Best Buy Education Benefits: Online Degrees for Best Buy Employees

In February 2025, Best Buy quietly became one of the most interesting employer education stories in retail. The company announced that every full- and part-time U.S. employee, starting their first day on the job, now has access to a no-debt, no-cost path to a certificate, associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degree through Strayer University’s Degrees@Work program. A few months later, in July 2025, Best Buy migrated the administration of its education benefits to Workforce Edge, the Strategic Education platform that also powers programs at more than 1,400 other employers. The two moves together transformed what had been a traditional tuition-reimbursement program into a multi-tiered system that can cover a full degree outright, partially fund degrees at other universities, or discount tuition at ASU Online.

The practical question for a Best Buy employee is less ‘does Best Buy offer tuition assistance’ — they clearly do, and it is one of the better retail benefits currently available — and more ‘which of the three pathways is right for me.’ The answer depends on whether you care about school choice, how fast you want to finish, what your field is, and whether you already have transfer credit you want to apply. This guide walks through each pathway, who it fits best, and where the tradeoffs are.

For broader context on weighing employer-funded online programs, our Complete Guide to Earning an Accredited Online Degree as an Adult Learner covers the full planning framework for working adults — accreditation, transfer credit, financial aid, and school selection — which applies regardless of which Best Buy pathway you choose.

The Three Pathways, Side by Side

Best Buy offers three distinct education benefit pathways, and they are not mutually exclusive — an employee can use one pathway for part of a program and another for a different stage. Understanding what each pathway covers, where it works best, and what it costs out of pocket is the foundation for any decision.

Pathway	What It Covers	Payment Model	Best For
Degrees@Work (Strayer University)	Fully covered tuition for certificates, associate, bachelor’s, master’s at Strayer	Prepaid / direct billing	Employees open to attending Strayer; fastest to zero out-of-pocket tuition
Tuition Assistance Program (other accredited schools)	Up to $3,500/year UG; up to $5,250/year graduate	Reimbursement after course completion	Employees committed to a specific non-Strayer school
ASU Online 10% Discount	10% tuition discount at Arizona State University Online	Discount applied at enrollment	Employees targeting ASU’s public R1 brand specifically

The Degrees@Work pathway is the most financially generous option on paper — it can fund a full bachelor’s degree at zero tuition cost — but only if Strayer University happens to offer the program the employee wants. The Tuition Assistance Program is more flexible on school choice but delivers meaningfully less money. The ASU Online discount is specialized and genuinely useful only for a narrow group of employees who specifically want the ASU credential. Most employees will end up using Degrees@Work unless a specific circumstance pushes them toward one of the others.

Degrees@Work: The Fully Funded Strayer Path

The Degrees@Work program is Best Buy’s flagship education benefit. Announced on February 13, 2025, the program expanded what had been a decade-long tuition-discount partnership with Strayer University into full tuition coverage for all U.S. employees from their first day. It is structurally similar to how Walmart’s Live Better U, Target’s education benefits, and Chipotle’s Debt-Free Degrees operate — a direct-billing model where the employer pays Strayer before the term begins, and the employee owes nothing out of pocket for tuition.

What Strayer is (and is not)

Strayer University is a private for-profit institution accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), which is one of the seven regional accrediting bodies whose credentials are broadly accepted for transfer credit and employer recognition. Strayer has been operating since 1892 and specializes in working-adult online degree programs. It is owned by Strategic Education, Inc., a publicly traded company that also owns Capella University and the Jack Welch Management Institute MBA program.

Strayer’s specific strengths are program breadth in business, IT, accounting, and criminal justice; flexible 11-week quarters rather than traditional semesters; the Jack Welch MBA as a distinctive graduate option; and credits-for-certifications policies that accept IT and other professional certifications as college credit. Strayer’s weaknesses compared to public online universities are the for-profit status (which some employers weigh less favorably), higher published per-credit tuition (which matters less when Best Buy is paying it), and a credit transfer portability that is not as seamless to public universities as credit from public institutions would be.

