Online Universities: More Popular Than Ever

Every sign is pointing to it, but it’s such a pressing issue on today’s education landscape that it certainly bears repeating — online universities are becoming more popular than ever. Today’s affirmation comes from Alabama’s Orange Beach, where the sheer volume of enrollment at Columbia Southern University has forced the online institution to move its business to a more high-tech facility to better support its ever-growing student body.

“Just last week we enrolled 273 new students,” says CSU Prsident [sic] Robert Mayes. “We’re currently at over 16-thousand students and by the end of this year, we expect to be at 24-thousand active students.”

The economy is forcing people to pinch pennies and for some people, higher education is the first the cut out of the family budget. That’s why Mayes says enrollment is up at CSU. Mayes says both traditional and non-traditional students are attending online universities because students are able to save money by cutting out room-and-board and commuting expenses.

In addition to saving money on boarding and commuting, Mayes notes competitive prices of online classes and the ease with which a student can study around his or her work schedule as major factors in the rise of online education. To boot, the university has just started accepting and offering financial aid, making an online degree an even tastier choice in today’s economy.

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