2026 Most Affordable Online Colleges for Anthropology Degrees

I am nearing the end of my first year at SNHU as a full time online student. It has been fantastic. The application and enrollment process was the easiest of any school I have attended. The online platform SNHU currently uses is Brightspace. Going from Canvas to Brightspace was a little confusing, but ultimately simpler and more user friendly. Before term starts there is a walkthrough tutorial on how to use it so if you read a review where someone complains about the online set up, it's likely because... Read More they skipped the tutorial. It is mind numbingly easy to navigate. I will say that online learning is not for everyone. After graduating high school in 2013, I took 7 years off so I was a bit older when returning to school. I found online learning easier for me as I could maintain a home, work, and learn all in a way that fit my lifestyle. I have read some reviews about the workload being difficult, but I truly can't understand where this comes from. There are times when I become frustrated because my courses aren't challenging enough, but I'm sure that has to do with your own particular major. I'm sure I wouldn't want to do engineering or other math heavy degrees online. I cannot recommend SNHU online enough, especially for older individuals going back to school.

I've been attending this school since October of 2016 and am at 60 credit hours (already in the process of transferring). I want to make it clear that I actually have no ill-will towards the school solely because I was well aware of what I was getting myself into. I enrolled here for two reasons: 1.) At the time, I could not afford to take the SAT or ACT to get into a better school. 2.) I had just finished getting my GED and my state had switched over to a new test that, at the time, many universities... Read More were not familiar with. These factor made my uni options painfully slim, and SNHU was the only non-profit and regionally accredited university that had my major of interest and would accept me. 3.) I lived too far away from my local community college and did not have reliable transportation to classes So first the good things (in my experience): 1.) Short/not too time consuming assignments. A week's worth of assignments can easily be completed in a couple of hours with the only exception being final projects/papers. 2.) Responsive instructors. The school has a policy that instructors must respond to your message or email within 48 hours, but you usually hear back in less than 24 hours. 3.) Time flexibility and no minimum login requirement. All assignments are due on Sunday with the exception of discussions unless its a Perspectives course. There is no minimum number of times you have to login in a week, so you just do them when you can as long as its before the deadline. 4.) The price. At the time of writing, classes cost $960 each. Books/programs are all digital so you pay significantly less (usually $60 to $100) then you would for a physical textbook (though that is an option if you want) Now the bad: 1.) Academic Advisers. These are hit and miss with some be wonderful and others being useless. Since beginning at SNHU I've had three. Two were great and was always there when I had an issue or needed help. My current one, number three, is horrible. She's never in the office, it takes her days to respond, she's sent me wrong information and other students' documents on more than one occasion. 2.) The Courses. Do not expect to learn anything worth while. They are ridiculously easy and usually focus on one topic for the entire eight weeks. They are not challenging, thought provoking, or even interesting. Thinking outside of the course parameters or seeking more information beyond what is being taught is not only discouraged, but will get you a lower grade in the courses. They are intellectual hindrances. 3.) The instructors. They are easily the worst part of the school. To their credit, many of them have decades of experience in the field or subjects they are teaching, but they are largely just grade distributors. My primary gripe with them is their grading. They know the coursework is insultingly easily, so they doc you points for any and everything to keep you from getting an A+ in the course. I've gone through weeks of entire classes making A's and A+'s on coursework only to have dozens of points deducted off of final assignments to bring down my grade. At first I thought this was just a coincidence, but after speaking with other students, I've learned that this is a common practice among the instructors. I've had this happen in literally every course I've taken here. At the time writing this. I'm in the process of going to my current instructor's boss because he admitted he made a mistake in grading one of my assignments, but refuses to change my grade in the system. 4.) The time it actually take to complete a degree. As I mentioned earlier in this review, I've been attending this school since 2016 (3 years) and am only halfway through the 120 credits needed for my degree. This is because, by default, the school places you in part-time enrollment. If I were to remain at this school, I would not get my degree for another three years! I only recently learned that my financial aid had increased (2 years ago) enough for me to take on an extra class, but since I had always planned on transferring out, taking another class would use more of my financial aid grants and scholarships. 5.) The Reputation. Do not expect an employer to want to hire you with a degree from here. While the school doesn't necessarily have a bad reputation and isn't for-profit, the fact that they have marketing and tv commercials is not a good look to employers. I've had several situations were an employer completely ignored or even questioned why I am attending this school. This is especially bad if you have little or no professional experience in your degree field and are trying to get a job in that field. Final thoughts: As I said before, I've never planned on finishing my degree here. My purpose for attending was only to get enough credits to transfer to a different school that would better suit me and professional aspirations. I do not recommend attending this school if you are a first time or transferring college student, but if you are already in a field and just need a degree to move up in rank, and do not plan on leaving that employer, then go for it. Ultimately, I do not regret going here because it served its intended purpose. I now have several other uni's that are offering me scholarships to attend their schools because I maintained a high GPA at this one. If you plan on going here, make sure you think long and very hard on that decision. There are much better schools out there.

I am very happy with Southern New Hampshire University so far. I'm on my fifth class and am impressed with the standardized blackboard, syllabus and learning module/weekly format. I've taken classes at 3 different schools including my local community college, I prefer the ones at SNHU overall. The teachers have been easy to get in touch with. My class login page has my advisor's photo with an announcement he posts as well as his contact information. He calls me once a semester to check in and regularly... Read More emails reminders on deadlines for class registration. They also have 24 hour tech support which is a huge deal for me. Class difficulty depends on the professor and the class level (as with any school). A level 100 class will be easier than a level 200. In my experience classes get more challenging once you're in the 300's. I would say the university is on par difficulty wise as my local community college and Northern Arizona University online. If you can get an associates degree from a local community college and transfer in as many credits as you can. It will save you quite a bit of money. I also wanted to mention that any complaints about dealing with financial aid are probably not the school's fault. I worked for my community college and the government has extremely strict rules that are a pain.

Eastern Michigan University has a moderately sized, nice campus thats not too big as to be overwhelming, but not too small as to feel cluttered or cramped. The staff are dedicated to the students and the professors are mostly very knowledgeable in their fields. My greatest complaint is how much the prices for everything increased over my years there, while the quality of school did not rise to meet the tuition hikes. Far too much money is spent on sports and on unnecessary cosmetic changes on campus... Read More instead of where they are needed. Almost everything has been privatized in some way as an attempt to bring in money to the school, but that only allows outside companies to try and profit off of students now (such as with the new and over-zealous parking company who squeeze every penny they can out of students). EMU is a good school that holds a lot of nice qualities, but their poor budget management in the past has caught up to them and is hurting current and prospective students financially.