Choosing an Online College: The Free Research Tools You Should Know About

By Adrian Ramirez • Edited by Bailey Fletcher • Updated 5/28/2026

ON THIS PAGE

Analysis Step-by-Step Summary Conclusion

Key Takeaways:

Finding the right online college requires a different approach than finding an on-campus school — independent data and student reviews can replace campus visits when used the right way.
Tools like OnlineU's rankings are a good place to start your shortlist of schools, as important characteristics like accreditation, online delivery, tuition cost, and student experience have already been vetted.
Use freely available federal tools like College Navigator, College Scorecard, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's aid comparison tool to help finalize your shortlist.

Choosing an online college is fundamentally different than choosing a school to attend on campus. Online students have different needs, so even if you visit a campus and sit in on a few classes, the information you gain from that will mostly be irrelevant. Yet, the goals are the same as for on-campus students — you need a program that delivers a quality degree and ultimately gives you the knowledge required to enter your desired career field.

So where should you start? Many prospective online students don't know this, but the U.S. government has built several free tools designed to help you evaluate colleges. They're publicly available, don't require you to sign up for anything, and give you access to the same kinds of data that powers OnlineU's rankings. Combining these tools with our rankings can help you avoid the overwhelm of figuring out where to start, plus save you time and effort in deciding which online colleges are worth applying to.

This guide walks you through a practical five-step research process that will help you build your shortlist based on your individual needs, then compare institutions, outcomes, and financial aid offers side-by-side. When you're done, you should have a list of three to six colleges that you feel good about.

Why Independent Research Matters More For Online Students

When you're looking at going to school on campus, a lot of the research happens organically. Visiting a campus gives you the opportunity to sit in on a lecture or strike up conversations with current students. Sometimes you'll even get a feel for how local employers feel about graduates of the department offering your desired program.

Online students don't have access to that feedback in the same way, so their research needs to be more deliberate and targeted — that's where data comes into play. Most of the tools we'll discuss in this guide pull information from a database called the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Every U.S. college and university that accepts federal financial aid is required to report a wide range of data to IPEDS, from tuition and financial aid to degree completion rates and post-graduate earnings.

The tools we'll look at make this data accessible to anyone. When you combine the data you get from them with college rankings, student reviews, and a financial aid comparison tool from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you'll have a research toolkit at your fingertips that can answer many of your pre-enrollment questions. The step-by-step guide below is how we recommend getting the most from each tool.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Shortlist of Online Colleges

Step 1: Start With a Data-Backed Ranking Tool

IPEDS allows you to tap into an abundance of data, but it's a good idea to have an initial list of schools you're interested in before diving into the main federal tools. Otherwise, you're starting from scratch, sorting through thousands of schools with only a handful of filters and very little context as to which schools can meet your needs.

College rankings designed for online students, built on verified data rather than prestige or peer reputation, can help you narrow your choices down to a workable list of ten or so schools much more quickly. OnlineU's rankings start with IPEDS data to qualify any program for consideration. And any school in our rankings has already been vetted for two characteristics that matter to online learners:

Every school listed in our rankings is accredited and has access to federal financial aid.
Every program we list is delivered online. (Although, some programs may require up to two weeks of in-person attendance for work that can't be completed remotely, like hands-on clinicals or lab classes.)

Regardless of which type of OnlineU ranking list you start with, you'll get information geared specifically towards helping you find the best online program for your needs.

Not sure which ranking list to start with? It can be helpful to define your priorities first. Are you most concerned with finding the best program, the most affordable, or the most highly recommended by alumni? Here are some popular starting points:

Step 2: Check Student Reviews for School and Program Fit

Once you've identified a dozen or so colleges you're interested in (less is fine too), it's time to go outside the numbers. The data tools we'll explore in steps 3-5 can help you choose between schools, but numbers can't tell you much about what it's like to actually be enrolled in a school or program.

For online students, reviews are the closest equivalent to what on-campus students get from campus visits. You can check conversational boards like Reddit for individual opinions, but OnlineU (and our partner site GradReports) have already collected around 100,000 reviews for you.

