It’s tempting to think of online degree programs as existing in some parallel educational universe: Sure, they’re accredited, but who’s actually gone to one? The answers are surprising. In addition to online-only programs, many established schools are adding distance learning initiatives, meaning you can get the same education online. Just to prove how popular online education is, here are some famous faces who attended schools with online degree programs. And if it’s good enough for the rich and famous, it’s probably good enough for me.

1. Conan O’Brien, Harvard University
Harvard University is one of the oldest and most respected schools in the country, but don’t write them off as too old-fashioned: They’ve also got an online division designed to let students study from home on their own time. Conan O’Brien graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in history and went on to work at “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons” before landing his own late-night talk show.

2. Renee Zellweger, University of Texas
Renee Zellweger is an Oscar-winning actress with credits including Jerry Maguire, Chicago, and Cold Mountain. But before she found international fame, she attended the University of Texas and got a B.A. in English. The flagship of the UT system, the Austin school has a variety of online offerings geared toward flexible education.

3. Shaquille O’Neal, University of Phoenix
Although he earned his bachelor’s degree at LSU, Shaquille O’Neal earned his MBA online through the University of Phoenix in 2005. Granted, a basketball player of his skill and stature probably doesn’t need to scour the want ads, but he said he was doing it as investment in his future for the day when he might leave the game and “have a regular 9-to-5 like everybody else.”

4. Ashley Judd, University of Kentucky
The actress in the family, Ashley Judd has earned critical acclaim for her portrayals of strong women in films like Where the Heart Is and Double Jeopardy. Her resume also includes a degree in French from the University of Kentucky, which is a leader in distance learning and offers a variety of online programs for students.

5. Adam Sandler, New York University
The comedian who grew to prominence singing songs about Chanukah and red-hooded sweatshirts is now a top box-office draw and one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. But before he got big, he studied at New York University, which in the years since has become a leader in distance learning. His song “Lunchlady Land” is dedicated to a lunchlady at NYU’s Hayden Dining Hall.

6. Condoleezza Rice, University of Notre Dame
A high-profile figure in the George W. Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice was the first female African-American to hold the office of secretary of state. Like many politicians, she had a great education before she entered public service, earning a B.A. in political science from the University of Denver and then a master’s degree in the same field from the University of Notre Dame. The school has since diversified its distance learning options, meaning that future leaders can get a head start with an online degree.

7. David Spade, Arizona State University
Another “Saturday Night Live” alumni, David Spade’s film and TV career hasn’t stopped since the late 1980s. Although born in Michigan, Spade grew up in Arizona, so it’s no surprise he attended Arizona State University. ASU is at the cutting edge of online education and boasts more than 2,000 students.

8. Eli Manning, University of Mississippi
Currently the quarterback for the New York Giants, Eli Manning made a name for himself in college at Ole Miss, aka the University of Mississippi. (For starters, he had 10,119 passing yards, which puts him at number five on the SEC career list.) Ole Miss also offers quality education online as a way to broaden the learning experience and create more opportunities for its students.

9. James Earl Jones, University of Michigan
James Earl Jones has been acting in film, TV, and theater since the 1950s, and he’s also provided the most famous voice-over work in film history with his portrayal of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. In his younger days, he studied drama at the University of Michigan, which has since come to offer online programs that would’ve been pure fantasy when Jones was an undergrad.

10. Will Ferrell, University of Southern California
Will Ferrell is easily one of the biggest comedy stars of his generation, and for good reason. He’s proven his comedic chops in films like Anchorman and Elf as well as a seven-year run on “Saturday Night Live.” But before he was a household name, he was an undergrad at the University of Southern California, majoring in sports information. USC remains a major player in higher education with a host of online offerings.

We’ve all heard the jokes about “underwater basket weaving,” but the truth of the matter is that there really are some crazy courses out there for people looking to get their degree online. Some of them are a little outrageous in terms of topic, but others seem to take home learning to the limit with the things they ask you to do without the aid of a physical classroom. Here are just 20 of the more obscure classes you can take:

Flower Essence Therapy
Offered through the Stonebridge Associated Colleges in the U.K., this course deals with “life force” that’s harvested from a flower, preserved as a liquid, and used in holistic healing practices. Used in aroma and physical therapy treatments.

Ogham Divination
Another one from Stonebridge Associated Colleges, this online class deals with the medieval alphabet Ogham and the way those letters are related to trees (really) and how they can help you divine meaning and purpose in your life.

Dealing Tactfully With Difficult People
The University of California, Irvine, has an online class all about dealing with, well, jerks. Ranging from “manipulators” to “chronic complainers,” difficult people are grouped into categories as students learn the best way to deal with them and boost their own confidence.

