Find the best online colleges in Texas ranked by the academic success of faculty and alumni associated with the colleges and universities and their online degree programs.
Texas offers more than 30 colleges and universities that serve communities of 10,000 students or more. The largest school in the bunch (and in the nation), Texas A&M University in College Station serves more than 65,000 students. The University of Texas at Austin is the next largest, serving about 45,000 students — but it too has a big claim to fame, as the wealthiest public university in the United States. Texas’s private colleges and universities, including Baylor University and Southern Methodist University, are also impressive in size and scope. The majority of these schools have religious affiliations and offer degrees in a variety fields, such as nursing, religious studies, criminal justice, business, and education.
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For students who prefer a more intimate educational environment, Texas offers a long list of smaller public and private colleges and universities, such as Abilene Christian University and University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Additionally, Texas has generous loan forgiveness programs for qualifying nurses, physicians, teachers, legal aid attorneys, and lawyers who work in the Texas Attorney General’s office.
Texas is known for doing things big. Big cities, big open spaces and, of course, big fun. Whether you’re hitting up the live music scene in Austin, catching a Cowboys game in Dallas, or strolling down the River Walk in San Antonio, you’re sure to have a good time. And, with more than 150 higher education institutes, it’s safe to say The Lone Star State is big on education too.
If you’re looking to earn your degree in the state of Texas, you’ll have plenty of higher learning institutes to choose from.
Online education has grown dramatically in quality, credibility, and popularity over the last two decades. Today, more than a quarter of all college students are taking at least one online course. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are more than 5 million college students who are pursuing their undergraduate degree fully online. And the number of online college and graduate students continues to grow as online technology and instructional methods improve.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to remote learning has proven an essential part of the educational ecosystem. Schools that offer primarily online degree programs saw an increase of 7% enrollment just between Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The number of traditional institutions offering online courses and degrees is growing as well. This all paints a promising picture for the future of online education. But it also produces a dizzying array of options.
Asynchronous learning means classes don’t meet at set times. This is the most flexible online learning experience, making when you cover your course material up to you. Most asynchronous online courses will still have deadlines throughout the semester for various assignments and tests. Some asynchronous classes may still ask for an occasional meeting, such as initial meet-and-greets, and in some cases there may be scheduled test times. The idea of asynchronous learning is to allow the student to manage their schedules as needed.
Synchronous learning means you will have scheduled meeting times for your online classes. Synchronous learning gives online students the flexiblity of location while also giving students a chance to engage with each other and their professors. For many online students, the structured class schedules and ability to see and hear from peers in real-time helps create the learning experience they want.
Back to TopAccreditation is especially important when it comes to online college. This is because the online education landscape is a mix of highly-reputable institutions and less-than-reputable for-profit schools. Accreditation gives you the power to differentiate between the two. Accreditation is a stamp of approval from an independent accrediting agency which indicates that a college or university is meeting standards of quality, credibility, and currency. School-wide accreditation falls into two major categories: regional and national accreditation. Regional accreditors generally hold jurisdiction only over schools in the states comprising their region, whereas national accreditors hold jurisdiction over schools in all states. Regional accreditation is widely regarded as a more rigorous standard of quality and credibility than national accreditation.
Attending a college or university which is not regionally accredited could limit your opportunities. When seeking an online education, we strongly recommend that students opt for regionally accredited schools. Regional accreditation ensures eligibility for federal loans and grants, ensures your college credits can be transferred between schools, and ensures that your degree credits can be accepted if you wish to earn an advanced degree.
Back to TopAs long as your online college degree is regionally accredited, you should have little difficulty transferring most of your credits or credentials to another regionally accredited undergraduate school. Every school carries its own standards and procedures for granting a transfer. In many cases, you will be required to navigate a bureaucracy in which some of your credits will be transferred and others will be jettisoned. However, provided that you have attended an online school with the proper regional accreditation, you should have plenty of options for transfer.
Back to TopIn most cases, as long you graduate from a well-regarded, regionally-accredited online college, prospective employers won’t look sideways at your degree. In fact, unless you attend an exclusively online college or university, there will likely be no specific indicator on your degree, transcript or resume differentiating your school from its brick-and-mortar counterpart. This means that your employer will likely only differentiate between an online and in-person degree if you mention this distinction.
While some employers may express concern about making the adjustment from online education to in-person workplace collaboration, many other employers will view your online degree as evidence of valuable 21st Century professional skills such as independence, self-motivation, time management, and tech savvy.
Back to TopThe advantages of online classes are many. First and foremost, online courses give you the freedom and flexibility to attend class from anywhere that works for you, whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, or in a quiet conference room at work. In many cases, you’ll also enjoy the convenience of asynchronous learning opportunities—educational experiences that you can complete on your own schedule. This may include pre-taped lectures, ongoing chat-board discussions, and 24/7 access to digital materials. And of course, just as there are some learners who prefer the energy of a live classroom, there are those who learn best when working in their own personal space, free from distractions. If this sounds like you, you might find the solitude of online learning to be a major advantage.
Back to TopPursuing your degree online doesn’t mean you need to settle for an inferior school. Today, most universities and colleges offer online degrees, and many respected schools are seeing significant growth in their numbers of online students.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why influence — i.e., the academic impact of faculty and alumni associated with a school — gets at the heart of what is truly best in education. The combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers is the best indicator of academic excellence. For our online degree rankings, we focus on the academic influence of faculty and alumni in the specific disciplines we’re ranking.
If you are serious about finding the best online colleges, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching, and whether their graduates themselves are advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence. Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Influence, as measured by our InfluenceRanking engine, provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
63%
Student body
35K
Median SAT/ACT
1165/24
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
57%
Student body
35K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
63%
Graduation
83%
Student body
59K
Median SAT/ACT
1275/28
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
48%
Graduation
82%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1250/28
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
58%
Student body
19K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/21
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
46%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/22
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
52%
Student body
40K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/23
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
44%
Student body
20K
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
63%
Graduation
66%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1122/24
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
19%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
920/16
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
37%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/20
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
47%
Graduation
34%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/21
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
47%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1100/21
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
55%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1056/20
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
54%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/21
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
44%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/20
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
56%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1055/20
Tuition + fees
$30K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
38%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
985/18
Tuition + fees
$5K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
41%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1036/19
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
43%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/20
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
56%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1140/23
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
43%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
22%
Student body
7K
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
43%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/20
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
30%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1000/18
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
19%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1009/18
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
35%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1020/19
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
89%
Graduation
49%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1010/19
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
57%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1200/25
Tuition + fees
$9K
Student body
5K
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
47%
Graduation
35%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1020/20
Tuition + fees
$9K
Student body
1K
Tuition + fees
$24K
Acceptance
62%
Graduation
43%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
985/19
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
45%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1046/22
Tuition + fees
$7K
Graduation
40%
Student body
<1K
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
33%
Graduation
67%
Student body
<1K