The most useful reviews for online program research will mention things that matter to the remote learning experience, like:

How well a program is structured for online delivery
Whether faculty are accessible/responsive
How easy it is to deal with the financial aid office
If support services are geared toward remote learning
If the curriculum and credential translate to actual career progression

These characteristics can differ greatly, even among schools or programs that look similar on paper, so it's worth paying attention to what alumni say. That said, you probably don't want to put too much stock into what a singular review might say.

Instead, look for patterns across multiple reviews. A single bad review about an instructor from two years ago says less about a school than if you see half a dozen recent complaints about faculty engagement. And a few comments of "it was amazing" are less helpful than a handful of comments that say "I was able to immediately apply everything I learned to my current job."

The right online program for you isn't always the highest-ranked or most affordable. Program structure, pace, learning environment, and support can vary quite a bit, even among schools with similar data profiles.

OnlineU and GradReports verify student reviews for helpfulness and aggregate them for you. You'll see recommendation rates from these reviews in relevant rankings tables and applicable student reviews on relevant pages. We are working on adding these more comprehensively throughout our site, so stay tuned for even more helpful student insights in the coming months!

A quick note on finding the right fit: The right online program for you isn't always the highest-ranked or most affordable. Program structure, pace, learning environment, and support can vary quite a bit, even among schools with similar data profiles. Some programs are better geared toward working adults who need flexibility, while others have more structured schedules that might help with peer engagement. Some have active student communities, and others are more independent by design.

That's why we recommend checking student reviews at this point in your journey. Now, as you move forward, you're comparing costs and outcomes between schools that are more likely to be a good fit for your needs.

Step 3: Use College Navigator to Verify Your Schools

Now that you have a shortlist in hand, it's time to look at College Navigator, a free reference tool published by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The NCES also provides IPEDS data, so you're essentially tapping into the same information we use for our rankings.

For the purposes of this guide, we're going to stick to the data points below that will help you refine your shortlist. However, it's a good idea to explore the tool's other resources for relevant information. For example, many schools have sections for topics like "Campus Security and Safety," that may be deciding factors for you beyond what we're looking at.

Accreditation

College Navigator's collapsible "Accreditation" section lists a school's institutional accreditor, along with any programmatic accreditors it may have. It will also tell you if an accreditation is no longer recognized. There are two things you can verify here:

If you started your college search with an OnlineU ranking list, we have already verified institutional accreditation for you. But if you have any questions about a school's accrediting body, you can see who that is and see when their accreditation is up for review. If you started your college search outside of OnlineU, you'll want to verify that an accreditor is listed and that accreditation is current.
Next, you'll want to verify if the program you're researching is in a field with a recognized professional accreditor. Fields like nursing, education, social work, business, and engineering, for example, are all likely to have field-specific accrediting bodies. Since programmatic accreditation can affect licensure and employer recognition, enrolling in a school where programs are already accredited can be a time- and effort-saver. All other things being equal, you should prioritize accredited programs over non-accredited ones.

Tuition, Fees, and Net Price

If you started your college search from one of OnlineU's Most Affordable rankings, you already know what the tuition is. Another useful number is the net price — what students end up paying after grants and scholarships. Tuition and net price can vary quite a bit, especially at schools with strong financial aid programs.

College Navigator's collapsible "Net Price" section shows you the average net price for several different income levels over the past few academic years. It also gives you a direct link to each school's net price calculator, which calculates a personalized cost estimate based on your family's income and other factors. Checking the net price calculator for each school on your shortlist might be the most valuable 15 minutes spent during this process, as it helps turn a sticker price into a relevant estimate of what you're likely to pay when all is said and done.

Financial Aid Data

Navigator also has a collapsible section for "Financial Aid," which shows you the percentage of students receiving different types of financial aid at each school. A school with lots of aid from grants or scholarships is different from one where most of the aid comes from student loans.

Looking at this and net price together can paint a more comprehensive picture of how likely you are to be granted aid and what types of aid you might receive before you actually apply.

Side-by-Side Comparisons

As you look up each school on your shortlist, make sure to add it to your favorites (at the top, near the institution's name). After you've looked up all your schools, you can look at the "My Favorites" tab to compare up to four schools side-by-side. It's worth doing this before moving on to the next step, as seeing the most important data points next to each other can reveal differences that aren't always obvious when you're going through them one at a time.

