‘U.S. News’ Ranks Online Nursing Graduate Program No. 3 for Veterans

An online master’s degree from the School of Nursing is considered to be among the best in the nation for vets according to U.S. News and World Report’s 2014 Best Online Programs for Veterans. The University is ranked at No. 3 in the Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs category. In addition, Duquesne jumped five spots to No. 36 overall for best online bachelor’s degree programs.

Designed to help veterans identify high-quality online degree programs that suit their educational needs, the list includes rankings for online bachelor’s programs and online master’s degree programs in business, education, engineering and nursing.

“Veterans and active-duty service members face unique challenges as students, from transitioning between bases and grappling with deployment to balancing work and family life upon return,” said Robert Morse, director of data research for U.S. News. “The Best Online Programs for Veterans are high-quality programs that also offer educational benefits and flexibility for veterans pursuing a degree.”

To be ranked, an online degree program had to report participation in four 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, participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program or are public institutions that charge in-state tuition for all out-of-state veterans. The Best Online Programs for Veterans are also affiliated with schools that are members of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) Consortium and offer at least once course in the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) catalog.

U.S. News recently ranked Duquesne at No. 24 in its Best Colleges for Veterans rankings. In addition, the School of Nursing is ranked No. 6 overall in the nation in the U.S. News’ Best Online Graduate Nursing Programs.

“Veterans are going back to college in the highest numbers since World War II,” said Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News. “We developed these rankings to help them find top-quality institutions and programs that also offer federal benefits that ease the burden of applying, paying for and completing a degree.”