A Guide to Online Colleges in Utah

Named after the Ute Tribe "meaning people of the mountains," Utah offers otherworldly natural beauty perhaps unparalleled in the continental United States. Home to the "mighty five" national parks of Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands, Utah offers a vast range of desert, mountain and river vistas. Arches and canyons — petrified Jurassic period sediments sculpted and ground by the elements — are common themes, and lend some artistry to landscapes that at times can seem inhospitable. Hospitable they are, however, with many ruins hinting at settlement back thousands of years by the Pueblo and Fremont people. Settled again by the Spanish in the 1500's, the land of present day Utah was eventually made home by one of the larger cultural movements in the state today, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1845, with tensions growing between their neighbors in Illinois, Brigham Young set out west to found a religious settlement that would in the present day comprise 58% of the state's population. Besides a strong Mormon presence and natural beauty, portions of Utah have also grown into agricultural, transportation, artistic, and tech hubs. Perhaps most notable, Provo, Ogden, Orem, and Salt Lake City have in recent years come to be known as Silicon Slopes. Vast outdoor opportunities, low taxes, affordable property, and young talent from Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and Utah State University have further helped to make the region around Salt Lake City a thriving economic destination. For students who have a bent towards the outdoors, or are looking for an affordable and opportunity-rich destination Utah can be a great place to go to school. Need more reasons to consider the "Beehive State?" Check out the top online university programs below!

Top Public Schools

Many of the top public schools in Utah offer online programs of study ranging from an associate to master’s degree. Utah State University, offers 17 online programs in a broad range of fields from the associate to the master's level including a bachelor's in economics, an associate in general studies and, M.S. in agricultural systems technology. University of Utah offers 9 degrees online including a bachelor’s in psychology, and a M.S. in Sports Pedagogy. Weber State offers the most associate degrees out of all of our picks, and Southern Utah University provides an associate in paralegal studies, one bachelor’s degree and 8 fully-online master’s degree programs.

Top Private Schools

The two private schools that made it to our ranking are Western Governor’s University and Westminster College. Western Governors University offers 35 programs completely online including an impressive 17 masters degrees and 18 bachelor’s degrees! All of Western Governors University’s programs are unique in their competency-based curriculum. Westminster College- the only liberal arts school in Utah offers a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

How to Become a Resident

To qualify as a resident the state of Utah requires a “one year rule” meaning 12 continuous months of physical presence in Utah and declaring financial independence, may be married to a Utah resident, be a dependent child with parent/s domiciled in Utah for at least 12 continuous months, have full-time permanents employment in Utah and this does include the employment of a spouse or parent or those residents who are away from school, a government volunteer service, or ecclesiastical service. Some exceptions according to Utah Definition of Resident Student, 53B-8-102 included anyone who is entitled to benefits, an immediate family member, a military service member who is servicing active duty in the US Armed Forces in Utah or a member of a reserve component of the US Armed Forces, Utah National Guard or someone who has remained domicile in Utah but is assigned outside of the state of Utah, military veterans. Those who have arrived in Utah for the purposes of study must have domiciled for one year, signed a written declaration that releases residency in any other state and has submitted objective evidence that the student has taken the steps to establish residency. Evidence includes a Utah high school transcript, Utah voter registration, Utah driver license, a Utah vehicle registration and others.

In 2015-16 the average published tuition prices for Utah four-year universities was $6,169 for in-state tuition that’s about $3,200 below the national average for public schools. The highest value schools are also our top two picks for online option. The University of Utah is one of the top schools in the nation and the tuition rates are just over $7,000 for in-state tuition. Out-of-Staters will pay nearly $25,057 a year for this top-ranked university. Utah State University's annual tuition is $6,250 and another highly ranked research university. Again, those out of state pay over $18,000 for tuition. Additionally, those studying online, saving $30,000 in room and board costs. There’s something to be said of staying in-state.

The Church of Latter Day Saints or informally known as the Mormon Church has a tremendous cultural impact on the state of Utah and particularly Salt Lake City where the church is headquartered. Though similar to the Christian Faith, the Church of Latter Day Saints adheres to an open canon of four scriptural texts including the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. The church impacts the state of Utah in ways that are unique to the religion, it’s particular code of ethics and high moral standards. In many ways, this impacts the practices in education and beyond. Brigham Young University is a private research university located in Provo and owned by the Latter-day Saints and is the largest of any religious university where all students are to follow an honor code that keeps students from engaging in some of the more commonly thought of as recreational and in many cases dangerous activities such as the consumption of drugs and alcohol. Most of these students will take a hiatus to fulfill their 2-year duty and serve as a mormon missionary. Many of the practices of the Latter-day Saints include helping those in need, and strengthening community and homelife. They also have a well-established and well-recognized work ethic knowns as the “Mormon work ethic” that is attractive to tech executives for their reliability and stability. The LDS community is one of the reasons the financial and technical world is growing and stabilizing.

When you think of Utah do you think of the Arches National Park, Zion, or maybe the Great Basin? Perhaps you do, and perhaps now is the time to also think about tech-start ups worth at least a billion dollars on paper (also known as “unicorns”). No, I’m not talking about Palo Alto or San Jose, I’m still talking about Utah. That’s right, Silicon Slopes is a cluster or information technology, software development, and hardware manufacturing and research firms that span the metropolitan areas of Salt Lake City, Provo, Park City and surrounding areas. It’s connected by a mere 2 hour flight from Silicon Valley, CA, and this technology community is home to Disney Interactive Studios, SanDisk, IM Flash Technologies, Adobe Systems, IM Flash, eBay, Overstock, and others. This all came about over time through Utah’s historical partnerships with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Salt Lake City’s groundbreaking work with DoD and the connection with the computer science department at UC Berkley created a perfect mashup of a computer science programs such as the one at the University of Utah. The state's partnership with DoD lead to more partnerships with the US military inducing Hill Air Force Base, and Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal which expanded financial opportunities and they combined forces with corporations dotted across the slopes. This financial stability, the infrastructure of Salt Lake City (considered to be the internet backbone), and hard working highly intelligent community of individuals gave rise to this tech hub culture.

The Best Online Colleges in Utah

Monitoring the accreditation of a university you are interested in attending is incredibly important. Accreditation ensures your credits can transfer that you can receive Federal financial aid, and most importantly that certain standards of educational quality are during your schooling. The highest accreditation standard for most programs in the United States is provided by regional accreditation agencies. The regional accrediting agency for Utah is the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, one of six regional accrediting agencies responsible for accrediting schools in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

Making sure that a University you're hoping to attend is regionally accredited — or accredited by a real and respected accrediting agency — is one of the most important choices you can make in ensuring the quality of your education.

Three Steps for Securing Financial Aid

Through the previous three steps most students find themselves offered some sort of federal grant, work study, private grant, scholarship, or stipend.

Great Utah Higher Education Resources