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?
Below is a comprehensive list of schools that offer virtual or online education programs and are accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the US Department of Education.The Distance Education Accrediting Commission is the primary accrediting body that recognizes online schools, but not all schools on this list are accredited by that agency.
This list includes schools that offer fully online programs exclusively, as well as schools that offer at least one fully online program in addition to campus offerings.
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).List of the 25 best colleges in the USA offering 100% online programs for 2019
| 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 CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA | 10097 | ITEngineering | 105828 | gapp.usc.edu/den/programs |
| 3 | Columbia University (Fu Foundation)New York, NY | 93 | Engineering | 296 | www.cvn.columbia.edu |
| 4 | Florida State UniversityTallahassee, FL | 9250 | BusinessIT | 6844 | business.fsu.edu/academics/graduate-programs/online-programs |
| 5 | University of Texas at DallasRichardson, TX | 92 | Business | 232 | www.utdallas.edu/elearning/online-programs/ |
| 6 | Virginia TechBlacksburg, VA | 88 | IT | 369 | www.vtmit.vt.edu |
| 7 | Boston UniversityBoston, MA | 8775 | BusinessIT | 727879 | www.bu.edu/online/programs/ |
| 8 | Penn State World CampusUniversity Park, PA | 8674 | EngineeringIT | 740286 | www.worldcampus.psu.edu |
| 9 | Purdue UniversityWest Lafayette, IN | 84 | Engineering | 770 | engineering.purdue.edu/ProEd/ |
| 10 | West Texas A&M UniversityCanyon, TX | 78 | Business | 50 | www.wtamu.edu/academics/college-business.aspx |
| 11 | Creighton UniversityOmaha, NE | 76 | Business | 175 | online.creighton.edu |
| 12 | Mississippi State University (Bagley)Mississippi State, MS | 76 | Engineering | 175 | www.bcoeonline.msstate.edu |
| 13 | Quinnipiac UniversityHamden, CT | 75 | Business | 413 | quonline.quinnipiac.edu/online-programs/ |
| 14 | Rutgers University – NewarkNewark, NJ | 75 | Business | 105 | online.rutgers.edu/master-business-admin/ |
| 15 | Missouri University of Science and TechnologyRolla, MO | 736863 | EngineeringBusinessIT | 9989061 | 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 | 7167 | EngineeringIT | 2,226767 | ep.jhu.edu/programs-and-courses/program-pathways/online |
| 18 | Northeastern UniversityBoston, 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 UniversityRaleigh, NC | 7064 | EngineeringIT | 65954 | engineeringonline.ncsu.edu |
| 22 | University of Nebraska-LincolnLincoln, NE | 70 | Engineering | 46 | engineering.unl.edu/graduate-programs/master-engineering-management/ |
| 23 | Texas Tech University (Whitacre)Lubbock, TX | 6960 | EngineeringIT | 12833 | aln.coe.ttu.edu/alnweb/ |
| 24 | University of Maryland (Clark)College Park, MD | 69 | Engineering | 427 | advancedengineering.umd.edu |
| 25 | Florida Atlantic UniversityBoca Raton, FL | 67 | Business | 353 | business.fau.edu |
