Online Schools In our most comprehensive ranking ever, we have
rated the top 128 online schools in America. Our third annual ranking of
best online colleges is a comparison of the strengths and opportunities
of each university program.
The eight metrics included in our ranking are net price of attendance,
acceptance rate, retention rates, graduation rates, student-to-faculty
ratios, percentage receiving grants or scholarship aid, percentage
receiving federal student loans, and cohort default rates.
Schools must offer multiple 4-year online bachelor's degree programs, be
accredited and included on the U.S. Department of Education College
Navigator database. We hope these rankings will help you on your journey
of finding a reputable program that fits with your career and life
goals.
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Ranking Methodology
Here at DegreeJungle.com we have chosen to rely on tangible, publically
accessible metrics for ranking colleges. No mysterious or subjective
metrics like peer reputation or teaching quality are used. Instead we
used information each school reports to the U.S. Department of Education
NCES and then weighed eight key metrics by what we felt were most
important to least important. Statistics were pulled in January 2013.
Metrics with the highest weights into the final score for each
university include: average net price, graduation rates, and loan
default rates. In other words, we value affordability, ability to retain
students through graduation, and preparing students for rewarding
careers that keep students away from unmanageable debt. Metrics with
lower weights include: percentage of students receiving grants,
scholarships, and Federal aid; acceptance rates; retention rates; and
student-to-faculty ratio. We think these metrics are important too,
however, selectivity and small class sizes may not be as important to
students choosing a degree online. Grants and scholarships are helpful
as well, but average net price takes this into account when
determinining the true total average price for students. Average net
price subtracts the average amount of grants or scholoarship aid from
the total cost of attendance. The total cost of attendance is the sum of
published tuition and required fees, books and supplies, and the
weighted average for room and board and other expenses.
In cases where universities have multiple campuses, we tried to use a
representative location to collect data for. As each location has
different graduation rates, the graduation rate was thrown out and
replaced with the average graduation rate across all universities in our
ranking. This prevents universities from being rewarded or penalized
when a true graduation rate across locations could not be established.
Additionally some graduation rates were through out when based on a
statistically inadequate sample.