Vanderbilt University offers a wide range of student activities. Located in Nashville, or Music City, there are plenty of off-campus options for dining, shopping, music and entertainment. On campus, Greek organizations play a big role in social life, with approximately 40 percent of students affiliated with Greek life. All undergraduate students at Vanderbilt are required to live on campus, and freshmen live together in The Commons, which has six LEED certified green dorms. The Commodores, named for Vanderbilt founder "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, have teams in the NCAA Division I Southeastern Conference. About 35 percent of students take advantage of Vanderbilt’s study abroad programs, which are offered in more than 35 countries.
Vanderbilt is comprised of 10 schools and colleges covering disciplines from the humanities to music to engineering. Among its graduate programs are the top-ranked Peabody College of Education and Human Development, which also offers undergraduate programs, and the highly ranked Owen Graduate School of Management, School of Engineering, Law School, School of Medicine and School of Nursing. Vanderbilt is also well known for its undergraduate Blair School of Music, and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center is ranked one of the best in the nation. Former chairman and CEO of Time Inc. Ann Moore, NFL quarterback Jay Cutler and novelist James Patterson all received degrees from Vanderbilt.
School mission and unique qualities (as provided by the school):
Comprised of four undergraduate schools and six graduate programs, Vanderbilt University offers students a world-class liberal arts education that includes...
Online colleges have come a long way in the last decade.
Once a rare offering from a small handful of schools, online coursework is now
a common feature of a student’s postsecondary degree path. According to a 2015
Babson Research Survey, 70.8% of academic leaders stated that online learning
is now a fundamental part of their postsecondary institution’s long-term growth
strategy. Furthermore, the growth rate among students enrolled in online
college programs again exceeds that of traditional programs at all schools.
Online learning enrollment has been highest at four-year nonprofit and public
institutions in the last few years.
The introduction of online education has proven to be a
viable option for millions of students, who might otherwise not be able to
attend a postsecondary institution due to cost, location, or other priorities
such as family and job constraints. Many of the best online schools offer the
same curriculum and teaching faculty, along with the flexibility and increased
affordability of learning off-campus.
With thousands of hybrid and online bachelor’s and
associate’s degree programs available at hundreds of institutions nationwide,
finding and narrowing down your options can seem intimidating. To help you find
program options that work for you, we’ve compiled the following two lists of
the best online colleges in the country, using qualitative measures and data provided
by the National Center for Education Statistics and from individual schools
themselves. Each ranked school is fully accredited.
The first list assesses four-year online schools based on
key performance indicators, such as admissions, enrollment, retention, and
graduation rates. The second list uses the same criteria to rank two-year
schools. Each school included in our rankings of the best online colleges is a
not-for-profit institution that offers at least three accredited, 100% online
degree programs.