Online College Rankings That Matter

Posted on April 2, 2010 by admin

smallranking There are many online colleges and universities that offer a quality education, good prices, and the scheduling flexibility that can really only come from an online degree program. There are also many sites that rank online colleges and universities sometimes using arbitrary information and sometimes using data collected directly from the U.S. Department of Education. We have done our best to collect the available information directly from what the online colleges have reported to the U.S. Department of Education. We hope to present our findings to you in a very readable and useful way to make sure you can make an informed decision if you are looking at various online degree programs.

Online Colleges with the Most Online Degrees

There are many criteria used to evaluate an online college, it makes sense that the number of degree programs a school has should weigh into the conversation as to which online college is most likely to be right for you. Depending on the field you want to go into, you may need a wide array of programs from your online university or college simply to get one that meets your needs. Here are the top 10 online colleges by the number of online degrees offered:

Rank	College	Number of Degrees
1	Walden University	240
2	Kaplan University	184
3	Capella University	131
4	University of Phoenix	111
5	Liberty University	102
6	Strayer University	101
7	Grand Canyon University	82
8	Drexel University	67
9	LeTourneau University	59
10	Rasmussen College	50

As you can see, even with just showing 10 colleges and universities, there is a great disparity between those online colleges at the top of the list versus those at the bottom. While it may not be as familiar of an online school, Walden University certainly does have an amazing number of online degrees. You should consider the number of degree programs if you are looking for a highly specialized degree or if you are just not certain as to what degree will help advance your career. A college with a wider selection will prove to be invaluable in those situations. NOTE: this only counts online degrees and not those that these same colleges may offer on campus.

Online Colleges with the Highest Retention Rates

Okay, so lets assume that you now have a good list of online colleges with the exact degree you are looking for. One of the other criteria for determining how well you will like the program can be directly tied to the schools current retention rate. The retention rate measures the percentage of students that re-enroll every year. We think this is an important measurement of the likelihood for success in any given program. Here are the top 10 online colleges by retention rate:

Rank	College	Retention Rate
1	Drexel University	86%
2	Full Sail University	85%
3	Benedictine University	78%
4	Saint Leo University	76%
5	LeTourneau University	75%
6	Regent University	74%
7	Liberty University	71%
8	Indiana State University	66%
9	Eastern Kentucky University	64%
10	Western Governors University	62%

Okay, that’s a totally different list from the top school list based upon number of degrees offered. This points out that Liberty University has both a large number of programs and a high retention rate which is a rare combination. So if the online college that you selected based upon the perfect degree choice is in the list above, you are even further along in taking your final decision.

Online Colleges with the Highest Graduation Rates

So let’s cut to the chase and get down to how many people actually finish the degree programs that they sign up for at each of these online colleges. We need to do this because if a college or university is particularly good at getting students through the programs they sign up for, the higher the likelihood that you will end up with the degree that you started out to get. So here is the top 10 online colleges by graduation rate:

Rank	College	Graduation Rate
1	Rasmussen College	86%
2	Full Sail University	83%
3	Kaplan University	66%
4	Columbia Southern University	63%
5	Benedictine University	62%
6	Drexel University	62%
7	Westwood College	57%
8	Western Governors University	56%
9	Grand Canyon University	49%
10	Liberty University	45%

Okay, those are some impressive numbers if you stop and think about it. Completing any degree program whether it is online or on campus can be a real challenge just due to various changes that happen in our lives as we progress through a multi-year degree program. You can see that several schools appear on 2 out of 3 of the lists we have put together. It is very interesting to note that Liberty University and Drexel University appear on all 3 of these lists. I would imagine that these are far from the most well known online universities. From the looks of these results, that could be changing in the near future.

Once again, we wanted to let you know that all of the information presented in this article comes directly from the U.S. Department of Education and information that the online colleges have reported to them. It is accurate to the best of our knowledge, but we are more than happy to make any corrections that will help our readers make a more informed decision as they research the various online colleges and universities.

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