Ranking more than just the prices of tuition, Edudemic.com recently compiled a list of the most affordable online colleges in the United States, taking into account both cost and quality, among other indicators. Each school was then stack-ranked by the sum of the weighted scores. The University of Missouri ranked No. 8, with a total ranking score of 686.
The organization started with the U.S. News and World Report "2014 Best Online Bachelor's Programs" list (in which Mizzou ranked No. 48 out of 209 schools listed in the results and then re-analyzed that pre-filtered group of schools by assigning a score to each school, using the following "major factors of affordability":
- retention rate: the percentage of freshmen that continue on to sophomore year
- graduation rate: the percentage of freshmen that acquire a diploma in a designated period of time
- resident (in state) price score: a measure of the relative price per credit hour of education for an in-state student
- nonresident (out of state) price score: a measure of the relative price per credit hour of education for an out of state student
- breadth of offering score: a measure of the relative number of degree programs offered by the school