Auburn placed in the top 10 in four out of five online graduate degree programs evaluated by the U.S. News & World Report for best online education programs in 2013.
The evaluation by USNWR placed a number of degree programs from the different schools of the universities alongside, in some cases hundreds, of others and ranked their findings based off of various factors, ranging from student engagement to faculty credentials.
Online graduate programs of the University in education were ranked second, behind St. Johns University, in New York, out of the 208 different programs evaluated. Graduate engineering programs in business were ranked six among 213.
Computer information technology was also six out of the 30 online master's degree programs evaluated, and programs in the College of Engineering ranked six among 70.
"There is no difference at all in terms of the type of content these students are engaged in, or in terms of the quality of instruction," said Troy Johnson, the College of Educations director of communications and marketing. "The only difference is that they're not able to run over to Starbucks at the Student Center."
Chris Paulk, Georgia native, said he chose Auburn's online program because it comes from a "brick and mortar" university.
"It's been a real positive experience," saidPaulk, "It's allowed me to seek my degree, my further degrees, while I've been teaching. When I tell (co-workers) that I got my masters in a year, they look at me like I'm crazy."
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