Well, to begin with, there is no such definition of a good online school. Each school has pros and cons, and this makes compiling a ranking list quite cumbersome. Nevertheless, our approach towards ranking online schools is a simple one; we get our data from unbiased sources and then assess schools based on various factors, which we believe are crucial to a successful educational experience. Furthermore, to add an external perspective to our rankings, we also consider rankings, ratings, and reviews from other major publications.
With numerous colleges across the nation offering online education, it becomes a daunting task to choose the right one to pursue the program of your interest. Our first step was to filter out these colleges using the following two minimum requirements.
• The school must be accredited by a nationally recognized accreditation body.
• The program should be offered in an online or hybrid format.
After filtering out the list, eligible schools were ranked based on important factors such as academic quality, affordability, student-friendly services, faculty credentials, school’s reputation, and online education presence. We believe these factors are important in gauging a college’s overall success.
Factor | Weightage | |
Academic Quality | 30% | |
Acceptance Rate | 20% | |
Enrollment Rate | 20% | |
Retention Rate | 20% | |
Graduation Rate | 20% | |
Loan Default Rate | 20% | |
Affordability | 25% | |
Net Price | 60% | |
Percentage of Enrolled Students Receiving Financial Aid (Grants, Loans, & Scholarships) | 40% | |
Editorial Team Rating (Student Services, Use of Technology, Faculty Credentials, and The School’s Overall Reputation) | 25% | |
Online Education Presence | 20% | |
Total Number of Online Programs Offered by the College | 60% | |
Percentage of Students Enrolled for Online Education | 40% |
The above factors have been explained below for you to understand why we have considered them for our ranking methodology.
The academic quality of a college is one of the most important factors to gauge its success, and seemingly so, it constitutes 30% of our total ranking score. We have based this factor on five components, including acceptance rate, graduation rate, retention rate, enrollment rate, and loan default rate.
Affordability is an important factor while considering a school and constitutes 25% of our ranking score. Affordable education can help you graduate with lesser debt, and to decipher this factor, we have considered a college’s net price and percentage of students receiving any kind of financial aid.
Our Editorial Team Rating accounts for 25% of our total score and is based on factors such as student services, use of technology, faculty credentials, and a school’s overall reputation. These factors give us a broad idea about the student’s learning experience and the popularity of the school.
A college’s experience and expertise in online education constitute 20% of our total ranking score. We have looked-into the following two factors to gauge a college’s strength in online instruction delivery.
To create a firm base for our ranking methodology, we have extracted accurate and updated information from various reliable sources.
• The complete list of accredited schools was gathered from the respective program’s official nationally recognized accrediting body website.
• The National Center for Education Statistics was our source for information regarding Acceptance Rate, enrollment rate, retention rate, graduation rate, loan default rate, net price, percentage of enrolled students receiving financial aid, the total number of online programs offered by the college and the percentage of students enrolled for online education.
• College rankings & ratings and student reviews were sourced from U.S. News, Niche, Grad Reports, and Rate My Professors.
The main purpose behind our rankings is to help you in your search for the best college to pursue the program of your interest. The ranking list can serve as a great starting point and saves you from spending long hours going through scores of college sites.
Our rankings are completely unbiased and fair as we are a neutral third party who has no direct association with any of the colleges; neither do we have anything to gain from the ranking order of colleges. Our rankings are solely based on data collected from unbiased sources, and to maintain transparency, we clearly publish the factors that our rankings are based on.
At nursingprocess.org, we understand that our rankings can influence a student's decision in making a choice for the right school. We do not promote the schools that have made it to our list; neither do we disregard schools that haven't made it to our list. Although we have tried our best in bringing you a list of the best schools that can simplify your search, there is no one perfect ranking tool or formula to devise a list of the best schools. Our rankings are fair and unbiased, and we are in no way associated with any educational institution and thus have nothing to gain out of the ranking order. To maintain transparency, we have clearly mentioned the factors considered for our rankings for everyone to see, the data for which was collected from reliable sources.
If you have questions, comments, or corrections about our ranking methodology, please feel free to connect with our staff through the Contact Form.