How to Find a College Ranking Highly that Offers Distance Learning

College ranking can make a big difference in how your online degree is perceived by potential employers. Some employers still perceive the distance learning experience as being of less value than a traditional education.

So if you want to impress potential employers with your distance learning, try to pick one of the top ranked schools that solely offers distance learning, or find a highly ranked traditional college that also offers distance learning courses.

Your choice of which approach will depend on what you want to study, and what you want to get out of your studies such as a degree, transferable credits, or just knowledge in itself.

Finding a High Ranking Distance Learning University

Here I refer to "distance learning universities" as those schools that primarily offer their courses over the internet. These schools were developed to cater to working individuals and provide courses that are highly focused on developing professional skills.

Various distance learning universities with a high college ranking, such as Phoenix, DeVry or Capella universities are now well recognized in the business community. You may find that many of the people who are employed at the company to which you are applying have taken classes at one of these schools.

The site "25 Best Distant Learning Universities" offers a list of schools that are considered to be the best in the distance learning field:

http://25best-distant-learning-universities.com/index.htm

You will probably recognize many of these, but more importantly, your potential employers will recognize them as well.

Finding High Ranking Traditional Colleges that Offer Distance Learning

To find a college ranking highly among the traditional schools that also offer distance learning, try visiting a site such as the US News' report on America's Best Colleges 2007.

Find a category that interests you, such as National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Master's Universities, etc, and look through the schools that they list.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

After finding a college ranking highly that appeals to you, do a search on it's name at a major search engine while adding the phrase "distance learning" to your search.

If that school offers distance learning courses or degrees, you should be able to find some reference to them at the search engines.

If you don't find anything for that institution and distance learning, visit the school's website, and if they offer a search function for the site, search for distance learning.

The traditional, top ranked schools offer a range of distance learning options. The University of California at Berkeley offers both lower division and upper division courses by distance learning which are fully transferable and apply to degree programs.

Other schools, such as Duke University, offer specialized degree programs, such as their Masters degree in Environmental Leadership, a program which was developed to make a positive social contribution on a wide scale.

The University of Pennsylvania offers a number of online continuing education classes for the medical field, including Dental, Medical and Nursing education, as well as a distance learning program on English Language.

If you believe that the college ranking is important to your career, and if distance learning is your preferred mode of ecducation, you can improve your odds of attending a high ranking school.

Search among the many schools that offer distance learning courses or degrees in your area of interest, and prepare to attend the Ivy League from the comfort of your home.

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