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 2,601–2,700 of 3,954 · page 27 of 40
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Randolph Community College randolph.eduIPEDS UnitID 199421; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Richmond Community College richmondcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199449; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Roanoke-Chowan Community College roanokechowan.eduIPEDS UnitID 199467; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Robeson Community College robeson.eduIPEDS UnitID 199476; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| Rockingham Community College rockinghamcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199485; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | Gated | 32 | |
| Rowan-Cabarrus Community College rccc.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 199494; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Saint Augustine's University st-aug.eduIPEDS UnitID 199582; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | No | 32 | |
| Salem College salem.eduIPEDS UnitID 199607; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | Gated | 32 | |
| Sampson Community College sampsoncc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199625; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| Sandhills Community College sandhills.eduIPEDS UnitID 199634; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 23 | |
| Shaw University shawu.eduunreachableIPEDS UnitID 199643; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | — | No | — | |
| Shepherds Theological Seminary shepherds.eduIPEDS UnitID 461485; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 47 | No | 32 | |
| South Piedmont Community College spcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 197850; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| South University-High Point southuniversity.eduIPEDS UnitID 481720; 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 | 61 | Gated | 32 | |
| Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary collegeatsoutheastern.comIPEDS UnitID 199759; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | Gated | 1 | |
| Southeastern College-Charlotte sec.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 451352; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 3 other institutions, measured once; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Southeastern Community College, North Carolina sccnc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199722; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | Gated | 32 | |
| Southeastern Free Will Baptist Bible College sfwbc.eduIPEDS UnitID 233602; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Southwestern Community College, North Carolina southwesterncc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199731; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| St. Andrews University sa.eduIPEDS UnitID 199698; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Stanly Community College stanly.eduIPEDS UnitID 199740; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Surry Community College surry.eduIPEDS UnitID 199768; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| Tri-County Community College tricountycc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199795; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| University of Mount Olive umo.eduIPEDS UnitID 199069; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 39 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of North Carolina Asheville new.unca.eduIPEDS UnitID 199111; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 74 | No | 1 | |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill unc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199120; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 71 | No | 32 | |
| University of North Carolina at Charlotte charlotte.eduIPEDS UnitID 199139; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| University of North Carolina at Greensboro uncg.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 199148; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| University of North Carolina at Pembroke uncp.eduIPEDS UnitID 199281; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| University of North Carolina School of the Arts uncsa.eduIPEDS UnitID 199184; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| University of North Carolina System northcarolina.eduIPEDS UnitID 199175; 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 | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of North Carolina Wilmington uncw.eduIPEDS UnitID 199218; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 43 | Gated | 32 | |
| Vance-Granville Community College vgcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199838; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| Wake Forest University wfu.eduIPEDS UnitID 199847; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | Gated | 32 | |
| Wake Technical Community College waketech.eduIPEDS UnitID 199856; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Warren Wilson College warren-wilson.eduIPEDS UnitID 199865; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 32 | |
| Watts College of Nursing wattscollegeofnursing.eduIPEDS UnitID 199883; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Wayne Community College waynecc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199892; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Western Carolina University wcu.eduIPEDS UnitID 200004; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Western Piedmont Community College wpcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199908; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Wilkes Community College wilkescc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199926; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| William Peace University peace.eduIPEDS UnitID 199272; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 43 | Gated | 30 | |
| Wilson Community College wilsoncc.eduIPEDS UnitID 199953; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Wingate University wingate.eduIPEDS UnitID 199962; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| Winston-Salem State University wssu.eduIPEDS UnitID 199999; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| Bismarck State College bismarckstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 200022; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Cankdeska Cikana Community College littlehoop.eduunreachableIPEDS UnitID 200208; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | — | No | — | |
| Dakota College at Bottineau dakotacollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 200314; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| Dickinson State University dickinsonstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 200059; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Lake Region State College lrsc.eduIPEDS UnitID 200192; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Mayville State University mayvillestate.eduIPEDS UnitID 200226; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Minot State University minotstateu.eduIPEDS UnitID 200253; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | Gated | 26 | |
