ECU College of Business Named Top Online MBA Program for Veterans
By Jennifer Brezina
For ECU News Services
U.S. News & World Report has named the College of Business at East Carolina University as one of the best online MBA programs for veterans, ranking #61 out of hundreds of schools. The rankings, now in their third year, identify 737 programs that provide veterans with high-quality, flexible online education options across eight categories.
“When veterans return to higher education they can experience unique challenges during their transition out of the military and into civilian life,” said Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer at U.S. News. “The Best Online Programs for Veterans are designed to help veterans balance applying, paying for and completing a degree, on top of their work and family commitments.”
The online program in the ECU College of Business has grown from a single course offering in 1998 to providing undergraduate and graduate degrees in several concentrations. Of the nearly 700 students enrolled in the MBA program for the fall 2014 semester, 75 percent attended part-time and selected online classes.
Dr. Stan Eakins, dean of the ECU College of Business, said, “We’re proud that our online business program continues to rank among the nation’s top schools for the best educational quality and value, especially when it comes to veterans. Our college values the unique contributions veterans and those serving in the military bring to our program, and we thank them for their service to our country.”
To qualify for the Best Online Programs for Veterans rankings, an online degree program had to report participation in two key programs that offer educational benefits to people with military service. The rankings methodology requires programs to belong to institutions that are certified for the GI Bill; they must also belong to schools participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program or to public institutions that charge in-state tuition for all out-of-state veterans. This year, the U.S. Department of Defense discontinued two programs that U.S. News previously factored into its analysis: the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) Consortium and the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) catalog. As a result, many more programs were included in the 2015 rankings.
To be ranked, programs also had to be among the top 75 percent of schools in the overall 2015 Best Online Programs rankings, which were released earlier this year. Those programs were assessed for various factors, including affordability, faculty credentials, student services and reputation.