U.S. News Ranks Top Online Degree Programs

See which schools are tops for online bachelorҀs and masterҀs degrees.

Online course enrollment in the United States hit an all-time high in 2010 with more than 6.1 million students, and the trend shows no signs of leveling off, according to a 2011 report by the Babson Survey Research Group.
Enrollment in online classes doubled between 2007 and 2011, driven largely by a stagnant economy and competitive job market, but also by robust online offerings from established public and private institutions, according to the report. At more than 2,500 colleges and universities surveyed, 65 percent of administrators say that online learning is a vital piece of their institution's long-term strategy.
Recognizing the growing importance of online education in the college experience, and the unique formula necessary to make online degree programs successful, U.S. News is releasing its first Top Online Education Programs rankings.
U.S. News ranked 196 online bachelor's degree programs and 523 online master's degree programs in business, engineering, nursing, education, and computer information technology. Programs considered for the rankings needed to have at least 80 percent of their course content available online.
Bachelor's programs were ranked in three distinct categories: student engagement and assessment, student services and technology, and faculty credentials and training. Master's programs had similar ranking categories, but were ranked on student engagement and accreditation, rather than assessment, and had a separate indicator ranking for admissions selectivity.
[See the methodologies behind the Top Online Programs rankings.]
The U.S. News honor roll lists single out schools that ranked in the top third across at least three of these indicator rankings. Honor roll lists were compiled for online bachelor's degree programs and master's degree programs in nursing, business, education, and engineering. Online master's programs in computer information technology have no honor roll because too few programs from the smaller universe of schools met the criteria.
While for-profit institutions such as the University of Phoenix, DeVry University, and American Public University are among the schools with the highest enrollments in online programs, no for-profit institutions received honor roll distinctions. Instead, a handful of public and private institutions with established on-campus programs, in addition to online offerings, received high marks across all categories.
The top performers in online bachelor's degree programs include Pace University in New York and the University of Florida. Auburn University in Alabama made the honor roll for its online master's programs in education and engineering, and George Washington University's master's programs earned the Washington, D.C., school mentions in the education, business, and nursing honor rolls.

Graduate Directed Energy Scholarships

High Energy Laser (HEL) & High Power Microwave (HPM) Technologies

The Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS) is the premier organization for the exchange of information on the development and application of directed energy (DE), which includes both high energy lasers (HEL) and high power microwaves (HPM). DEPS fosters research and development of DE technology for national defense and civil applications through professional communication and education. The traditional academic disciplines involved in DE research include, but are not limited to, physics, electrical engineering, chemistry, chemical engineering, materials sciences, optical sciences, optical engineering, and aerospace engineering.

This program offered partial scholarships of $10,000 for the 2009-2010 school year. The number and amount of 2010-2011 scholarship awards will depend on available funding, which is provided by the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office and by DEPS.

Requirements

DEPS is seeking qualified scholarship candidates for the 2010-2011 school year. Students must be full-time graduate students at a U.S. school for the term of the scholarship, and expected graduation for initial applicants must be no earlier than the end of the 2010-2011 school year. No more than one award will be made to students of any individual graduate advisor.

Candidates are expected to be interested in pursuing or currently studying the DE technology areas of HEL or HPM. The technical scope of acceptable research is the same as that of the Journal of Directed Energy and of DEPS meetings. Scholarship students have published in the Journal and made presentations at these technical meetings.

Students applying for this scholarship must be U.S. citizens or have demonstrated interest in becoming citizens. Citizens of other countries may apply, if they provide with the application package a letter of intent to become a U.S. citizen.

The term of the Scholarship is one year. Scholars may apply for support in the next year, but they have no advantage over other applicants. The requirement that a student have a year or more remaining before award of the degree is waived for current Scholars who are reapplying. An award made to a current Scholar graduating before May 2011 will be proportionately reduced.

Application Process

To apply for this scholarship, please send the following items to DEPS Scholarship Program, Directed Energy Professional Society, 7770 Jefferson Street NE, Suite 440, Albuquerque, NM, 87109.

This DEPS scholarship application,
Official transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate work, sent directly from the school to DEPS (see note below),
Letter of interest in a specific DE technology and statement of proposed research,
Letter of reference from a potential or current graduate research advisor including an assessment of the student's potential and description of facilities to be employed for the research, and
Letter of intent to become U.S. citizen, if applicant is not a citizen.
Note: Previous applicants who are applying again this year need only submit transcripts that have changed since the last application. For example, a second-year graduate student who applied last year need not resubmit transcripts from undergraduate school.
The deadline for applications is 1 April 2010. Applications will be reviewed by the DEPS Board of Scientific and Engineering Advisors (BSEA) for potential scholarship award. The awards will be announced during the summer of 2010.

If you have questions, please contact Dr. Sam Blankenship, DEPS Executive Director, at sam@deps.org

http://www.deps.org/DEPSpages/scholarships.html