What Degrees@Work covers and does not cover

• Tuition for approved Strayer certificate, associate, bachelor’s, and master’s programs, paid directly by Best Buy to Strayer.
• Access to Sophia Learning courses — Strayer’s low-cost ACE-recommended general education course library — which can accelerate a degree by filling general education requirements inexpensively.
• Enrollment support through a dedicated Degrees@Work team at Strayer.
• Does not cover textbooks, technology, fees, or course materials. These remain the employee’s responsibility (though federal financial aid can typically be applied toward them).
• Does not cover tuition above what Best Buy has contracted with Strayer for. Programs priced above the contracted structure may require employee contribution, though the published program at major retailers using Degrees@Work generally covers the standard program in full.

Who should choose Degrees@Work

This pathway works best for employees who either want to pursue a degree in one of Strayer’s main fields (business, IT, accounting, criminal justice, education, health services, public administration), who have limited prior college credit and are starting from scratch, or who prioritize zero out-of-pocket tuition cost over school brand. It is particularly attractive for employees who want to move into management at Best Buy or into corporate operations roles, because the Jack Welch Management Institute MBA carries meaningful brand recognition for leadership roles.

It works less well for employees whose target program is not offered at Strayer, who already have substantial transfer credit from public universities that would not transfer efficiently to Strayer, or who value public-university brand recognition for their specific career goal.

For employees who want to maximize their transfer credit efficiency, our guide on how much an online bachelor’s degree actually costs covers the per-credit math and transfer credit strategy that applies to any online program, including Degrees@Work.

The Tuition Assistance Program: Flexibility at a Lower Cap

Employees who want to attend an accredited school other than Strayer can use Best Buy’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), a more traditional reimbursement-model benefit. Per reporting from employee-benefit sources, the reimbursement caps are approximately $3,500 per year for undergraduate coursework and $5,250 per year for graduate coursework — the latter aligning with the IRS Section 127 tax-free limit for employer education assistance.

The mechanics of TAP look much like the reimbursement programs at Publix, Kroger, and other retailers:

• Submit a pre-approval request through Workforce Edge before enrolling in the course.
• Pay tuition out of pocket (or with federal aid) at the start of the term.
• Complete the course with a passing grade (typically C- or better for undergraduate, B- or better for graduate).
• Submit reimbursement paperwork within 90 days of course completion, including grade verification, itemized tuition receipts, and proof of passing.
• Reimbursement is mailed after documentation review and approval.

The $3,500 undergraduate cap is notably lower than most comparable retail employer programs — Tyson offers $5,250, Home Depot offers up to $5,000 for salaried staff, and Kroger’s Feed Your Future provides up to $3,500 but typically with fewer restrictions. For a Best Buy employee committed to a specific non-Strayer school, TAP remains a real benefit but typically covers only a portion of a full program. Most employees would need to combine TAP with federal financial aid to fully fund a bachelor’s outside Strayer. For guidance on filing FAFSA as a working adult, see FAFSA for Online Students: What to Know Before You Apply.

When TAP is the right choice

TAP is the correct pathway when the employee has a specific target school outside the Degrees@Work network. Examples include a pharmacy tech pursuing a pre-pharmacy track at a public state university where admission to the pharmacy school requires specific prerequisite coursework; an employee wanting to attend a regionally accredited public university for program reputation reasons; or an employee with 60+ transfer credits from a public institution where transferring to Strayer would lose credit efficiency. In each case, the lower TAP cap is the trade-off for school choice.

SNHU, Purdue Global, UMGC, and Arizona State University are all accredited nonprofits that would qualify under TAP and offer online programs in most fields. For an employee pursuing a bachelor’s at SNHU’s $330-per-credit rate, TAP at $3,500 per year covers approximately 10-11 credits annually — modest but meaningful when combined with Pell Grant funding and other aid.

The ASU Online 10% Discount

Best Buy has also maintained a 10 percent tuition discount arrangement with Arizona State University Online. For employees whose target program is specifically at ASU Online — perhaps a data analytics, engineering management, or business program where the ASU public R1 credential carries weight in their specific labor market — this discount stacks with the TAP reimbursement and with federal aid. The 10 percent discount is smaller than the full-tuition Degrees@Work benefit, but ASU Online’s program catalog is broader and its public university credential is stronger than Strayer’s in many fields.