| North Dakota State College of Science ndscs.eduIPEDS UnitID 200305; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| North Dakota State University-Main Campus ndsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 200332; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College nhsc.eduIPEDS UnitID 200086; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | No | 30 | |
| Rasmussen University-North Dakota rasmussen.eduIPEDS UnitID 200013; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 5 other institutions, measured once | 53 | No | 32 | |
| Sitting Bull College sittingbull.eduIPEDS UnitID 200466; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 45 | No | 11 | |
| Trinity Bible College and Graduate School trinitybiblecollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 200484; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 32 | |
| Turtle Mountain Community College tm.eduunreachableIPEDS UnitID 200527; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | — | No | — | |
| United Tribes Technical College uttc.eduIPEDS UnitID 200554; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 31 | |
| University of Jamestown uj.eduIPEDS UnitID 200156; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| University of Mary umary.eduIPEDS UnitID 200217; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| University of North Dakota und.eduIPEDS UnitID 200280; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 28 | |
| Valley City State University vcsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 200572; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Williston State College willistonstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 200341; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | No | 32 | |
| Northern Marianas College marianas.eduIPEDS UnitID 240790; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; in Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory or freely associated state, not one of the 50 states or DC | 52 | Gated | 30 | |
| Allegheny Wesleyan College awc.eduIPEDS UnitID 200873; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 43 | Gated | 32 | |
| American Institute of Alternative Medicine aiam.eduIPEDS UnitID 441636; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| Antioch College antiochcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 483018; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 36 | Gated | 32 | |
| Antioch University antioch.eduIPEDS UnitID 245892; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| Antioch University-System Administration antioch.eduIPEDS UnitID 440138; 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 | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| Arizona College of Nursing-Cincinnati arizonacollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 499398; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 18 other institutions, measured once | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Arizona College of Nursing-Cleveland arizonacollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 499404; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 18 other institutions, measured once | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Art Academy of Cincinnati artacademy.eduIPEDS UnitID 201061; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Ashland University ashland.eduIPEDS UnitID 201104; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| ATA College-Cincinnati ata.eduIPEDS UnitID 452373; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 2 other institutions, measured once | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Athena Career Academy athenacareers.eduIPEDS UnitID 476683; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 30 | |
| Aultman College of Nursing and Health Sciences aultmancollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 201177; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Baldwin Wallace University bw.eduIPEDS UnitID 201195; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | No | 32 | |
| Belmont College belmontcollege.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 201283; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Bluffton University bluffton.eduIPEDS UnitID 201371; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Bowling Green State University-Firelands firelands.bgsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 201432; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 1 | |
| Bowling Green State University-Main Campus bgsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 201441; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| Bryant & Stratton College-Parma bryantstratton.eduIPEDS UnitID 201469; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 7 other institutions, measured once | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Capital University capital.eduIPEDS UnitID 201548; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Case Western Reserve University case.eduIPEDS UnitID 201645; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | No | 32 | |
| Cedarville University cedarville.eduIPEDS UnitID 201654; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Central Ohio Technical College cotc.eduIPEDS UnitID 201672; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 46 | Gated | 32 | |
| Central State University centralstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 201690; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| Chamberlain University-Ohio chamberlain.eduIPEDS UnitID 454236; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 15 other institutions, measured once | 65 | Gated | 32 | |
| Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science ccms.eduIPEDS UnitID 201867; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Cincinnati State Technical and Community College cincinnatistate.eduIPEDS UnitID 201928; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Clark State College clarkstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 201973; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Cleveland Institute of Art cia.eduIPEDS UnitID 202046; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Cleveland Institute of Music cim.eduIPEDS UnitID 202073; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 18 | |
| Cleveland State University csuohio.eduIPEDS UnitID 202134; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | No | 32 | |
| Columbus College of Art & Design ccad.eduIPEDS UnitID 202170; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Columbus State Community College cscc.eduIPEDS UnitID 202222; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 32 | |
| Cuyahoga Community College District tri-c.eduIPEDS UnitID 202356; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| Davis College, Ohio davisuniversity.eduIPEDS UnitID 202435; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 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