2021 Best Online Colleges (based on ROI)

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

In my opinion, Northeastern University is the best. I was once accepted to their Boston campus. It's crazy that I rejected that offer. I always regret that decision. Back then, they used to rank 90th in the US. But now they rank among top 50th in US. I believe they can reach to ivy-league level in the next 15 years. However, their tuition fee is too expensive.

If anyone's interested, NE provides an outstanding case study in "gaming" the U.S. News rankings to their benefit.

It's clearly worked for them: the only reason any of my families here consider applying is due to this perception of quality, rocketing up from #162 in the 1990s to among the Top 50 now, like you said. I feel like if more families here understood which factors funnel into those rankings, they'd focus more on fit for their children, but students here use it as a safety school, so the university rakes in early application fees.

I absolutely agree the tuition is too expensive, but that's also the higher education arms race at work. They definitely won't be considered Ivy-level (~Top 20) without significant changes to the ranking formula. To reach that caliber, NE would have to surpass mainstays like UCLA, Emory, and Carnegie-Mellon; even NYU is in the way. There are just diminishing returns to their investments at this point.