Most Economical Online Degrees? The Lists Disagree

I love lists. I love it more when lists disagree. It's all about methodology, about the special sauce different folks use to draw up a list.

Case in point, take the growing field of online college degrees (bachelor's). Based strictly on price, the Affordable Colleges Online site provides a very different list than, say, the U.S. News & World site, which includes reputation. For fun, I've made a table of the Top 10 AC schools and where USN&W placed them. See how methodology matters?

Top Online Bachelor's Programs

	AC Online	USNW
Univ of Florida	1	5
Univ of Wyoming	2	NR
Appalachian State	3	157
UNC-Wilmington	4	NR
BYU-Idaho	5	NR
Texas Tech	6	NR
Florida State	7	102
Univ of Nebraska	8	74
Western Wash. U	9	NR
Utah State Univ	10	48

NR=not rated

The #1 online bachelor's degree school for USN&W is Central Michigan. It doesn't make the AC's Top 20.

Yes, methodology matters.