Rankings

College Search & Ranking

To find rankings from various sources simply type the name of the college or university below and then click on the rankings tab.

College Board’s Big Future: This is a good place to find out about colleges if you’re just starting out in your search. It caters to students who might not know where to begin and guides you through the research process. There's a guide called "College Search Step-by-Step" for students who are unsure of how to go about the search process. It will ask specific questions about what you are looking for in a school and give you a "snapshot" of your preferences to help you decide where to apply.
College InSight: If you’re a more scientifically minded person, this site will probably appeal to you. You have the option to start your search with a specific college, a topic that interests you, or with building your own table of different variables to compare schools across any metric you choose.
College Navigator: This site (put out by the National Center for Educational Statistics) doesn’t have the prettiest interface, but it’s useful for finding reliable data about any college in the country. If you already know what school you want, you can search for it directly. You can also search by state or even area code. There are filters for degree level and type of college as well, so you can search for just public or private colleges or just 4-year colleges.
Cappex: This is a great site for comparing schools, calculating admissions chances, calculating financial aid, and just figuring out if a school is a good match for you in general. You will be asked to create a profile, which then allows the site to figure out which schools might work best based on what matters most to you. There are also student reviews, so in addition to comparing hard data you will also be able to compare how people feel about the school. There’s even a feature that helps you plan campus visits!
Chegg: On Chegg's college matchmaking site, you can create a profile and see which schools might be right for you. This site can be very helpful in your college search because it lets you keep a running list of schools that you’re interested in once you create a profile. Design-wise, it’s nice to look at, and the statistics are presented in a very user-friendly, simple way that’s easy to understand. You’ll also find grades based on student reviews for everything from campus dining to academics to the party scene, so you can get an inside look at what people really think about the school.
Niche (Search and Rank): This site gives you access to tons of statistics as well as student reviews and letter grades for different aspects of student life. You’ll also see lists of the best schools in different categories based on reviews.
College Confidential: You might be familiar with College Confidential for its (sometimes less than trustworthy) discussion forums, but it also has a great college search feature. You can fill out your preferences in over 20 different categories including location, majors, Greek life, party scene, and special services. Based on your answers and how important these factors are to you, you’ll get matched with schools that fit you best (out of a database of over 4,500 schools that includes schools outside of the US). You can also create a list of schools that you like by “pinning” your favorites. To narrow down your search even further, you can compare your top choices in different areas to see how they measure up against each other. You can save and share your lists if you want as well!
Unigo: Get it? Go to Uni? It sounds like the Brits are responsible for this one, which made me suspicious, but this site is pretty cool. It has a modern design and includes tons of reviews in written and video format from students at the colleges. Based on student feedback, schools are rated on a scale of 1-10 for a bunch of different factors including campus safety, political activity, arts culture, Greek life, intellectual life, and more.
U.S. News College Search (Search and Rank): U.S. News has analyzed more than 1,800 colleges. Browse their school profiles by narrowing down your results until you find the ones that are right for you. In addition to searching for college data, you can see where they rank on dozens of characteristics as compared to other institutions.
Forbes Best Value Colleges (Search & Rank): goes up to 650. Forbes began its list in 2008 with an Ohio University economics professor leading the team. (Did you know there IS an Ohio University? Yep. It's in Athens, Ohio and is pretty impressive.) This list doesn't use SAT scores or acceptance rates, counting them as "inputs" not "outputs." Their homepage asks: "How likely are [students] to find success in their chosen field, to earn enough money to pay their student debt, to win accolades like Pulitzer Prizes and Fulbright scholarships, to become leaders in private and public life?" A pretty ambitious survey, all things considered.
Kiplinger (Search & Rank): focuses even more narrowly, with only 200 "top values in liberal-arts colleges or private universities" being the focus. Its ranking also focuses on "value" as measured by cost, aid, debt at graduation and salary after graduation. They say, "All the schools in our rankings meet our definition of value—a quality education at an affordable price.
Washington Monthl (Search & Rank) takes a different tack in its rankings. It focuses on "schools based on what they are doing for the country." Their major categories are "Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country)."
The Princeton Review's Best 384 (Search & Rank)Colleges 2019, now in its 27th edition, "surveyed 138,000 students from across the country so we can tell you which college has the best food, best career services, happiest students, and more. Find out if your dream school made one of our 62 lists.
CollegeFactual.com (Search & Rank)makes no bones about what you're doing in their online header: "College Shopping Simplified." They say, "Our Purpose is to Help You Fulfill Yours. Find your future faster using the hundreds of different fit factors that go into our proprietary matching technology to help identify the best fit college and major for you."