Online Colleges with the Best Student Satisfaction Rates

Less than 2/3rds of college students in the U.S. are projected to complete a college degree, according to data from CollegeAtlas.org. Additionally, a reported one in every three freshmen do not go on to become sophomores. 

Higher education is a highly competitive market, as it has to be in this day and age. College tuition is at an all time high and there are (per the most recent data) almost 5,000 institutions of higher education in the United States alone. With the high cost and large amount of options, more and more pressure is on higher education institutions to ensure that they are providing a quality education, accommodative programs, and doing their best to demonstrate all-around high standards. They are able to do so by calculating their rate of student satisfaction.

The Top 50 Online Colleges with the Highest Student Satisfaction, found at http://www.onlinecollegeplan.com/online-colleges-highest-student-satisfaction/, present their prospective students with a numerical value of how satisfied their students are. This is arguably one of the most important factors in school selection.  It is also one of the most straight forward to determine, as the percentage of returning freshman and graduation rates are key indicators of student satisfaction.

The research editor, Heather Westlindt, has provided a concise snapshot of each school in this college ranking. The ranking includes amazing campus photos, key facts about each of the schools, and their student satisfaction rate is clearly displayed.

The biggest crowd pleaser in the United States is currently Indiana-based University of Notre Dame. In the picturesque city of South Bend, it boasts a 98% student satisfaction rate, and edged out Yale University (New Haven, CT) by a slim 1%.

The complete list of colleges as ranked in ascending order is as follows:

1. University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana)

2. Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut)

3. Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

4. University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

5. Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey)

6. Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire)

7. Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island)

8. Columbia University (New York City, New York)

9. Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland)

10. Duke University (Durham, North Carolina)

11. Stanford University (Stanford, Connecticut)

12. University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California)

13. California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California)

14. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

15. University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)

16. University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia)

17. College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)

18. University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

19. Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia)

20. Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina)

21. Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pennsylvania)

22. Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas)

23. Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama)

24. Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida)

25. University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, Alabama)

26. State University of New York (New York)

27. Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)

28. Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colorado)

29. University of Nebraska at Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska)

30. University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma)

31. California State University (Long Beach, California)

32. Southeast Missouri State University (Girardeau, Missouri)

33. University of Southern Indiana (Evansville, Indiana)

34. University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio)

35. University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas)

36. University of Central Arkansas (Conway, Arkansas)

37. Bridgewater State University (Bridgewater, Massachusetts)

38. Cleveland State University (Cleveland, Ohio)

39. University of Southern Maine (Portland, Gotham, and Lewiston, Maine)

40. University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri)

41. University of Memphis (Memphis, Tennessee)

42. University of Rhode Island (Kingston, Rhode Island)

43. Western Illinois University (Macomb, Illinois)

44. Union College (Schenectady, New York)

45. Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

46. Valdosta State University (Valdosta, Georgia)

47. Wichita State University (Wichita, Kansas)

48. University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)

49. New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, New Jersey)

50. Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia)