Find your degree
This ranking is designed to help you learn more about the best online master’s programs in information technology available today. Online college is becoming more and more popular for professionals who have already joined the workforce in their field and want to continue their education. The benefits of earning a higher-level degree are clear when it comes to the average salary and ability to advance within your chosen career.
Whether you’re at work, in a coffee shop, in a dorm room, or even at home, you wouldn’t be viewing this page without the work of a dedicated team employing the infrastructure that connects us to the world. Every doctor’s visit, every flight you take, and even the street lights in your city are the result of skilled professionals developing highly reliable information technology-based solutions.
Because of the extent to which information technology has pervaded — and aided — almost every aspect of our lives, information technology professionals are in high demand. Professionals ranging from help desk employers up to chief technology officers are likely to have pursued degrees in information technology. Nearly every level of IT employee is well compensated, and there’s a lot of room for growth.
As aspects of our lives have migrated to connected devices, the need for securing important information has added to the need for qualified information technology professionals. By some estimates, as many as one million cybersecurity-related jobs will go unfilled in America by 2021. As the shortage of information security professionals has grown, so too has the opportunity for those already within information technology fields. Many workers who already understand how to set up, scale, and troubleshoot networking and individual workstation technologies are in perhaps the best situation to implement proper security. As such, we’ve included many cybersecurity-focused masters in information technology degrees below. You may also be interested in our article on the best online master of information systems programs.
src=”https://www.onlinecollegeplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/online-masters-programs-in-information-technology-02-300×186.jpg” alt=”online masters programs, information technology, cybersecurity” width=”300″ height=”186″ />In this year’s ranking, we looked at all online masters degrees with a focus on information technology. Not all degrees below are of the exact same type and focus areas include computing, computer networking, information technology, and information technology management. But all degrees below do share a solid core of graduate-level information technology courses. We feel that the diversity of degree options is a boon to the degree seeker and allows those who know they want to move up the information technology degree ladder the option to tailor their education toward exactly what they wish to be doing.
To determine the top master’s in information technology degrees for 2019, we took a unique multivariate approach. For each program in question, we looked at factors that contributed to affordability, flexibility, adult-student support, and academic quality. Our precise ranking methodology may be found below:
- Program financial score (33.3%): the percentage of students whose financial need was met, the robustness of the financial aid department and offerings.
- Academic Support Measures (33.3%): including student-to-faculty ratios, average graduation rates, and time until graduation.
- Academic Quality (33.3%): presence of high-profile research opportunities and designations such as the NSA Center of Academic Excellence designation for cybersecurity.
The costs listed below are the tuition and fees reported by the National Center for Education Statistics. When options were given, in-state and graduate costs were chosen. No institution is ever given preferential treatment for any rankings at OnlineCollegePlan.
Marquette University offers a fully online masters degree in computing. The online Master of Science in Computing provides a unique multidisciplinary option for students who prefer more background knowledge about the computing systems they’ll be handling in IT roles. Computing as an academic discipline blends several related topics, including information technology, information systems, computer science, and computer engineering. Students from this program will learn how to excel in both IT roles and bridge roles that blend into other disciplines.
One of Regis University’s numerous impressive IT-related degrees is their online masters program in information technology management. This degree offers a range of specialization areas, potentially the most of any program we surveyed. Along with a selection of courses in management, technical skills are also the focus of other courses throughout the masters. Specialization areas that students may choose from include data science, healthcare informatics, enterprise resource planning, cyber security, information assurance policy management, enterprise systems engineering, and software engineering.
Johns Hopkins University’s program in technical management provides students with an online master of science, a graduate-level certificate, or a post-masters certificate in the subject matter. We’ve placed this program near the top of our ranking due to the world-renowned instruction in technical disciplines offered by Johns Hopkins. Students may elect to pursue a range of specializations within disciplines including tech innovation management, organizational management, quality management, project management, and others. All courses are available online or in person.
Lawrence Technological University’s 100% online Master of Science in Information Technology degree is placed in our ranking due to its quality support services, quick time-until degree, and range of concentrations. Within this two-year program, students may elect to pursue two concentrations including one in cybersecurity technology and a second focused on project management. All courses are offered on-campus or online. And all tracks require seven core courses and the choice of three electives. Students wishing to pursue their own specialization may select electives not included in one of the two tracks.
Florida Institute of Technology is known for its range of online IT-centered offerings. One of our favorite programs from this institution is their online MS in Information Technology and Cybersecurity degree. The blending of general IT and cybersecurity within the program points to an awareness that IT organizations can’t exist today without information security at the forefront of their minds. Core requirements of the program include 8 courses. While 4 directed electives hone the focus on cybersecurity. FIT has long been known for their range of support services and experience in providing information technology and engineering degrees for working professionals.
