe University of Idaho Western Kentucky University Eastern New Mexico University Winston-Salem State University McNeese State University University of the Cumberlands Wichita State University Northwest Missouri State University Sacred Heart University Northwestern State University of Louisiana University of Mary