Library and computer lab

Ocean County College (OCC) ranked number one out of 46 schools in the state of New Jersey that offer online classes or degree programs in an analysis conducted by OnlineColleges.com, which provides reliable information about top online colleges and degree programs.

Ocean County College offers 24 distance education programs, which is the second-highest number of online programs offered by any school in NJ. These fully online programs include associate and certificate programs in business, computer science, criminal justice, and engineering, among others. Additionally, OCC earned its top ranking partly because of its affordable tuition. OCC ranks No. 1 for in-state tuition and No. 6 for out-of-state tuition. Not only is OCC recognized as number one in NJ, but on a national scale it ranks No. 65 out of the 2,868 schools in the study.

In the ranking, Ocean County College also received a perfect score for flexibility, which is great news for students hoping to earn their degrees online. Some of those flexibility factors include academic/career counseling services, electronic library resources, and more.

Campus and clock tower

To generate the ranking, OnlineColleges.com sourced data from the National Center for Education Statistics to evaluate schools on multiple criteria including:

• Number of programs offered via distance education
• Percentage of students participating in distance education classes
• Average in-state tuition for undergraduate and, if applicable, graduate students
• Average out-of-state tuition for undergraduate and, if applicable, graduate students
• Total electronic library collections, including digital books, databases, and media
• Availability of academic/career counseling services
• Availability of job placement services for graduates
• Whether the school offers dual credit
• Whether the school offers credit for life experience
• Whether the school offers advanced placement (AP) credit
• Whether the school offers credit for military training

In addition to viewing the schools with the highest overall score, students can filter schools by tuition, school type, religious affiliation, military benefit, and more. With OnlineColleges.com’s interactive ranking, students can produce a personalized list that ranks schools based on the qualities that are most important to them.

Visit OnlineColleges.com to learn more about the methodology and see the ranking of New Jersey schools.