The typical ASU Online bachelor’s program runs approximately $550-700 per credit before the 10 percent discount. For a 30-credit year of study, that is roughly $16,500-21,000 in tuition annually before the discount, dropping to approximately $14,850-18,900 after. TAP’s $3,500 annual cap covers part of this, federal aid covers another meaningful share, and the remainder becomes employee contribution. This pathway is genuinely useful only for employees who specifically want the ASU brand; for most employees, either Degrees@Work (zero out-of-pocket at Strayer) or TAP at a lower-cost school like SNHU (roughly $2,000-3,000 annual out-of-pocket) produces a better overall financial outcome.

Which Pathway Fits Your Situation

Rather than three generic employee profiles, here is a direct decision matrix for the most common Best Buy employee situations. Find the row that matches your circumstances, and the recommended pathway follows.

Your situation	Recommended pathway
No prior college; want to finish a bachelor’s with no out-of-pocket tuition cost	Degrees@Work at Strayer
60+ transfer credits from a public community college or state university	TAP at SNHU or Purdue Global (credits transfer more efficiently)
Pursuing pre-pharmacy, pre-med, or programs requiring specific public university prerequisites	TAP at a target public university
Pursuing an MBA; want brand-name recognition	Degrees@Work for Jack Welch MBA OR TAP + ASU 10% for Carey MBA
Need general education credits quickly and inexpensively before transferring	Sophia Learning (via Degrees@Work) to build up credits, then either stay at Strayer or transfer
Want IT, cybersecurity, or data analytics degree with technical industry recognition	TAP at WGU (competency-based, fast completion) or ASU Online
Just starting at Best Buy; not sure yet what program to pursue	Start with Sophia Learning general education courses; decide between Degrees@Work and TAP after a term or two

 

The most common default for a Best Buy employee with limited time, limited prior credit, and a business or IT focus is Degrees@Work. It produces the lowest total out-of-pocket cost and the most streamlined administrative experience. Employees who find themselves repeatedly thinking ‘but I would rather attend X’ should price out the TAP option honestly before committing, because the $3,500 undergraduate cap combined with federal aid often fails to fully bridge the gap to a traditional state-university tuition bill.

If You Go the TAP Route, Which Schools Make Sense

For employees who decide against Strayer, the choice of school matters more than in Degrees@Work because TAP covers a smaller share of tuition and the employee is responsible for the rest. The best candidates are schools with low per-credit rates, generous transfer credit policies, and program catalogs that match Best Buy’s common career paths into retail management, IT, cybersecurity, logistics, and operations.

SNHU

Southern New Hampshire University is regionally accredited (NECHE) and offers a flat $330 per credit undergraduate rate — low enough that Best Buy’s TAP at $3,500 per year plus Pell Grant funding can fully cover tuition for part-time study. SNHU accepts up to 90 transfer credits toward a bachelor’s, offers more than 200 online programs, runs eight-week terms with monthly start dates, and is particularly well-known for business, marketing, IT, and communications programs that align with Best Buy internal career paths.

Western Governors University (WGU)

WGU is regionally accredited (NWCCU) and uses a flat six-month term tuition rate (approximately $4,270 per term, around $8,540 per year) with competency-based progression. For motivated employees who can accelerate through material, WGU can compress a bachelor’s into 2-3 years, reducing total tuition cost substantially. WGU’s cybersecurity, IT management, and software development programs are well-respected by employers hiring for technical roles. For a full review, see our Western Governors University online college review.

Capella University

Capella is regionally accredited (HLC) and is owned by the same parent company as Strayer (Strategic Education, Inc.). For Best Buy employees who want a FlexPath competency-based program — which lets students complete as many courses as they can in 12-week billing periods at a flat rate — Capella is worth evaluating. It is a non-Degrees@Work school but can be funded through TAP, and its FlexPath option has similar cost-compression dynamics to WGU.

Arizona State University Online

ASU Online is a public R1 research university (HLC-accredited) offering 80+ online undergraduate programs. With the Best Buy 10 percent discount plus TAP plus federal aid, the math becomes workable but still leaves meaningful employee contribution, especially for out-of-state students. For employees whose target career benefits from the public R1 credential specifically, the contribution may be worth it.

