Online Degrees Available at Ball State University
This school appears in our ranking of the Top 50 Most Affordable Master’s in Special Education Online Degree Programs.
Ball State Online offers 23 online programs for graduate students. While most programs allow students to do all their work from home, a few programs ask that students complete one or more residency sessions. One example of this is its special education program, which allows students to learn more about working with children with disabilities. This is available as a licensing program that helps students get their special education licenses. Online students will take classes through the university’s virtual system but also asks them to do practicum work offline.
The university’s emerging media design and development program is one that it considers a low residency program. In addition to online classes, students must do some work in and around Indianapolis. They have the option of showing their work to others in public sections and doing lab work that helps them improve their digital media skills. Some of the art and other courses that students take will include Nonlinear and Interactive Storytelling, Emerging Media Design Thinking and Interactive Media Design and Development.
Master of Business Administration students have the choice of enrolling in a fully online program or a hybrid version that includes some traditional classes. U.S. News & World Report ranks this as the 16th best online MBA program in the nation. Students can earn a general MBA or pick a concentration in entrepreneurship, finance, logistics and supply chain management, sales management, or health economics, policy and administration. MBA students can look forward to taking core and foundation classes such as Survey of Economics, Operations Management, Marketing Management, and Managerial Finance. Based on the degrees and the experience that they have, the university will let students skip some of the foundation classes.
Ball State is also home to one of the only Applied Behavior Analysis degree programs available online. While many schools offer ABA certificate programs, BSU offers a full degree program that ensures students meet the requirements for getting an ABA license. The program allows students to take just one or two classes each semester and still graduate in two years. It does not include any practicum work and does not have a thesis requirement.
Students in the ABA program learn how to work with those who have disabilities and children and adults with an autism spectrum disorder. They can take their classes in any order that they want too. This Ball State Online program, which is part of Ball State University, includes classes on research methods, consultations, assessments and working with others in clinical settings.
About Ball State University
Ball State University is an Indiana public university named after the Ball Brothers. Known for inventing the Ball jar, they purchased a large institute in Muncie and donated the land and the buildings to the state for the formation of a new college. The brothers also donated a large amount of money to fund the new school. That campus once served as the Eastern Indiana Normal School and offered training programs for future educators. This school later became the Indiana Normal College. The Ball Brothers bought the college after it closed due to financial problems.
As it first functioned as a teaching school, the university used names such as the Ball Teachers College and the Ball State Teachers College. It later became Ball State University and now goes by both BSU and Ball State. Ball State created a satellite campus in Indianapolis and built a second extension center in Florida. Both of those campuses allow students to earn full degrees or study a specific subject before moving to the main campus in Muncie. The university also designed its own virtual campus called Ball State Online. Students can now earn full undergrad and graduate degrees through the university without living in Muncie or Indiana.
Ball State University Accreditation Details
Since BSU has regional accreditation, any graduate student who already has some credits can transfer those credits into a new university program. They can also apply for the financial support that they need and get loans from the federal government. The university’s regional accreditation comes from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Some of its online graduate programs have specialty accreditation also, including those in nutrition, dietetics, psychology and business.
Ball State University Application Requirements
Ball State recommends that students look at its graduate school requirements and make sure they can meet each one before they apply. All grad students must use the same online application and pay the $60 fee. This fee drops to $20 for those applying to a certificate program. The university asks that students submit their applications at least two weeks before the start of the next semester. Students may want to submit their applications earlier to make sure they have enough time to submit all their other information.
As Ball State requires that students have a bachelor’s degree before starting one of its graduate programs, it asks that students submit their transcripts too. Ball State will accept paper transcripts and electronic records. Each graduate program may have some other requirements too. Those programs might ask that a student submit his or her resume and answer a short essay question or supply a writing sample. Students often need to provide official letters of recommendation too.
Ball State University Tuition and Financial Aid
BSU offers one rate for Indiana graduate students and a separate rate for any student who is not a resident of the state. Indiana residents pay just $410 per credit hour. Nonresidents pay $1,129 per credit hour. Online students pay the same $410 per credit hour as an in-state resident, but nonresidents receive a discount that brings their tuition down to $616 per credit hour. Students will also pay a technology fee of at least $110 per semester. The university charges a higher fee for students taking more than seven credit hours.
Online students can borrow money from the federal government in the same way that traditional graduate students can. The government does not base their loans on their credit histories or scores. As long as they enroll full-time in a graduate program, they can borrow $20,500 each year. The total amount they can borrow will depend on whether they took out loans as an undergrad. Ball State University graduate students can also borrow from private lenders and look into PLUS loans from the government.