Online degrees may be your ticket out of a recession, or at least that’s the way some are currently putting it.  They are saying that if you want to find an accredited online degree or otherwise, you can of course get student loans to get you through the recession, and hopefully by the time you get out, there will be a better market waiting for you.  But outside of that, there are a few fields that seem to be recession resistant, and they require a degree.  So you can definitely benefit from that.  For example, healthcare.  Even if we stop visiting our family doctors on a regular basis, we do still need medical attention from time to time.  It’s cheaper in the end if we just keep going regularly.  But either way, healthcare will never experience a complete breakdown.  In addition, there will always be need for those in criminal justice and moreover education, especially being that the state actually funds education for every child and we all pay taxes on it.  All of these are somewhat recession proof.  It’s just a matter of finding the one that works for you.  There are quite a few small colleges and online degrees alike that focus only on these areas and you can get anything from an associate’s to a PhD depending on your own needs.