Online colleges offer students several conveniences. People can study and watch lectures from home (or almost anywhere). Among other things, this saves room and board costs. Online colleges can cost less than colleges that students attend in person. Optimal reports that the average online tuition is $24,634. The range of education options is huge. The same organization reports that there are “36,834 fully online degrees at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and certificate levels.”
Another advantage of online colleges is that people can often work at their own pace. It’s easier to spread out an education when people don’t have to physically learn in the same place.
To determine the best online college, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on academics, admissions, finances, alumni earnings, and student life from Niche School Data Clearinghouse.
Different types of schools rank among the best online colleges we considered, from two-year community colleges to large public institutions. Some schools prefer to teach most of their students online, while others excel at distance learning, although most students prefer to learn in person.
The online colleges we reviewed vary widely in cost, ranging from a few under $11,000 to one with an average cost to attend of over $63,000. Ideally, anyone who earns a college degree will increase their future earnings, but there isn’t always a correlation between tuition fees and future earnings. In fact, in every state there is at least one relatively inexpensive college that can massively benefit its graduates.
LeTourneau University is America’s best online college. Here are the details:
- Location: Longview, Texas
- Admission rate: 45.5%
- Median worker earnings 10 years after entry: $48,200
- Most common degree: Engineering
LeTourneau University ranks as the best online college in America largely because it received very high ratings from Niche for its diversity, academics, and value. Of all the schools that rank among the best online colleges, LeTourneau University is the only one with an admission rate of less than 50%.
Nearly 45% of its students took all of their classes online in the fall 2019 semester, even before the COVID-19 pandemic moved nearly all classes online. LeTourneau University offers 19 bachelor’s degree programs and three associate’s degree programs to its online students.
Methodology: To determine the best online college, 24/7 Wall St. considered schools with a grade of at least B+ in Niche’s 2021 Best Online Colleges in America report. Niche’s ranking includes four-year colleges and universities that are completely online or offer the majority of their degrees online, as well as those whose student body is made up of at least 25% distance learning students.
Data on the physical location of each school also came from Niche. Additional data on admission rates in the 2019-2020 academic year, median earnings in 2015 of students who entered college in the 2004-2005 academic year, and most fluent degree awarded in the 2017-2018 academic year came from the National Center for Education Statistics of the United States Department of Education.
Click here to see all of the best online colleges in America.
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