The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Online learning offers a flexible option for those who want to juggle work and family responsibilities with an undergraduate education.
But students in some online programs are more likely than others to earn their degree within six years, according to U.S. News data.
[Discover what employers think about your online bachelor’s degree.]
Among the 102 schools that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the University of Missouri—St. Louis was the only online bachelor’s program where all students who entered in the 2008-2009 school year completed the program in that time frame.
A majority of the 10 online bachelor’s programs with the highest rates – seven – werepublic universities; the remaining three were private schools.
In contrast with those online programs, St. Louis University is an example of a school falling on the opposite end of the spectrum, with just 9.1 percent of enrolled students finishing in six years.
[Explore five tips for interacting with professors as an online student.]
Below are the 10 online bachelor’s programs with the highest percentages of students starting in 2008-2009 who graduated in six years or less. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
[source;usn]
