TL;DR

• 20% of 2U powered degrees would end up costing the learner north of $100,000
• At $201K, Doctor of Physical Therapy from USC is the most expensive
• Principal Licensure Preparation Program from University of Dayton is the cheapest at $20k
• 112 Online Degrees from 30 universities.
• Universities with most degrees: Syracuse, Pepperdine, and USC.

At the end of July, 2U announced a massive strategy shift centered around edX. Here is how I summarized the strategy shift:

• Reduce expenses by reducing personnel and by closing offices.
• Adopt a new marketing framework, using edX’s organic reach and moving away from paid ads.
• Lower tuition costs, leading to an increase in enrollments.

The goal is to increase profitability by reducing expenses as well as revenues. Based on LinkedIn posts, the company has already undergone two rounds of layoffs, first at the beginning of August and then at the end of the same month.

The “Lower tuition costs” caught my attention. One thing that wasn’t easy to find is how much degrees powered by 2U cost. Last year, in a post titled “Affordable Online Education is Better for Students and Better for Our Business” by the 2U CEO, there was no mention of any actual pricing.

Even in the “Affordability” section of 2U’s 2020 Transparency Report, the costs of degree programs are given in cost per credit. Short Courses and Bootcamps are presented as full price.

So, I decided to find out and document the full cost of degrees powered by 2U. In future, it will help us identify which degrees actually lowered their cost (if any) and to what extent.

According to 2U, “2U’s partners are solely responsible for setting tuition rates for their programs. 2U does not set prices.” But it’s hard to believe that the company that invests millions of dollars to launch these degrees, and then takes a majority of the share of the revenue, has no influence over the pricing.

2U Powered Online Degrees Pricing Summary

Class Central’s analysis found 112 programs from 30 universities in total: 99 Masters, 12 Doctorates, and one Principal Licensure Preparation Program (worth $20k). You can find the full list of degrees and their prices in the table below.

Here are the universities with the most online degrees:

• Syracuse University – 18 degrees
• Pepperdine University – 10 degrees
• University of Southern California (USC) – 9 degrees
• University of Dayton – 8 degrees
• American University – 7 degrees

Most Expensive 2U Powered Degrees

Overall, 2U has 18 degrees that are over $100,000 in tuition fees, and an additional 6 degrees which are within touching distance of $100k.

The most expensive degrees powered by 2U are as follows:

1. $201K: Doctor of Physical Therapy from USC
2. $171K: Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) from St. John Fisher University
3. $170K: Doctor of Nursing Practice from Georgetown University
4. $135K: Juris Doctor (J.D.) from University of Dayton
5. $128K: Doctor of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership from USC
6. $126K: ​​Master of Business Administration from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
7. $121K: Master of Arts in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from NYU
8. $120K: Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University
9. $117K: Doctor of Education in Leadership and Learning in Organizations from Vanderbilt University
10. $116K: Arcadia DPT Online

Methodology

2U publishes a list of partners and their programs here. My colleague, @suparn, programmatically collected all the degrees in their list. EdX’s degrees were not mentioned on this page.

Then, I went one by one, visiting each degree’s landing page, and navigated to their “Tuition and Financial Aid” section. In some cases, tuition fees were mentioned outright, while for others, I had to calculate it.

The data collected is purely for analysis and I had to make some assumptions. There will also be additional fees on top of tuition fees and not all universities communicate this amount in the same way.  For readability, I have rounded the numbers.

If you are a prospective student, please take a look directly at the degree website and/or contact the admissions office.

2U Powered Online Doctorates Pricing Chart

2U Powered Online Masters Pricing Chart

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