US Colleges and Universities
higher-ed
Every active, degree-granting US college and university that takes part in federal student aid, as IPEDS reports it.
Median score
58
across 3553 sites
Middle half
51–64
spread around the median
Full range
16–78
lowest to highest
Gated
1283 of 3553
block AI crawlers outright
Middle of 14 cohorts. All cohorts 50 · best cohort 58.
Where this list came from
The source, and how we filtered it
| Source | IPEDS Institutional Characteristics, HD2024 (directory information), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (2024-fall) |
|---|---|
| License | A work of the United States federal government. Not subject to domestic copyright (17 U.S.C. § 105). |
| How we filtered it | Every institution in HD2024 that is active (CYACTIVE 1), degree-granting (DEGGRANT 1) and either takes part in Title IV federal student aid or is a branch of one that does (OPEFLAG 1 or 2): 3,954 institutions in the 50 states, DC and the territories. The address is the institution's own WEBADDR, trimmed and given a scheme. A path on a host only one institution reports is cut back to the site root; a path on a host several report (a chain of campuses on one domain) is kept, because it is what tells the campuses apart. Nothing is dropped for sharing a host: each institution keeps its row and the website is measured once. Rows are ordered by state and name, and carry no rank. See scripts/prepare-higher-ed-roster. |
| Instead of | The US News ranking, a copyrighted compilation we may read but not relicense, which ranks prestige rather than describing the population. |
| Built | 2026-10-11 |
The filtering is ours and is disclosed as ours. The source published a list; the decision about which rows of it belong in a cohort was a judgment call, and it is written down so somebody can disagree with it.
Distribution
Where the 3553 sites land
| Grade | Share of the cohort | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adequate | 1489 | 41.9% | |
| Weak | 1714 | 48.2% | |
| Not ready | 325 | 9.1% | |
| Strong | 25 | 0.7% |
By dimension
What the cohort earns, dimension by dimension
The mean share of each dimension’s available points that this cohort earned. Low here means the whole sector is weak on it, not that one site dragged an average down. The per-site spread is in the dataset.
| Dimension | Mean share earned | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| #1 · Reach
These parameters determine the fundamental ease of access that AI has to your site information. |
75% | |
| #2 · Read
AI generally turns off JavaScript. Does your site information survive without it? |
52% | |
| #3 · Understand
Does a machine know who and what you are? |
30% | |
| #4 · Act
Sitemaps, redirects, 404s, licensing terms, and not wasting the crawl budget. |
76% |
How much of each site we read
The cap is 32 URLs and it is a ceiling, not a promise. A portal whose every link points at a different host yields one page; a university yields the full sample. The median here is 32, the range 1–32, published so that "we sampled 32 URLs per site" cannot become a claim the data does not support.
214 sites in this cohort served a certificate we could not verify. They were read anyway and scored normally, because reporting no response for a site every browser loads would describe our TLS stack rather than the site, and each one carries the finding in its row.
Where this cohort fails
6 tests almost nobody in this cohort passes
Universal — nobody passes these
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACT-3 | If you have a public API, is it described in a standard file? | 3 | 2 | |
| EXT-12 | Do you tell search engines the moment a page changes? | 3553 | 0 | |
| EXT-15 | Can an AI agent find out how to sign in to your site? | 3 | 0 | |
| EXT-16 | Do you publish a card or a skills list for the agents you run? | 3553 | 0 | |
| EXT-17 | Do you list your agents in your domain's DNS records? | 3345 | 0 | |
| EXT-7 | If you run real question-and-answer pages, are they marked as such? | 231 | 0 |
Near-universal — 95% and above
| Test | What it asks | Failing | Of | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXT-11 | Have you marked the part of a page that answers a spoken question? | 3553 | 0 | |
| EXT-2 | Do you list your APIs and agent tools where agents look for them? | 401 | 0 | |
| EXT-14 | Does your site offer its actions to AI browsers as tools? | 3449 | 0 | |
| EXT-18 | Do you tell AI shoppers how they can pay? | 208 | 0 | |
| RED-10 | Do you offer a plain-text (Markdown) copy of your pages? | 3132 | 2 | |
| PST-2 | Have you posted a Content Signals statement about what AI may do with your content? | 3553 | 0 | |
| RED-12 | If a machine asks for Markdown, does your site give it? | 3553 | 2 | |
| RED-5 | Do your PDFs and images have their own rules for search and quoting? | 3019 | 1 | |
| UND-5 | Does the author label in your page code point to that person? | 2984 | 1 |
Common — 90 to 95%
Coral bars mark tests worth 2 points or more, the failures that actually move a score.