Holistic Beauty Therapist
More than just physical therapy, this class from Stonebridge Associated Colleges touches on massage, aroma therapy, and diet and nutrition as ways to help students learn to instruct future clients about all types of beauty.

Carpenter
Believe it or not, you can learn to be a carpenter with a computer. Penn Foster Career School has a course covering everything from window frames to floor construction. Just ask your roommate’s permission before knocking over a wall.

Private Investigator
This class from Penn Foster Career School lets you learn the methods of investigation and pursuit used by real private investigators, all from the comfort of your home.

Pet Groomer
Want to learn how to professionally groom someone’s pet? Then this Penn Foster Career School course is for you. Although you’ll able to study remotely, it’s not clear if you have to provide a sample pet to groom.

Gunsmith
If you love firearms and want to turn that into a job, Penn Foster Career School has an online course dedicated to the history and care of guns.

Reading the Landscape
The University of Georgia offers an online class dedicated to “perceiving and interpreting the landscape,” which covers everything from uses of landscape in works of art to the design and use of maps.

Introduction to Parks, Recreation and Tourism
Students interested in making a career out of the tourism and recreation industries should check out this online class offered through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Yoga
Believe it or not, it’s possible to take a distance learning course about yoga, thanks to the Stonebridge Associated Colleges. Techniques include breathing, stretching, and exercising with a focus on balance and calmness.

Sports Turf and Lawn Management
The University of Georgia’s online course on sports turf and lawn management is pretty much what it sounds like. Students are taught how to manage turfgrass areas for careers in recreational fields like the golf industry.

Theme Park Engineering
ExpertRating, an online certification company, has a course dedicated to teaching students how design theme parks, from ride placement and design to merchandising and food service.

Cruise Ship Crewmember
The online company CruiseShipDiploma.com offers specialized distance learning for students interested in working on a cruise ship, designed to explain and train them in every aspect of helping a crew.

Funeral Services
Stratford Career Institute’s class aims to help students learn the business of dealing with the dead. It’s not a pleasant topic for some, but the class can be a great way to forward your career if you’re interested in the industry.

Water Treatment Plant Operation Specialist
Offered through the Office of Water Programs at California State University, Sacramento, this online course is available to students interested in pursuing work in the water and utility field.

Science from Superheroes to Global Warming
The University of California, Irvine, offers this course as a way to illustrate real-world physical principles through fictional examples using superheroes. So if you ever wanted to get course credit for figuring out how Superman flies, this is the one for you.

Zombies in Popular Media
If you’ve noticed more zombie movies and books in recent years, you’re not alone. This Columbia College course explores the history of zombie entertainment and the changes since its inception. Course material includes comic books, too.

Mushroom Growing
ELearnUK offers a variety of obscure courses, but this classs about mushroom growing takes the cake. Learn how to have a home mushroom garden by using a growing kit.

Coin Collecting
Going by its official name of “Numismatics,” this online course from the American Numismatic Association teaches students about different rare and valuable coins, how to collect and store them, and more.

Online Teaching
How’s this for going down the rabbit hole: The University of California, San Diego, offers an online course about designing and implementing online courses. Students learn how to instruct others via distance learning programs.

Since their rise to popularity in the 1980s, video games have constantly pushed the boundaries of what’s appropriate in entertainment, especially in entertainment primarily aimed at teens and young children. There’s no shortage of infamous titles out there, from games that broke taboos about sex and violence to those that were deemed so offensive that they were recalled or never even released. Part of the appeal of games, whether it’s in the college dorm room or at home, Here are 20 of the most infamous games that pushed the envelope.

Harvester (1996)
This point-and-click PC game was almost ahead of its time in terms of the way it displayed intense violence and forced the player to make a series of gruesome choices. The player inhabits the role of Steve Mason, who’s been kidnapped and hooked up to a virtual reality machine that gradually trains him to be a real-life serial killer, and the game ends with the player able to choose to kill their virtual girlfriend and be freed into the “real world” to keep killing. The game was released in Great Britain with several scenes missing and banned completely in Germany.

Manhunt (2003)
This PlayStation 2 title (later for Xbox and Windows) from controversial developer Rockstar Games tested players’ — and critics’ — stomachs with its graphic storyline. The player controls a convict who’s been abducted and taken to a rundown neighborhood, and who is forced to kill the thugs he encounters in order to survive and escape. The methods of murder were particularly rough: With the push of a button, players could club someone with a baseball bat, smother them with a plastic bag, or slash their throat with glass. The game’s profile in a 2004 U.K. murder scared away some vendors but only increased demand for the hyper-violent title.