Practical Questions About Using Best Buy’s Benefits

When does eligibility actually start?

For Degrees@Work, eligibility begins on the employee’s first day of employment at Best Buy. This is unusual — most competitor programs require 30, 90, or 120 days of tenure before benefit activation. Best Buy specifically removed the tenure gate when it expanded the program in February 2025, which means a newly hired employee can submit a Degrees@Work application in their first week of work.

Can part-time employees use Degrees@Work?

Yes. Best Buy’s expanded benefit includes both full- and part-time U.S. employees. This is the same eligibility structure Target, Walmart, and Chipotle use for their fully funded partner-school programs. The part-time-inclusive eligibility is what makes this a genuine retail-worker education benefit rather than a corporate-only perk.

What is Workforce Edge and how do I access it?

Workforce Edge is the Strategic Education platform Best Buy uses to manage its education benefits. All three pathways — Degrees@Work, TAP, and the ASU discount — are coordinated through the Workforce Edge portal. Best Buy employees can access the portal at bestbuy.workforceedge.com to explore programs, submit pre-approval requests, and manage their education benefits. Learn more at the Workforce Edge Best Buy announcement.

Do I have to stay at Best Buy after graduating?

Best Buy does not publicly require a post-graduation service commitment. Coursework already paid for under Degrees@Work is not clawed back when an employee leaves. TAP requires active employment at the time reimbursement is paid, so an employee who leaves between completing a course and receiving reimbursement will not receive that specific reimbursement — but previously paid reimbursements are not recovered.

How does this interact with federal financial aid?

Under Degrees@Work, federal aid (including Pell Grants) is typically applied first, and Best Buy’s contribution then covers the remaining tuition up to the program maximum. For most employees, this means Pell Grant funding can be applied toward books, technology, and other expenses not covered by Degrees@Work. Under TAP, the calculation works similarly: federal aid applies first, and TAP reimbursement covers the remaining out-of-pocket tuition up to the annual cap.

Is the benefit taxable?

Under IRS Section 127, employer-provided education assistance up to $5,250 per calendar year is excluded from taxable wages. Degrees@Work coverage for an employee enrolling in an undergraduate program at Strayer would frequently exceed $5,250 per year at full-time pace — the excess is taxable W-2 income. Employees managing tax exposure may prefer to enroll at a slightly slower pace to stay under the threshold, though for most employees the tax cost of a larger enrollment is still far less than the tuition they are saving.

What if I was at Best Buy before February 2025?

The February 2025 expansion applies to all current U.S. employees, not just new hires. Longer-tenured employees are eligible for Degrees@Work immediately under the expanded program, even if they were not eligible or did not participate under the prior tuition-discount arrangement. Employees who are evaluating whether to use the benefit should not assume they have missed a window — the current benefit is the one that matters.

Where to Start

Most Best Buy employees who want to use the education benefit productively should start in one specific place: the Workforce Edge portal at bestbuy.workforceedge.com, where all three pathways are visible in one place. From there, the honest first question is not which pathway is most generous but which program fits the degree you actually want. The February 2025 expansion made Degrees@Work the clear default for most employees, but it is not the right answer for everyone, and a 30-minute conversation with a Strayer enrollment advisor and, if relevant, a TAP-eligible school’s admissions contact is usually enough to make the decision confidently.

The second step for any pathway is federal aid. Even for fully funded Degrees@Work students, filing the FAFSA typically produces grant funding that can cover textbooks, technology, and other costs the employer benefit does not touch. For TAP students, federal aid is often the difference between a manageable out-of-pocket cost and an unmanageable one.

To compare accredited online programs across the schools Best Buy employees typically consider — Strayer, SNHU, WGU, Capella, Purdue Global, ASU Online, UMGC — our online program explorer tool lets you filter by cost, transfer credit policy, major, and scheduling flexibility. For a complete working-adult planning framework, start with our Complete Guide to Earning an Accredited Online Degree as an Adult Learner. And for employees returning to school after a long break from academics, Returning to College After 30: What to Know covers the practical considerations for balancing school with work and family obligations