The 25 best US online colleges
The number of students involved in online education grows steadily year by year. Sometimes it is the only opportunity to balance work, family, and study, using every spare moment to improve professional knowledge and move ahead in a career. And it is a unique chance for international students to obtain a degree from accredited colleges in the United States through distance learning. Along with this, many educational institutions offer a wide range of different graduate programs. How to compare them and make a choice?
The table below includes the best US colleges for this year, offering 100% online degrees at the bachelor's level or higher in three disciplines: Business, Engineering and Information Technology (IT). Why did we choose these three? Because they are most in-demand by employers.
Our current ranking is based on the U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of online graduate programs in Business, Engineering and IT. All represented educational institutions are accredited and ranked by their score in each separate discipline (from higher to lower).
| Rank | College | Program Score | Graduate Program | Total enrollment | Homepage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of California, Los Angeles (Samueli) Los Angeles, CA | 100 | Engineering | 329 | www.msol.ucla.edu |
| 2 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA | 100 97 | IT Engineering | 105 828 | gapp.usc.edu/den/programs |
| 3 | Columbia University (Fu Foundation) New York, NY | 93 | Engineering | 296 | www.cvn.columbia.edu |
| 4 | Florida State University Tallahassee, FL | 92 50 | Business IT | 68 44 | business.fsu.edu/academics/graduate-programs/online-programs |
| 5 | University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, TX | 92 | Business | 232 | www.utdallas.edu/elearning/online-programs/ |
| 6 | Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA | 88 | IT | 369 | www.vtmit.vt.edu |
| 7 | Boston University Boston, MA | 87 75 | Business IT | 727 879 | www.bu.edu/online/programs/ |
| 8 | Penn State World Campus University Park, PA | 86 74 | Engineering IT | 740 286 | www.worldcampus.psu.edu |
| 9 | Purdue University West Lafayette, IN | 84 | Engineering | 770 | engineering.purdue.edu/ProEd/ |
| 10 | West Texas A&M University Canyon, TX | 78 | Business | 50 | www.wtamu.edu/academics/college-business.aspx |
| 11 | Creighton University Omaha, NE | 76 | Business | 175 | online.creighton.edu |
| 12 | Mississippi State University (Bagley) Mississippi State, MS | 76 | Engineering | 175 | www.bcoeonline.msstate.edu |
| 13 | Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT | 75 | Business | 413 | quonline.quinnipiac.edu/online-programs/ |
| 14 | Rutgers University - Newark Newark, NJ | 75 | Business | 105 | online.rutgers.edu/master-business-admin/ |
| 15 | Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO | 73 68 63 | Engineering Business IT | 998 90 61 | dce.mst.edu |
| 16 | University of Alabama (Manderson) Tuscaloosa, AL | 73 | Business | 105 | culverhouse.ua.edu/academics/online |
| 17 | Johns Hopkins University (Whiting) Baltimore, MD | 71 67 | Engineering IT | 2,226 767 | ep.jhu.edu/programs-and-courses/program-pathways/online |
| 18 | Northeastern University Boston, MA | 70 | Business | 199 | onlinebusiness.northeastern.edu |
| 19 | Arizona State University (Fulton) Tempe, AZ | 70 | Engineering | 345 | asuengineeringonline.com |
| 20 | New York University (Tandon) New York, NY | 70 | Engineering | 134 | engineering.nyu.edu/academics/online |
| 21 | North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC | 70 64 | Engineering IT | 659 54 | engineeringonline.ncsu.edu |
| 22 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE | 70 | Engineering | 46 | engineering.unl.edu/graduate-programs/master-engineering-management/ |
| 23 | Texas Tech University (Whitacre) Lubbock, TX | 69 60 | Engineering IT | 128 33 | aln.coe.ttu.edu/alnweb/ |
| 24 | University of Maryland (Clark) College Park, MD | 69 | Engineering | 427 | advancedengineering.umd.edu |
| 25 | Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL | 67 | Business | 353 | business.fau.edu |