Soldier of Fortune (2000)
Originally a PC title that expanded to Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Sega’s Dreamcast, Soldier of Fortune is a first-person shooter about mercenaries chasing down stolen nuclear warheads. Controversy arose when people got a look at the way violence was garishly depicted, particularly the way the game showed bullets dismembering enemy bodies. (For instance, a head shot leaves behind just a bleeding stump of neck.) The level of violence was such that the British Columbia Film Classification Office labeled the game as an “adult motion picture.” However, for those with softer stomachs or overbearing parents, a clean version titled Soldier of Fortune: Tactical Low-Violence Version was released.

Thrill Kill (never released)
One of the titles on this list to never see a legitimate release, 1998′s Thrill Kill was billed as “the next Mortal Kombat” (see next entry) in terms of the violence and gameplay it would bring to the fighting genre. The gameplay was simple: Opponents play as one of eight souls damned to Hell who fight to the point of ultimate bloodlust, at which point they’re allowed to perform a brutal “thrill kill” to finish the loser. Early versions of such kills included simulated oral sex. Electronic Arts spiked the game a few weeks before it was set to ship, saying they didn’t want to be known for “such a senselessly violent game,” but down the road some former employees leaked the game online, where it’s still traded via file-sharing sites.

Mortal Kombat (1992)
This kick-off title in the fighting franchise gained notoriety for the realistic (for the time) shows of blood that would fly from the characters when punched or kicked. It was the game’s violence that contributed to the 1994 formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which issues ratings stamps for video games based on content. Versions of the game for home video consoles came without the blood — it was instead turned white and often referred to as “sweat” — but players could enter a code on their control pads to turn the bloody carnage back on.

Lula: The Sexy Empire (1998)
Billed as a “business simulation game” about running an erotica empire, this PC title is really just an excuse for players to ogle their onscreen girlfriend and engage in simulated sex acts. The player’s character is responsible for building up an empire of sex shops, but the thin narrative is mostly a cover for a series of first-person short porn clips. The game’s reception was a fiery one, though most sales were successfully limited to adults.

Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) (2005)
Known in North America as Indigo Prophecy, this paranormal thriller is heavy on murder, fighting, and controversial scenes including simulated sex.
Such scenes were cut from the U.S. release to avoid an adults-only rating, but the PC version was often hacked to reveal the sex. However, despite complaints and edits in the U.S. and Canada, the game’s release went unchallenged in other parts of the world.

Grand Theft Auto: San Adreas (2004)
The Grand Theft Auto crime series from Rockstar Games has never been far from controversy, and its titles occupy three different spots on our list because of the ruckus they’ve caused. Released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and 2005 for the Xbox, San Andreas drew heavy fire for a minigame dubbed “Hot Coffee,” a patch that allowed characters to engage in fully clothed but highly graphic sex with a waitress. (The original game merely showed an external view of a building coupled with suggestive moans.) Politicians and newsmakers took aim at the game’s presentation of rough sex to minors, and Rockstar released patches to fix the error. The fracas even resulted in class-action suit against publisher Take-Two Interactive.

Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
The first 3-D title and fifth in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA III drew scorn for the way it rewarded the player for stealing cars, killing cops, and causing mayhem throughout the game’s city. Adding fuel to the fire was the way a player could pick up a prostitute, have sex with her (implied via a rocking car) to boost their health, then kill her and steal their money back. Because of the edgy nature of the game, Wal-Mart enacted a policy to check IDs on anyone buying a game bearing a “mature” rating.

Grand Theft Auto TV (2008)
This game was the 11th overall title in the GTA franchise, and just like its predecessors, it made plenty of waves for the way it pushed the envelope in terms of graphic gameplay. Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck decried the game’s effect on soldiers and the way it might desensitize them to killing; New York City officials objected to the way the game modeled its world on their city; and Mothers Against Drunk Driving railed against the way players can have their character drive drunk, even calling for a U.S. ban on the title. However, despite the risque nature of the game, it broke records by selling 3.7 million units in its first day of release and grossing $500 million in its first week.

RapeLay (2006)
Even accounting for taste, this one’s pretty sick. Released in Japan, RapeLay is a first-person PC game in which the player stalks and rapes a woman and her daughters on the subway. Critics, including Equality Now, a group dedicated to human rights of women worldwide, denounced the game’s horrific set-up, and publisher Illusion Soft eventually ceased distribution of the game.

