According to US College Search, between 2500 and 8,000 colleges and universities have online courses, majors and degree programs and the list of popular majors is similar to those students are taking on campuses. For example, a bachelor’s in nursing is possible through online credit work as is a bachelor’s in business.

The degree programs range from certificate programs, associate degree, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees and are called distance learning programs.

You find opportunities by you can use Peterson’s, US college search or merely enter a college or university web site to find out if a familiar campus has online or distance learning capability.

Harvard, for example, is again tops for all kinds of reasons and its $37,012 tuition and 7.9 acceptance rate fuels more applications than the school needs. Princeton also ranks number one but is more competitive than Harvard. Princeton’s fees are $35,340 ---$1,672 less than Harvard---are less than Yale which is third and costs $36,500 for an academic year. Yale’s acceptance rate is 8.6 percent which again demonstrates the strength of Ivy schools. But compare those acceptance rates with Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, ranked #22. Carnegie Mellon has an acceptance rate of 37.9 percent but its tuition is more costly than Harvard, Princeton and Yale. Tuition at Carnegie Mellon is $39,833.

Number four on the list? A west coast campus, California Institute of Technology has a tuition rate of $34,584 and an acceptance rate of 17.4 percent.