Best Online Colleges In Virginia

Long renowned for its history of excellent educational institutions, Virginia is a great choice for the student looking for a solid online program.

Virginia's tradition of great education passes naturally to the state's wonderful selection of 100% online programs of study. Many prestigious schools including George Mason, James Madison, and even Virginia Tech all boast a variety of online programs, from the entirely online to hybrid programs, with credit applying to both undergraduate and graduate degrees.

On the whole, Virginia is ranked fourth in graduation rates in the nation, with 49.1% of Virginia students completing their degrees within 4 years, according to 2013 data. In 2012, CollegeMeasures.org issued a report that found that after graduation, 36% of those who held bachelor's degrees were in full-time employment, with another 13% pursuing higher degree programs in other Virginia schools. The same report went on to say that students who graduate with a bachelor's degree earn 67% more on average than comparable professionals in the state who are only high school graduates.

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What Are the Best Online Colleges in Virginia?

Our Methodology:

In the following section, you will find our rankings of what we believe to be the best four-year online programs in Virginia. Our profiles take a look at the way these schools approach their online programs, and explore how they serve their distance education students. As you review these best online schools in Virginia, consider what they have to offer, the programs of study that they specialize in, and whether one of them may be the perfect school for you to get your online degree from.

Our ranking system is based upon three standard factors: institutional excellence, student satisfaction, and return on investment, otherwise known as student success.

The first of these, institutional excellence is measured across a variety of data points, including the school's graduation rate, the school reputation, entering test scores of students, student-faculty ratios, and the size of endowment.

Second, student satisfaction considers the weight of reviews from actual students from across a variety of publications and websites.

Finally, return on investment is considered by measuring tuition costs, financial aid availability, average debt after graduation, and expected salaries after graduation. This data comes from the National Center of Education Statistics at their IPEDS database, and also from sources including Payscale, US News & World Report, and actual college websites.