Custer’s Revenge (1986)
One of oldest home video games to push the limits of acceptability and taste, Custer’s Revenge was an Atari 2600 title from Mystique in which players control a keyed-up version of Gen. George Custer with the goal of helping him have intercourse with a Native American woman named “Revenge.” Although labeled “Not For Sale to Minors” and priced at $49.95 (an outrageous mark-up for the mid-1980s), the game still drew flak for its blatant racism and sexism. However, the cheap gameplay and shoddy, block-based graphics did more to end the game’s career than any critical complaints.

Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
This PC game helped usher in the first-person shooter genre, but not without generating plenty of negative press for the way it pushed the edge. The main character blasts his way through Castle Wolfenstein, but in addition to the high body count, critics objected to the saturation of Nazi symbolism and swastikas. The game was confiscated in Germany because of the Nazi references, and the Super Nintendo version deleted all swastikas and change the blood to sweat in an attempt to soften the violence. Still, the game became known for moving the line and paving the way for titles to come.

Doom (1993)
Originally for PC, this groundbreaking first-person shooter hit new levels of violence with its plot running through a military complex on Mars and obliterating a host of demons and monsters with progressively bigger guns (and occasionally a chainsaw). That violence was bait for critics throughout the 1990s, as incidents of teenage violence, most notably the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, were linked, however weakly, to the game’s success. Even when researchers at Harvard medical school concluded there was no link between the game and such killings, it wasn’t enough to counteract the game’s reputation for mayhem.

Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball (2003)
Although earlier titles in the Dead or Alive franchise were fighting games, developers threw that story out for the Xtreme Beach Volleyball installment, which was little more than a collection of large-breasted female characters playing in a doubles volleyball tournament. As a result, reception of the game focused on the blatant pandering to a sexual common denominator as opposed to any real attempt to create a compelling sports title. It’s one of the most blunt mainstream games in terms of sexuality.

Bully (2006)
Set at a private prep school, Bully mirrors the open format of Grand Theft Auto in the realm of minors, with players inhabing the role of the scheming young Jimmy as he takes on various factions of students. The game’s casual treatment of bullies and sexuality raised concerns among parent groups, even inspiring a suit in Florida, though that was dismissed when the judge ruled that there’s nothing in the game that people can’t see on late-night TV. Nevertheless, the game remains controversial for its promotion of violence in a school setting, however fictionalized.

Saw (2009)
Spun off from the horror film series, the Saw video game had everything you’d expect from a title that popularized the term “torture porn,” including devious traps designed to wound the player and other characters. Part of the controversy arose from the fact that, though games like Grand Theft Auto injected humor into the proceedings, Saw was just a bleak exercise in murder and sadism. For instance, one scene the riled critics had the player cutting open bodies to dig through their innards in search of a key. Despite all this, Konami announced plans in early 2010 to create a sequel.

BioShock (2007)
Although set in a fictional and highly stylized world, BioShock raised eyebrows for the way it pushed the envelope dealing with violence toward children. Throughout the game, the player is presented with the ability to harvest a kind of life force from a group of little girls, an act that kills them. These scenes, along with the copious amounts of violence and things like reanimated corpses, contributed to the game earning a “mature” rating in the United States. However, the thick layer of mayhem did nothing to slow sales, and in fact the game was regarded as one of the best of the year.

Six Days in Fallujah (never released)
This third-person shooter game was designed to recreate the Second Battle of Fallujah from 2004, following a squad of Marines through the fight. The game’s stated goal was to create the most realistic title yet about military fighting, but many critics questioned the appropriateness of making a game out of such a recent event. Despite claims from the company that the game was apolitical and not meant to trivialize the war, criticism mounted, and in spring 2009, Konami announced it would no longer be publishing the game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
One of the best-selling games of all time in the U.S., Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 pushed the envelope early on with a gut-wrenching level about modern terrorism. An optional level early in the game has the player go undercover with Russian terrorists as they take over and commit a massacre at an airport. (Players are allowed to exit the level and skip it entirely at any point, however, with no effect on their score in the game.) Players are allowed to fire into a crowd of civilians, though they aren’t penalized for not firing. The brutal level was deleted from the Russian version of the game, while the German and Japanese versions ended the level if the player killed a civilian.

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:

Featured School: Kaplan University

Associate's Degrees Bachelor's Degrees Master's Degrees

Kaplan University – Associate's, Bachelor's, & Master's Degrees. Kaplan University finished #2 with 184 programs and the list is constantly growing. In addition to their degree programs they also offer several professional certification programs to advance your career. Kaplan University truly has a program for nearly every student.

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:

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:

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.