On Jan. 10, U.S. News will publish the 2017 Best Online Programs rankings on usnews.com. These rankings are particularly useful for working adults — often in their 30s or 40s — who may not be able to take classes during the day but wish to learn skills and earn credentials to boost their careers.
U.S. News believes the Best Online Programs rankings and data are the most comprehensive available to prospective students. More than 1,300 distance education degree programs will be cataloged in our largest searchable online directory yet.
U.S. News will include a general ranking of schools’ online bachelor’s degree offerings and discipline-specific rankings of online master’s programs in business, engineering, computer information technology, nursing, criminal justice and education.
Beyond the rankings, prospective students can use the searchable directory to explore additional information such as tuition, program offerings and online services offered to enrolled students.
For example, a user can search institutions in Missouri that award distance education bachelor’s degrees in health services; review a list of master’s-level teacher education programs charging less than $600 per credit tuition; or determine which master’s-level computer systems analysis programs can be completed without ever setting foot on a campus.
The vast majority of programs analyzed are offered at public or private institutions. Specifically, only 4 percent of the more than 300 online bachelor’s programs are at for-profit institutions, although these schools do enroll many students.
The Best Online Programs rankings evaluate e-learning programs and not the parent institutions. Program-level comparisons matter because a university can be viewed as academically stronger for its engineering department than for its humanities department — or vice versa. Even within a school, the support given to distance learners may vary from what is offered to campus-based students.
At the master’s level, the highest-ranked programs perform well on traditional metrics — such as having selective admissions and credentialed faculty — while also having successfully adapted their course delivery for educating students remotely. Programs that do well in traditional or nontraditional metrics, but not both, rank lower.
The online undergraduate programs are focused on degree completion. According to data that schools reported to U.S. News, only 9 percent of 2015-2016 enrollment across all programs was first-time, first-year students, and nearly half of schools only enrolled students who applied with previously earned credits.
Consequently, the universe of ranked schools and the statistical factors evaluated are different than those of the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, since ACT and SAT scores are not used in the online undergraduate rankings.
With more than 50 percent of the U.S. undergraduate population pursuing two-year degree programs or part-time coursework, the online bachelor’s programs rankings and data can be a valuable resource for students considering their next steps.
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Coming Soon: 2017 Best Online Programs Rankings originally appeared on usnews.com
