Online College Rankings That Matter
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 | 240 | |
| 2 | 184 | |
| 3 | 131 | |
| 4 | 111 | |
| 5 | 102 | |
| 6 | 101 | |
| 7 | 82 | |
| 8 | Drexel University | 67 |
| 9 | LeTourneau University | 59 |
| 10 | 50 |
Featured School: Kaplan University
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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.
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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 | 85% | |
| 3 | 78% | |
| 4 | 76% | |
| 5 | LeTourneau University | 75% |
| 6 | Regent University | 74% |
| 7 | 71% | |
| 8 | Indiana State University | 66% |
| 9 | Eastern Kentucky University | 64% |
| 10 | 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 | 86% | |
| 2 | 83% | |
| 3 | 66% | |
| 4 | Columbia Southern University | 63% |
| 5 | 62% | |
| 6 | Drexel University | 62% |
| 7 | 57% | |
| 8 | 56% | |
| 9 | 49% | |
| 10 | 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.
