For you to receive a tax break, the school must be accredited and eligible for federal financial aid.
Do online college courses qualify for the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning tax credits, or do only classes taken in person at a brick-and-mortar college qualify
Whether you take a class online or in person doesn’t matter; what matters is which institution is offering it. “The school must be accredited and eligible for federal financial aid,” says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Edvisors.com. Check eligibility at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
To qualify for the American Opportunity Credit, you must also be enrolled at least half-time in a program leading to a degree or other credential and be in the first four years of postsecondary education. And your income cannot exceed certain limits: in 2015, a modified adjusted gross income of less than $90,000 if you’re single or $180,000 if you’re married filing jointly. For the Lifetime Learning Credit, there’s no requirement that you attend school half-time, but your MAGI must be less than $65,000 if you’re single or $130,000 if you’re married filing jointly.
Best College Majors for a Lucrative Career:
“Do what you love, and the money will follow.” Well-meaning friends and family members may utter those words as you head off to college. And they’re right—to a point. After graduation, money almost certainly will follow. On average, a worker with a bachelor’s degree earns nearly double the pay of someone with just a high school diploma. But the college major you choose can have a significant impact on exactly how much your passion pays off.
We took an in-depth look at 129 popular college majors, seeking courses of study that typically lead to big paychecks at both the entry level and midway through a career. We also looked for majors that are highly sought-after in the workforce, as evidenced by high numbers of online job postings seeking applicants with specific majors. Finally, we screened for career fields related to these majors that offer strong growth prospects for years to come.
Check out our 2014–2015 rankings of the 10 best college majors for a lucrative career.
For each of the 129 college majors, compensation research firm PayScale provided median annual salaries for recent grads (five years or less of work experience) and median annual salaries for mid-career employees (at least ten years of work experience). Total online job postings during 2013 seeking applicants with each of the 129 college majors were supplied by workforce research firm Burning Glass Technologies. Projected ten-year growth rates from 2012 to 2022 for selected occupations related to each college major came from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as did median annual incomes for related occupations.