Step 4: Use College Scorecard to Check Outcomes

College Scorecard is another useful tool. It also uses IPEDS data, but since it's published by the Department of Education, it can tap into other federal sources that make its data unique. It offers some of the same information as College Navigator, like graduation rates, but it also gives you an idea of what happens with students' careers after they graduate.

We recommend checking out the following data points as the next step of your research. As with College Navigator, it's also a good idea to see what other information they have that might apply to you. For example, they offer demographic information for many schools that could inform your decision.

Median earnings after graduation

As long as data is available, College Scorecard shows you the median earnings of alumni four years after graduation. At the institutional level, this isn't super helpful for online students. But for many schools, there's a "Fields of Study" collapsible menu that shows you the median earnings of alumni by discipline. If you're weighing nursing programs at two different schools, for example, looking at earnings data for each specific nursing program can be very informative.

Keep in mind, however, that median earnings are a reference point, not a prediction. These numbers are most useful as a comparison between programs. If one school costs more but its graduates earn less, while another costs less but its graduates earn more, that could sway your decision.

A couple key points about earnings data:

These numbers don't necessarily apply to online students only. If a school offers the same program online, on-campus, and/or in a hybrid version (on-campus + online), the field-of-study earnings combine all program types with that degree name unless specified otherwise.
Several factors beyond the quality of a degree program can affect what an individual earns after graduation, like where a person lives, their career preferences, and individual life circumstances.

Median federal loan debt

College Scorecard also shows the median debt undergrad students carry after graduation. You can pair this with the earnings data to provide a rough sketch of what the debt-to-earnings might look like for you. If the median debt is quite a bit higher than the median earnings four years after graduation, that's worth taking into consideration.

Step 5: Compare Aid Packages Using the "Paying for College" Tool

The first four steps we covered should help you choose a shortlist of schools to apply to. This last step comes after you've submitted your applications and have received financial aid offers from the schools you've applied to.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a "Paying for College" tool that, among other things, lets you enter the numbers from any financial aid offer to figure out how much debt you're likely to incur. It walks you through your aid offer, your expected contributions, total debt, monthly payments, and even how much interest you'll end up paying over a 10-year repayment plan.

This is helpful because financial aid offers can differ. Two offers with a different mix of grants, scholarships, work-study, and loans can have completely different long-term debt implications. The CFPB tool can help reveal those differences before you commit.

Keep in mind that the projections in this tool are just that — projections. They can assume things that might not be true for you, like that you'll take out loans for everything that isn't covered by financial aid. They can't plan for the job you get shortly after enrollment, for example, so use them as a comparison tool to help you make your final decision.

Step-by-Step Summary

1. Start Your List with Data-Backed Rankings

Using OnlineU rankings or another online-specific ranking list, find the schools that offer the program you want and have the characteristics you want. Look for things like tuition, earnings, and peer recommendations.

2. Check Student Reviews

Check OnlineU and GradReports for school and program-specific reviews that provide insight into the student experience. Pay attention to what people say about the online learning environment, faculty engagement, support services, and whether a program tends to deliver on its promises.

3. Verify Each School

Using College Navigator, confirm accreditation statuses. Review net price and financial aid information, as well as any other data points that catch your attention. Use the side-by-side comparison feature to refine your shortlist.

4. Check Graduate Outcomes

Using College Scorecard, look at median earnings vs. median debt to get a general idea of how sustainable a specific college or program might be. Compare other relevant data points to finalize your shortlist.

5. Compare Financial Aid Offers

Use the CFPB's "Paying for College" tool to review your financial aid offers and see projected long-term costs before making your final decision.

Final Thoughts

Finding the right online program can be difficult. Even though they've been around for decades, we're only now starting to see data tracking specifically for online degree programs. Yet they've become more relevant than ever. As workplace and labor needs continue to evolve around AI and cultural shifts, the need to up-skill or re-skill quickly through a degree program that can fit around your busy life is only becoming more important.

Thankfully, tools like independent college rankings and data sources like IPEDS are available to help you make sense of the options for online degrees. It still requires some effort, but it's free and can help you make a far more informed decision than simply relying on a school's marketing brochure or website. We strongly recommend taking the time to do this research before committing to a program — after all, it's your future you're planning for.

Learn more about how we make money. "> ADVERTISEMENT

Start Your Online College Search:

Review schools that align with your career aspirations.