MSU ranked best online college in Minnesota for transfer students

Dec. 10—MANKATO — Minnesota State University has been ranked the best online college in Minnesota for transfer students and third in best online colleges overall by Intellegent.com.

Jonathan Paver, director of online programs at MSU, said he's grateful for the recognition.

"I think that this ranking is a testament to the quality of the programs that we offer in a fully online environment," he said. "That really goes to the high-quality faculty that we have teaching these programs and just the work that our faculty and staff do with students on a regular basis to really meet their needs and achieve their learning goals."

Intellegent.com is a website that acts as an educational consultant for students.

Part of their mission is "helping students in their pre-college journey by ranking colleges and programs across the country using aggregated publicly available data."

Each school featured on the list of best online colleges in Minnesota is a "nonprofit, accredited institution — either public or private — with a high standard of academic quality for post-secondary institutions." Liberal arts and research universities were included, as well as institutions of all sizes.

Schools were evaluated by tuition cost, admission, reputation, faculty, student resources provided for online students, retention and graduation rates.

MSU was given an intelligent score of 99.55/100 based on a few factors.

"MSU makes it easy for you to transfer credits earned elsewhere and complete your bachelor's degree 100% online," according to Intellegent.com. "Best of all, the online bachelor's degrees are all highly career-focused, which means you're likely to get a good return on your investment."

The university offers about 40 online programs, with the most popular one being the Registered Nurse Baccalaureate Completion program.

"With the need for highly qualified, highly trained nurses, it's just a great program to offer to students in not only the local region, but also throughout the state," Paver said.

Most of the university's online programs are completion programs, targeted toward students who already have an associate's degree.

"There's a number of benefits for the programs. If they're in, for example, nursing or within the dental area, that's part of their progression because they're already at work," Paver said. "And because they're already working in their field, the online program really provides them with the flexibility that they need to be able to manage full-time work and also their studies to be able to complete their bachelor's degree."

It can be cost-effective as well.

"It really can be cost savings when you start at a community college and then transfer into the university," Paver said. "Students experience cost savings in addition to the flexibility and the access that fully online programs provide."

Roughly 10%, or about 1,500, of MSU's total enrollment are students who are in fully online programs.

Paver said they continue to see demand grow for online programs, even when students are returning to campus three years into the pandemic.

"I really appreciate that our online programs have been recognized for excellence," he said. "I get the chance to work every day with our faculty and staff in these programs and really see the dedication and the hard work that they put in. To be able to receive this positive recognition is very nice."

For more information on MSU's online programs, visit online.mnsu.edu.