Every site
Every 3,954, named, with a report for each
Whether or not it has been scanned. Rows with no website on record, sites that were unreachable and sites that turned us away stay in the table with the reason on them, and none of them enters an average: dropping them would shrink the population to the part that was easy to measure. A few points between two neighbors is noise. The box filters every row in the cohort, not only the page you are on; click a header to sort the rows on this page by name or by score.
Showing 1,501–1,600 of 3,954 · page 16 of 40
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulane University of Louisiana tulane.eduIPEDS UnitID 160755; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| University of Holy Cross uhcno.eduIPEDS UnitID 160065; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Louisiana at Lafayette louisiana.eduIPEDS UnitID 160658; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Louisiana at Monroe ulm.eduIPEDS UnitID 159993; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 45 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Louisiana-System Administration ulsystem.eduIPEDS UnitID 247083; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; IPEDS reports this as a branch of another institution or an administrative office, such as a system office | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| University of New Orleans new.uno.eduIPEDS UnitID 159939; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 1 | |
| Xavier University of Louisiana xula.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 160904; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Bates College bates.eduIPEDS UnitID 160977; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | Gated | 1 | |
| Beal University beal.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 160995; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Bowdoin College bowdoin.eduIPEDS UnitID 161004; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 46 | Gated | 18 | |
| Central Maine Community College cmcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 161077; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | Gated | 32 | |
| Colby College colby.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 161086; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| College of the Atlantic coa.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 160959; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Eastern Maine Community College emcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 161138; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 41 | Gated | 32 | |
| Husson University husson.eduIPEDS UnitID 487524; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 32 | |
| Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts idsva.eduIPEDS UnitID 462044; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 32 | |
| Kennebec Valley Community College kvcc.me.eduIPEDS UnitID 161192; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Maine College of Art & Design meca.eduIPEDS UnitID 161509; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Maine College of Health Professions mchp.eduIPEDS UnitID 161022; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| Maine Maritime Academy mainemaritime.eduIPEDS UnitID 161299; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | No | 32 | |
| Maine Media College mainemedia.eduIPEDS UnitID 490753; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; the address IPEDS carries pointed at a page, not the site root; the root is scanned | 28 | Gated | 32 | |
| Northern Maine Community College nmcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 161484; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 30 | |
| Saint Joseph's College of Maine sjcme.eduIPEDS UnitID 161518; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Southern Maine Community College smccme.eduIPEDS UnitID 161545; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | Gated | 32 | |
| The Landing School landingschool.eduIPEDS UnitID 161208; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 31 | |
| Thomas College thomas.eduIPEDS UnitID 161563; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 31 | |
| Unity Environmental University unity.eduIPEDS UnitID 161572; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Maine umaine.eduIPEDS UnitID 161253; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| University of Maine at Augusta uma.eduIPEDS UnitID 161217; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | No | 32 | |
| University of Maine at Farmington umf.maine.eduIPEDS UnitID 161226; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 3 | |
| University of Maine at Fort Kent umfk.maine.eduIPEDS UnitID 161235; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 1 | |
| University of Maine at Presque Isle umpi.eduIPEDS UnitID 161341; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| University of Maine-System Central Office maine.eduIPEDS UnitID 161280; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; IPEDS reports this as a branch of another institution or an administrative office, such as a system office | 69 | No | 32 | |
| University of New England une.eduIPEDS UnitID 161457; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| University of Southern Maine usm.maine.eduIPEDS UnitID 161554; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Washington County Community College wccc.me.eduIPEDS UnitID 161581; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| York County Community College yccc.eduIPEDS UnitID 420440; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 42 | Gated | 32 | |
| College of the Marshall Islands cmi.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 376695; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; in Marshall Islands, a US territory or freely associated state, not one of the 50 states or DC; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Allegany College of Maryland allegany.eduIPEDS UnitID 161688; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Anne Arundel Community College aacc.eduIPEDS UnitID 161767; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | No | 22 | |
| Bais HaMedrash and Mesivta of Baltimore bhmb.eduIPEDS UnitID 476601; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | No | 2 | |
| Baltimore City Community College bccc.eduIPEDS UnitID 161864; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| Bowie State University bowiestate.eduIPEDS UnitID 162007; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Capitol Technology University captechu.eduIPEDS UnitID 162061; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| Carroll Community College carrollcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 405872; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Cecil College cecil.eduIPEDS UnitID 162104; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 76 | No | 32 | |
| Chesapeake College chesapeake.eduIPEDS UnitID 162168; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 32 | |
| College of Southern Maryland csmd.eduIPEDS UnitID 162122; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Community College of Baltimore County ccbcmd.eduIPEDS UnitID 434672; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 12 | |
