How We Rank Online IT Programs

Which Programs Are Included

We start from the federal IPEDS completions survey, which reports, school by school, which information technology fields offer degrees that can be completed through distance education. That flag covers a whole field at a school, not a named program, so it is only a starting point. A program enters a ranking only when the school's own website says it can be completed fully online. Hybrid programs and programs whose format we could not confirm are left out.

Information technology here means networking, systems administration, IT support, cloud and IT management degrees, plus degrees a school titles "Information Technology" even when it reports them under a broader computing field. Computer science and software engineering degrees, business-school information systems degrees, and project management degrees are not included.

The Ranking Factors

Most rankings order programs on four factors, each compared only within that ranking:

• Graduation rate (40%), from IPEDS. It is the school's rate, not the program's.
• Median earnings one year after completion (25%), from the College Scorecard, for that school's graduates in that field and degree level.
• Total published online tuition (25%): the school's online rate times the credits the degree requires. Lower ranks higher.
• ABET accreditation or a CAE-CD designation (10%), from ABET's accredited program list and the NSA/DHS National Centers of Academic Excellence map. ABET accreditation earns the full share; a CAE-CD designation, which covers the school rather than the program, earns half.

When a program has no figure for one of these, that factor counts at the middle of the field, as if the program were typical on it. A missing figure therefore neither raises nor lowers a program, and a program with only one published figure cannot land at the very top or bottom on that figure alone.

Cost and Affordability Rankings

The cheapest ranking orders programs by total published tuition only. The most affordable master's ranking is scored like the others, but cost leads: total published tuition counts for 50%, graduation rate 25%, median earnings one year after completion 15%, and ABET accreditation or a CAE-CD designation 10%, so a cheap program with weak outcomes can't top it on price alone. Both rank only programs with a total computed from numbers the school publishes; flat-rate programs, priced per term or per course, are listed separately without a rank. Where the online rate depends on where a student lives, we use the rate any US online student pays and show the in-state rate as well.