A good university can give you teachers who open a subject up, friends who stay in your life, and a library you meant to leave an hour ago. Let’s help you find a good fit.
An independent comparison of … bachelor's-granting institutions in the United States across cost, graduation, earnings, debt, selectivity and class size. Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, most recent cohorts (institution-level file, June 2026). Institutions with fewer than 500 undergraduates are excluded.
| Rank | Institution | State | Control | Admission rate | Net cost / yr | Graduation (6 yr) | Median earnings, 10 yr | Median debt | Students per faculty | Score |
|---|
Net cost is the average annual cost after grants and scholarships for students receiving federal aid. Graduation is the share of first-time full-time students completing within 150% of normal time. Earnings are the median for students who entered ten years earlier and are working and not enrolled. Debt is the median federal loan debt at graduation. Missing values are shown as — and excluded from that variable's normalisation. Score is the weighted sum of standardised variables under the weights in Build your ranking; the default weights are listed in Methodology.
What matters to you? Move the sliders and the table will rearrange itself. It takes feedback remarkably well.
Sources. All institution-level variables are from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, most recent cohorts file (published June 2026), which combines IPEDS, the National Student Loan Data System and Treasury earnings records. No proprietary survey is used. No institution is asked to rate another.
Coverage. Institutions whose predominant degree is the bachelor's and with at least 500 undergraduates: …. Non-U.S. institutions are not covered because no comparable public data exists for them; we do not estimate them.
Weighting. Each variable is standardised (mean 0, standard deviation 1, higher is better; cost, debt, admission rate and students per faculty are reversed) and combined with the weights below. Default weights:
| Variable | Weight |
|---|---|
| median earnings ten years after entry | 25% |
| graduation rate | 20% |
| net cost | 20% |
| median debt at graduation | 15% |
| students per faculty | 10% |
| admission rate (selectivity) | 10% |
| Total | 100% |
Missing data. A variable that is missing for an institution contributes zero to its score (the population mean), not a penalty; the count of missing variables is available in the data file. Earnings are suppressed by the Department for small cohorts.
Inflation. Cost, debt and earnings are as published; the Department reports them in the dollars of the year collected. Earnings are for a cohort that entered ten years before measurement, so they describe people who chose in the past under conditions that differed from yours.
Uncertainty. Score differences of less than 0.1 standard deviation are within the noise of the inputs and should not be read as an ordering. Rank positions near each other are interchangeable.
The numbers can help you compare costs and outcomes. They are less helpful about a seminar that changes your mind, or the friend you keep calling twenty years later.
A university is also a place to spend a part of your life. You’re allowed to care what that part feels like.
| Variable | Status |
|---|---|
| Will I meet people I love? | no reliable forecast |
| Will I become more curious? | ask again after the first term |
| Will I still care about this subject at 27? | please check back at 27 |
| Will I find a teacher who helps something click? | ask the students |
| Will I feel at home here? | a visit may help |
Methodology last revised: June 2026.
Just for fun. These percentages do not affect the rankings; the actual scoring weights are above.
| Variable | Weight |
|---|---|
| a subject you keep finding excuses to read about | 30% |
| a professor who gets excited halfway through an explanation | 20% |
| people you want to keep talking to | 15% |
| a cost you can make work | 15% |
| enough sleep and the occasional vegetable | 10% |
| campus tour weather | 7% |
| an unexpectedly excellent free pen | 3% |
| Total | 100% |
A few questions for a campus visit, or a conversation with someone who knows you. Your answers stay on this page and do not change the rankings. “Not sure” is a perfectly respectable answer.
When you’re choosing what comes next, the family group chat tends to develop a research department. They care about you. They may also have bookmarked more prospectuses than you have.
DadHave you found a university you like?
YouThree. I’ve also become emotionally attached to a library.
DadGood. What would you study?
YouThat is getting its own spreadsheet.
DadA degree can open doors. And you might meet a brilliant teacher.
YouThat’s what I’m hoping for. I’m trying to work out which doors.
DadFair enough. We could visit a few.
YouI’ve also been reading about how people learn.
DadHow much reading?
YouThere may be an appendix.
DadOne example. Then we look at train tickets.
YouOne?
DadI recognise that tone.
People have been asking how to make education better for a very long time. Many of the people in this reading list taught, studied, or built schools and universities. Others imagined different arrangements. Read it as a conversation across centuries, with plenty of disagreement and a few useful questions for your campus visit.
Sort by:
| Name | Dates | Questions they raised | Attended university | Taught in one | Quotation status | University view in this archive |
|---|
The family group chat would like to hear from:
A promising panel. Appointments usually available over dinner.
| Names that come up remarkably often | The rest of the story |
|---|---|
| Steve Jobs (Reed College, one semester; kept auditing) Bill Gates (Harvard, left; funds schools) … | Harder to find in the famous-people section. |
A biography can give you ideas. For a fuller picture, talk to students, graduates, and people a few years into the work you’re considering. They may have more useful advice than someone with a film about them.
MumI want you to have choices.
YouI know.
MumAnd people around you who help you grow.
YouMe too.
MumA university could be a lovely place for that.
YouI want to find out what would fit.
MumAll right. Let’s look at it together.
Here’s your idea alongside a few other possibilities. The question marks are things to look into together.
| Option | Cost | Learn | People | Next steps | Plan B | Good fit? |
|---|
Cost for institutions is net cost per year from the data above. Every other cell is not in any dataset. The last column is not in any dataset for any row.
YouShould I read one more example?
MumMaybe talk to someone on the course.
YouThen one more example?
MumOver lunch.
You can take this seriously and still look forward to it.
The table is built from data.json (1,520 rows, extracted from the Department's file) and the archive from list.json (every entry carries its sources). Both files are public domain except where an entry's source says otherwise. This site is not affiliated with any institution or ranking publisher.