| Coppin State University coppin.eduIPEDS UnitID 162283; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Fortis College-Landover fortis.eduIPEDS UnitID 494843; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 20 other institutions, measured once | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Frederick Community College frederick.eduIPEDS UnitID 162557; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Frostburg State University frostburg.eduIPEDS UnitID 162584; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 32 | |
| Garrett College garrettcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 162609; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; the address IPEDS carries pointed at a page, not the site root; the root is scanned | 57 | No | 31 | |
| Goucher College goucher.eduIPEDS UnitID 162654; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Hagerstown Community College hagerstowncc.eduIPEDS UnitID 162690; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Harford Community College harford.eduIPEDS UnitID 162706; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Hood College hood.eduIPEDS UnitID 162760; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Howard Community College howardcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 162779; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 32 | |
| Johns Hopkins University jhu.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 162928; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Lincoln College of Technology-Columbia lincolntech.eduIPEDS UnitID 163028; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 9 other institutions, measured once; the address on record points at a page within a site that several institutions share, which is what tells this campus from its siblings; the site is measured once | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Loyola University Maryland loyola.eduIPEDS UnitID 163046; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Maryland Institute College of Art mica.eduIPEDS UnitID 163295; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Maryland University of Integrative Health muih.eduIPEDS UnitID 164085; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 36 | No | 1 | |
| McDaniel College mcdaniel.eduIPEDS UnitID 164270; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Montgomery College montgomerycollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 163426; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Morgan State University morgan.eduIPEDS UnitID 163453; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 32 | |
| Mount St. Mary's University msmary.eduIPEDS UnitID 163462; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 30 | Gated | 32 | |
| Ner Israel Rabbinical College nirc.eduIPEDS UnitID 163532; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | Gated | 32 | |
| Notre Dame of Maryland University ndm.eduIPEDS UnitID 163578; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | Gated | 32 | |
| Prince George's Community College pgcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 163657; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 32 | |
| Salisbury University salisbury.eduIPEDS UnitID 163851; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| St. John's College, Maryland sjc.eduIPEDS UnitID 163976; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once | 54 | No | 32 | |
| St. Mary's College of Maryland smcm.eduIPEDS UnitID 163912; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Stevenson University stevenson.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 164173; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Strayer University-Maryland strayer.eduIPEDS UnitID 430184; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 7 other institutions, measured once; the address on record points at a page within a site that several institutions share, which is what tells this campus from its siblings; the site is measured once | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Towson University towson.eduIPEDS UnitID 164076; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 30 | |
| University of Baltimore ubalt.eduIPEDS UnitID 161873; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| University of Maryland Eastern Shore wwwcp.umes.eduIPEDS UnitID 163338; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 1 | |
| University of Maryland Global Campus umgc.eduIPEDS UnitID 163204; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Maryland, Baltimore umaryland.eduIPEDS UnitID 163259; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| University of Maryland-Baltimore County umbc.eduIPEDS UnitID 163268; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| University of Maryland-College Park umd.eduIPEDS UnitID 163286; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | Gated | 32 | |
| University System of Maryland usmd.eduIPEDS UnitID 164146; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once; IPEDS reports this as a branch of another institution or an administrative office, such as a system office | 47 | Gated | 32 | |
| University System of Maryland-Research Centers usmd.eduIPEDS UnitID 404480; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once; IPEDS reports this as a branch of another institution or an administrative office, such as a system office | 47 | Gated | 32 | |
| Washington Adventist University wau.eduIPEDS UnitID 162210; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Washington College washcoll.eduIPEDS UnitID 164216; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 71 | No | 32 | |
| Women's Institute of Torah Seminary and College wits.eduIPEDS UnitID 491631; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | No | 32 | |
| Wor-Wic Community College worwic.eduIPEDS UnitID 164313; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 31 | |
| Yeshiva College of the Nations Capital ycnc.orgIPEDS UnitID 434937; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 1 | |
| American International College aic.eduIPEDS UnitID 164447; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 1 | |
| Amherst College amherst.eduIPEDS UnitID 164465; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 29 | Gated | 1 | |
| Anna Maria College annamaria.eduIPEDS UnitID 164492; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 31 | |
| Assumption University assumption.eduIPEDS UnitID 164562; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | Gated | 32 | |
| Babson College babson.eduIPEDS UnitID 164580; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Bard College at Simon's Rock simons-rock.eduIPEDS UnitID 167792; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 13 | |
| Bay Path University baypath.eduIPEDS UnitID 164632; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | No | 32 | |
| Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology bfit.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 165884; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Bentley University bentley.eduIPEDS UnitID 164739; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| Berklee College of Music berklee.eduIPEDS UnitID 164748; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 |
Scores are for the population, not for ranking two named sites against each other. A few points between neighbors is noise. See what these numbers can and cannot support. Data: sites.csv · checks.csv · summary.json