The 64 Highest Rated Online Universities | 2012 Edition

Below you will find the top 64 online universities in America sorted by average net price. This price is calculated by subtracting the average amount of government, institutional grant, or scholarship aid from the total cost of attendance. The total cost of attendance is the sum of tuition and required fees, books and supplies, and the weighted average for room and board and other expenses.

Why we like average net price?
Average net price represents the real normal cost of attending a college each year. Some schools seem to publish low tuition amounts while making up for it with other fees. Others have higher tuition but great financial aid programs. So average net price helps you look at schools on a more even playing ground.

Please see additional notes below the rankings.

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Interested in seeing who made the list in 2011 - here were the Best Online Colleges of 2011.

Additional notes about the average net prices found above:

The average net price represents full-time beginning undergraduate students who received grant or scholarship aid from federal, state or local governments, or from the college. If you do not think you will be eligible for any loans or grants, your net price will be likely higher.

Some of the colleges above have multiple campuses across the country. Often the tuition varies slightly by campus. In these instances, we used the average net price from what we felt was a representative location for the institution.

Average net price is from the 2009-2010 school year and can be found at the U.S. Department of Education IES National Center for Education Statistics website.

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Found an error, think your college should be included in the 2013 edition, or have comment/suggestion, then send us an email at rankings (at) degreejungle.com.

Colleges and universities who made the list:
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