The rankings at BestMedicalDegrees.com adhere to a unique methodology. We created a formula using reputable data points to assess each institution's value. This guide provides sources and ranking criteria to explore our methodology.
To develop these rankings, we examined three main factors: academic quality, affordability, and online flexibility. Within those categories, we consider several subfactors, such as enrollment rate or student loan default rate, which come from reputable national databases. Then we plug those data points into our proprietary formula. You can find out more about how we calculate this formula below.
While these rankings should help students as they research potential schools, these lists are not entirely comprehensive. We do not include every school, especially if that school did not have enough data to make an objective calculation. Finally, no editorial or outside influence affected these rankings — we did not allow any school to pay for a higher score.
About Our Data
Our ranking data comes from publicly available, reputable courses. The U.S. Department of Education runs the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which provides the most comprehensive compilation of higher education data from across the country. The NCES collects several data measurements, such as graduation and retention rates, student-to-faculty ratios, and demographic information.
We pulled much of the data from the NCES in December 2019 to create these rankings. As part of the assessment process, our quality assurance team checked each school. If an institution fails to provide a significant amount of data, the team eliminates it from these rankings to make these calculations as accurate as possible. If you want to double-check any data points for yourself, you can find a specific school through the NCES' integrated postsecondary education system, an easily searchable tool where you can find datasets for institutions or reports on national education figures.
A Breakdown of Our Ranking Factors and Subfactors
The tables below explore exactly how we create these rankings for the best medical degrees. We consider these factors and subfactors for three types of rankings for online programs: general "best of," affordability, and best value rankings. You can also see how we weighed each metric to calculate the rankings.
Online "Best of" Rankings
Metric and Weight
- Quality: 35%
- Student Success: 30%
- Affordability: 15%
- Online Flexibility: 20%
Subfactors for Quality
- Enrollment rate
- Full-time retention rate
- Part-time retention rate
Subfactors for Student Success
- Graduation rate
- Student-to-faculty ratio
Subfactors for Affordability
- Average net price
- Percentage of students receiving financial aid
- Loan default rate
Subfactors for Online Flexibility
- Percent of graduate or undergraduate students enrolled partially or fully online
Online Affordability Ranking
Metric and Weight
- Quality: 20%
- Student Success: 20%
- Affordability: 60%
Subfactors for Quality
- Enrollment rate
- Full-time retention rate
- Part-time retention rate
Subfactors for Student Success
- Graduation rate
- Student-to-faculty ratio
Subfactors for Affordability
- Average net price
- Percentage of students receiving financial aid
- Loan default rate
Online Best Value Ranking
Metric and Weight
- Quality: 20%
- Affordability: 50%
- Return on Investment (ROI): 30%
Subfactors for Quality
- Graduation rate
- Retention rate
- Percent of programs offered
- Student-to-faculty ratio
Subfactors for Affordability
- Net price
- Financial aid availability
- Percent of students awarded financial aid
- Ratio of average amount of aid received to average cost
Subfactors for ROI
- 20-year net present value