CSUSB's Criminal Justice Program Ranks High

SAN BERNARDINO >> California State University, San Bernardino’s criminal justice program has been added to another national list, this time for its online bachelor’s degree program. The Center for Online Education added CSUSB to its 25 Best Online Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice Degree Programs, listing it at No. 2 after Anderson University in South Carolina. For the 2016 rankings, the Center for Online Education employed a basic formula combining academic quality, online offerings, cost and student aid to equal the final score, according to its website. This final score determines where a school ends up in its rankings. The center’s methodology page details its key factors used in the rankings: • Academic quality makes up 50 percent of a school’s overall score. “First major” is a measure of the number of students majoring in the ranked subject. More students majoring in a subject is a good indicator of the strength of the program. • Online offerings make up 30 percent of a school’s overall score. As more colleges add online offerings, those with a longer history of success in online education earned a higher score. Schools that have a larger percentage of students enrolled in online programs as compared to overall student population also ranked higher. • Cost and student aid support make up 20 percent of a school’s overall score. Those colleges that had a lower average net price ranked higher, while a high student loan default rate lowered a school’s overall score. The latest ranking is a continuation of the national recognition the CSUSB criminal justice program receives. In May, College Choice, a leading authority in college search and rankings, listed CSUSB’s online criminal justice master’s degree program No. 12 in the United States, and the only California State University campus to make its “Best Online Masters in Criminal Justice Degree Programs, 2016” list. In August 2015, Best Value Schools placed CSUSB’s criminal justice program at No. 3 in the nation in its list of the “50 Best Value Colleges for a Criminal Justice Degree 2015.” Also ranked nationally in August was the criminal justice online master of arts degree, listed at No. 17 in SuperScholar’s “50 Best Online Criminal Justice Programs 2015,” and No. 20 by U.S. News & World Report in its “Best Online Graduate Criminal Justice Programs.” In 2009, the criminal justice program ranked third in the nation for the number of books its faculty produces, and second nationally on a per capita basis considering the number of faculty members per department, according to a study published by the Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice. The study ranked college criminal justice departments based on their production of scholarly books. Visit the CSUSB Department of Criminal Justice website for more information on its programs. To view the complete ranking by the Center for Online Education, go to its “Best Online Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice Degree Programs” web page at http://www.onlinecolleges.net/rankings/best-online-bachelors-criminal-justice-degree-programs.