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Online College Ranking by Retention Rate
Update: OEDb has released the 2008 rankings. This is an archived page from the 2007 rankings.
A college's retention rate reflects the student body's overall interest in what's being offered by the college. This one figure can explain many factors that compose the attractiveness of a college, including the administration's competence, the quality of its teaching staff, the quality of the curriculum, the willingness of its students, and the perceived value of what is being taught. The retention rate figures are provided by the College Opportunities Online Locator (COOL) database from the Institute of Education Sciences, a sub-agency of the US Department of Education. COOL defines retention rate, for 2005, as the percentage of first-time bachelor's (or equivalent) degree-seeking undergraduates from the fall of 2004 who again enrolled in the fall of 2005.
COOL did not have retention rate figures for all of the online colleges. We did not however want to penalize those colleges without figures. To that end, we have adjusted the rankings of the colleges in this category. Read more about adjusted rankings.
| Adjusted Rank (Rank) | College | Retention Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (1) | Northcentral University | 88% |
| 2.43 (2) | Fisher College | 81% |
| 3.86 (3) | Western Governors University | 76% |
| 5.29 (4) | Post University | 64% |
| 6.71 (5) | Bellevue University | 63% |
| 8.14 (6) | Granite State College | 61% |
| 9.57 (7) | Grand Canyon University | 56% |
| 11 (8) | Florida Metropolitan University | 46% |
| 12.43 (9) | Central Texas College | 40% |
| 13.86 (10) | University of Maryland University College | 39% |
| 15.29 (11) | Strayer University | 38% |
| 16.71 (12) | Westwood College | 31% |
| 16.71 (12) | University of Phoenix | 31% |
| 19.57 (14) | Western International University | 24% |
| 21 (15) | South University | 20% |
| NR | American InterContinental University | No Data |
| NR | Colorado Technical University | No Data |
| NR | Capella University | No Data |
| NR | Jones International University | No Data |
| NR | City University | No Data |
| NR | Cardean University | No Data |
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OEDb's Online College Rankings ranks 21 of the nation's top online colleges by eight different metrics. Please read more about this study or about our methodology for additional information.