The fully online masters degree program in information technology with a focus on cybersecurity offered by Pace University is one of but a handful of programs in information technology offered by NSA-designated centers of academic excellence in InfoSec. By upgrading your information technology and management skills in a cybersecurity-heavy research environment, you’ll prepare yourself not only for IT generalist positions, but specialized cybersecurity positions that can boast higher salaries. Electives are of a wider range than many information technology masters and include courses in programming, data mining, and more traditional IT topics.
The fully online master of science in information technology with a focus on project management occupies a unique position within our ranking. This 30 credit hour program emphasizes the business dynamics at play in today’s information technology roles. All courses within the program are available fully online or in-person. Recipients of this degree through Robert Morris University have found employment in a range of top employers, from professional athletic franchises, to governmental agencies, to Fortune 500 companies.
New York University offers a fully online master of science degree in management of technology through their renowned Tandon School of Engineering. This course of study is geared towards mid-career technical managers or information technology professionals. Portions of the curricula are geared towards IBM-requested credits for career advancements, ensuring that your time in the program will be valued by large tech employers. Diverse faculty within both information technology, management, and innovation fields instruct students in this program that has a proven track record of providing graduates with higher earnings than MBA recipients.
Nova Southeastern University provides one of the highest value online Master of Science in Information Technology degrees in our ranking. A wide range of electives and optional concentrations help students to ensure that the degree is tailored to their own unique needs and goals. Current concentrations offered in the program include information assurance, cybersecurity management, data analytics and application development. A three-term per year format ensures students graduate sooner than other degree programs.
Virginia Tech’s fully online masters programs, the master of science or graduate certificate in information technology, provides students with the chance to attend graduate courses at one of the most prestigious engineering colleges in the nation (right from home). As an NSA designated center of academic excellence in cybersecurity, Virginia Tech is at the heart of cutting edge research and instruction in this burgeoning aspect of IT. Additionally, students finish quickly, with flexible scheduling allowing students to finish the program in as few as 18 months.
Penn State’s World Campus provides a unique interdisciplinary degree with their master of professional studies in information systems and cybersecurity track. This 33 credit-hour program includes courses surrounding the intersection of information technology, applications of technology for business, and the ethics and policy decisions surrounding technology use. Choose from nine elective courses to tailor this degree program to fit your own needs and goals. A research paper or capstone project is also required for this program, a unique component among surveyed programs in this year’s ranking.
Liberty University provides one of the most flexible and adult-learning centered options for online masters programs in this year’s ranking in their Master of Science in Information Technology program. This 36 credit-hour course of study can be completed in as little as 18 months. And for professionals that have already pursued related coursework, up to half of the required credits in the program may be transferred in. This is great for experienced professionals who need to gain a degree quickly, or who have dropped out of a past program and would like to resume their studies. Two specializations within the course of study further improve flexibility. These concentrations include a network design and security track, and a software design and management track.
Students seeking a graduate-level information technology degree from a top public, research university are in luck with the online masters degree program at Florida State University. This master of science in information technology requires 32 credit hours for completion, and most students can complete the course of study in two years or less. A whopping 20 semester credit hours of electives allow students in this program to tailor their degree to a high degree. While there are no pre-selected specialization paths, students will work with faculty mentors to find the proper program for their needs.
As you may have guessed, ranked among the best online graduate degrees at the University of South Florida is their Master of Science in Information Technology. This program does requires a GRE as well as prerequisites. You will need to have or take courses in programming, programming design, database systems and more. Check on their site to be sure you have all pre-requisite courses.
Information technology as a field requires continual self or professional education just to keep up with the times. While heading back for a master’s in your discipline can be a great way to learn some of the latest career-centered information, there are also other routes. IT is known as a discipline in which many professional certifications are available. These certifications range from the most basic of technical skills, all the way up to IT leadership skills needed for executive positions. While certifications are in no way a match for an entire degree program (which often includes certifications), they can be a time-effective way of keeping up to date with your skills.
While the bar to entry-level information technology positions is typically just a professional certificate, it can be hard to break into or move up the managerial ranks within IT without a degree. This is particularly the case if you’re transitioning from managing a small team to an entire program (or more).
Systems Administrator
Security Auditor: $90,497
Masters in information technology are professional (non-research) degree programs. As with most professional degree master’s, the course of study seldom takes more than 3 years to complete. If you look through the degree programs in our ranking above, you’ll see a range of degree programs that take between 1 and 3 years.
Working through some of the programs above, one can see a variety of ways in which students may accelerate time-until degree. Many of the most finely-tuned online universities provide services particularly well-suited to working professionals. Some of these services include the ability to test out of courses that you have work experience in, as well as the ability to take courses asynchronously. In asynchronous courses, students may log in whenever they please. Course work is presented in a pre-recorded manner. And in some programs courses may be worked through at a personalized pace. This can allow for acceleration in time until degree.
Generally speaking, there are two main degree types across all disciplines: professional or applied degrees, and research degrees.
