Is Walden still considered one of the top online colleges? Is it possible to do a top 10 list of online colleges with the best reputation, course work, and price? Being that Walden is a for-profit, I'm surprised by the amount of high praise I have seen for it here and elsewhere. It's a good thing to see.
With more and more traditional Universities going online I wouldn't put any of the for profit colleges at the top of the list.
Yes, Walden University can be the top online college list. It would be the top online college money maker.
I tend to feel the same way about for profits, but I have seen so many people say good things about Walden in the past, I was just wondering if that opinion still holds true. And again, I would really love to be able to put together a top 10 list of online colleges with the best reputation, course work, and price. I think it's important to know not only which ones have the proper accreditation but also which ones are regarded the best.
How would you measure quality of course work? Between reputation, quality of course work, and price, how would you weigh each? A list ordered by reputation or course work quality could easily be very different from one ordered by price. A weighted mash-up could push towards the top some schools that weren't "the best" in either, or were very good in one aspect but not the others, etc.
Quality and reputation are very subjective. How do you measure it? The for-profits have taken a political beating lately. The not-for-profits have not taken the same beating, though many of them charge the same high tuition rates. As one example (of many), Barry University is classified as a not-for-profit, yet it charges $935.00 for one (1) credit in their MPH program. That's almost 3k for one class. Mountain State University was a not-for-profit, yet it still ran into troubles and lost it's accreditation (unless it's still being appealed?). Prestige, reputation and success are all changing variables. What is successful today could be tomorrow's looming disaster. LOL Caveat Emptor.
You could measure reputation by surveying employers, other academics, etc., as some of the mainstream college rankings do. Student or recent graduate satisfaction with course work could be measured, but this would have obvious limitations as a measure of the course work's quality.
In theory, yes, you could do this. However, there are two problems with this approach. The first problem, of course, is that it is expensive and difficult to conduct a statistically valid survey. The second problem: even if you did it, you might find that there are really no significant reputational differences between online-only schools like Capella or Walden or Jones International. If you look at the mainstream college rankings, you will notice that only the top schools are ranked individually. As you get further down the rankings, schools are more likely to be tied, or grouped into large "tiers". So for example, the current US News rankings will tell you that there is a significant difference between the flagship University of Texas campus at Austin, and the secondary UT campus at El Paso. But what if you want to compare different secondary campuses -- like UT El Paso vs. UT Arlington vs. UT San Antonio ? In that case, the US News rankings says there are no significant differences -- all three of these secondary campuses are ranked in the same general tier. And you would probably get the same result from a survey of online school reputations. There may not be any significant reputational differences between an online MBA from UoP vs. DeVry vs. Jones vs. Capella vs. Walden, etc. On the big scale of MBA reputation (which runs from the Ivy League to MUST University), they are probably all clustered in just about the same place.
I think you are completely missing the most important statistic of all -- one which is readily available. It's called the "Cohort Default Rate" (CDR). It simply measures the percentage of former students who go into default on their student loans within three years after leaving school. This stat should tell you something about the value of education received vs. the cost. And the government now publishes this number for every B&M and online school. You can look it up at the College Navigator website. Here are some online schools with relatively low CDRs (which is good): 4.2 Walden University 7.2 American Public University System 8.0 Western Governor's University 8.2 Jones International University 8.2 Charter Oak State University 8.9 Excelsior College And here are some online schools with relatively high CDRs (not good): 25.0 Colorado Technical University - Online 25.9 Kaplan University - Davenport (the online part) 26.4 University of Phoenix - Online 27.4 American InterContinental University - Online If you want to rate online schools -- or any kind of school, for that matter -- the chances of finding yourself in default on tens of thousands of dollars worth of non-dischargeable debt seems it might be a relevant consideration.
You cannot go on price alone. All schools have to make a profit to stay afloat, the difference is in the execution. For-profits and non-profits have vastly two different models of operating. The majority of profits at a for-profit institution go back to the shareholders, little goes back to the institution. At non-profits the situation is different, profits, if any, go back to the school to fund athletic programs, scholarships, hire more faculty, building facilities and so forth. In addition, most students at some expensive private non-profit institution do not pay full prize. Take Barry as an example, I went to Barry and graduated with my bachelors degree. Furthermore, at the time when I attended, tuition was $25,000 a year, not counting room/board, books and other various fees. Did I end up paying $100K for my degree? Not even close. My final out-of-pocket expense was less than $5000 TOTAL, if I recall correctly. How did this happened? Well, Barry gave me a hefty scholarship package, and this is normal at most colleges around the country. Would I have gotten the same treatment at the various for-profits? I doubt it.
Walden's CDR is unusually low, which is a good sign. But this may be a bit misleading, because Walden students are overwhelmingly (more than 80%) studying at the graduate level, which is not true for the other schools listed. Default rates are supposed to be lower for graduate programs, presumably because the people who enroll in such programs are generally older, better educated, and wealthier than people who enroll in associate's or bachelor's programs.
This is correct. You can't rate schools just on sticker price, because: (1) many non-profits heavily discount their sticker price, with scholarships, work-study jobs, etc. (2) many schools with high sticker prices deliver an education that is totally worth it. That's why CDR is a better measure of value. If you can't make the payments on your student loan debt after your graduate, then what was the value of the education? Incidentally, Barry charges about the same tuition as the local Kaplan College campus. But Barry has a relatively low CDR, of only 5.6 %. The local Kaplan campus has a CDR of 30.1 %. So the tuition is similar -- yet Kaplan students are far more likely to default on their student loan debt.
When I was at Walden a few years back, it was expected that if you were in a graduate program, you were already working in your field. I don't think that would be the same case for those seeking an undergraduate degree, and with that in mind, it makes sense to me why the default rate would be lower. Walden grads already have jobs, therefore they're not going bankrupt or whatnot trying to find a job. -Matt
