The Online Degree Dorm Room

Is this the number 1 online school in the USA?

Posted by bposton on March 12th, 2009 — Posted in online degree programs psychology

Here’s a newsflash, my little dorm room buddy… 

This year Nova Southeastern University, based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., was ranked No. 1 in OEDB’s 2009 Online College Rankings.

OEDB stands for Online Education Database, which is an organization that which ranks the top online colleges in the nation. 

In second place went to Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., followed by Champlain College in Burlington, Vt., in third.

While Nova boasts a 300-acre campus with classrooms and students living on university grounds, their online program is growing and now offers 78 online degree and certificate programs.  The school has virtual students in nearly every state.

According to the information used in the ranking, online classes at Nova take advantage of a number of web resources, including threaded discussion boards, chat rooms, email and other online tools. Course materials are all available online and there’s genuine student-teacher interaction as well.

The OEDB survey is based entirely on numerical data derived from eight metrics: acceptance rate, financial aid, graduation rate, peer Web citations, retention rate, scholarly citations, student-faculty ratio and years accredited.

Here’s how Nova sized up in those categories:
Acceptance rate: 51%
Financial aid: 96% of students receive financial aid.
Graduation rate: 47%
Peer Web citations: Close to 5,000. (Peer web citations are links to Nova’s web site from another college’s web sites. It’s kind of a popularity contest. Nova won this category by a landslide.)
Retention rate: 60% This measures the student body’s overall interest in what is being offered by the school.
Scholarly citations: 11,800. Through a Google Scholar search, Nova had 11,800 references to scholarly academic work, the most of any online school.
Student-faculty ratio: No data.
Years accredited: 38

Undergrads at Nova Southeastern can enroll in online programs such as education, computer science, health science and psychology. There are even more online programs for graduate students in the fields of business, law, education, osteopathic medicine, psychology and more.

So, is this the number 1 online school in the USA?

Well if you agree with the numbers, then it probably is. But just because it ranks well, doesn’t mean it’s the right school for YOU. Make sure you do your own research and decide if the courses, environment, educators, etc are what you need to succeed in your online education.