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 201–300 of 3,954 · page 3 of 40
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Graduate School of Education aldergse.eduIPEDS UnitID 495192; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| Alhambra Medical University amu.eduIPEDS UnitID 487995; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| Allan Hancock College hancockcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 108807; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Alliant International University-San Diego alliant.eduIPEDS UnitID 110468; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 78 | No | 32 | |
| America Evangelical University aeu.eduIPEDS UnitID 490081; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| American Academy of Dramatic Arts-Los Angeles aada.eduIPEDS UnitID 108852; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once | 47 | No | 32 | |
| American Career College-Anaheim americancareercollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 441052; 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 | |
| American Career College-Los Angeles americancareercollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 109040; 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 | |
| American Career College-Ontario americancareercollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 447768; 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 | |
| American College of Healthcare and Technology ach.eduIPEDS UnitID 422835; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| American Film Institute Conservatory afi.comblockedIPEDS UnitID 108870; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| American Jewish University aju.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 116846; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| American Medical Sciences Center amsc.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 461263; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| American River College arc.losrios.eduIPEDS UnitID 109208; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| American University of Health Sciences auhs.eduIPEDS UnitID 433004; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | No | 32 | |
| Angeles College angelescollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 457299; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| Antelope Valley Community College District avc.eduIPEDS UnitID 109350; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 42 | Gated | 32 | |
| Antioch University-Los Angeles antiochla.eduIPEDS UnitID 245838; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 1 | |
| Antioch University-Santa Barbara antiochsb.eduIPEDS UnitID 245847; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 1 | |
| Arizona College of Nursing-Ontario arizonacollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 498456; 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 Center College of Design artcenter.eduIPEDS UnitID 109651; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| Asher College asher.eduIPEDS UnitID 447777; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Ashford University uagc.eduIPEDS UnitID 154022; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 32 | |
| ATA College, California atacollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 444361; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 31 | |
| ATI College-Whittier ati.eduIPEDS UnitID 444325; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| Azusa Pacific University apu.eduIPEDS UnitID 109785; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Bakersfield College bakersfieldcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 109819; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Barstow Community College barstow.eduIPEDS UnitID 109907; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| Berkeley City College berkeleycitycollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 125170; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 32 | |
| Berkeley School of Theology bst.eduIPEDS UnitID 108861; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Bethesda University buc.eduIPEDS UnitID 110060; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 46 | No | 32 | |
| Biola University biola.eduIPEDS UnitID 110097; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Blake Austin College blakeaustincollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 447810; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 32 | |
| Butte College butte.eduIPEDS UnitID 110246; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Cabrillo College cabrillo.eduIPEDS UnitID 110334; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Cal Northern School of Law calnorthern.eduIPEDS UnitID 493956; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 42 | Gated | 31 | |
| California Aeronautical University calaero.eduIPEDS UnitID 433420; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| California Baptist University calbaptist.eduIPEDS UnitID 110361; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 41 | Gated | 32 | |
| California Career College californiacareercollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 447713; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 45 | Gated | 32 | |
| California Career Institute calinstitute.eduunreachableIPEDS UnitID 481386; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | — | No | — | |
| California College of ASU californiacollege.asu.eduIPEDS UnitID 112570; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 2 | |
| California College of Music ccmla.eduIPEDS UnitID 488563; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| California College of the Arts cca.eduIPEDS UnitID 110370; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| California Health Sciences University chsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 488572; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| California Institute of Advanced Management ciam.eduIPEDS UnitID 487649; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| California Institute of Arts & Technology ciat.eduIPEDS UnitID 490285; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| California Institute of Integral Studies ciis.eduIPEDS UnitID 110316; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| California Institute of Technology caltech.eduIPEDS UnitID 110404; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | No | 31 | |
| California Institute of the Arts calarts.eduIPEDS UnitID 111081; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| California Jazz Conservatory cjc.eduIPEDS UnitID 486488; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | No | 1 | |
| California Lutheran University callutheran.eduIPEDS UnitID 110413; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| California Miramar University calmu.eduIPEDS UnitID 480781; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo calpoly.eduIPEDS UnitID 110422; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt humboldt.eduIPEDS UnitID 115755; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| California State Polytechnic University-Pomona cpp.eduIPEDS UnitID 110529; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| California State University Maritime Academy csum.eduIPEDS UnitID 111188; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | No | 2 | |
| California State University-Bakersfield csub.eduIPEDS UnitID 110486; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 46 | Gated | 32 | |
| California State University-Chancellors Office calstate.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 110501; 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; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| California State University-Channel Islands csuci.eduIPEDS UnitID 441937; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| California State University-Chico csuchico.eduIPEDS UnitID 110538; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | Gated | 32 | |
| California State University-Dominguez Hills csudh.eduIPEDS UnitID 110547; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 38 | Gated | 32 | |
| California State University-East Bay csueastbay.eduIPEDS UnitID 110574; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| California State University-Fresno fresnostate.eduIPEDS UnitID 110556; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| California State University-Fullerton fullerton.eduIPEDS UnitID 110565; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| California State University-Long Beach csulb.eduIPEDS UnitID 110583; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 30 | Gated | 1 | |
| California State University-Los Angeles calstatela.eduIPEDS UnitID 110592; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 30 | |
| California State University-Monterey Bay csumb.eduIPEDS UnitID 409698; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| California State University-Northridge csun.eduIPEDS UnitID 110608; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 35 | Gated | 1 | |
| California State University-Sacramento csus.eduIPEDS UnitID 110617; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | No | 32 | |
| California State University-San Bernardino csusb.eduIPEDS UnitID 110510; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | No | 31 | |
| California State University-San Marcos csusm.eduIPEDS UnitID 366711; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 30 | |
| California State University-Stanislaus csustan.eduIPEDS UnitID 110495; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| California University of Science and Medicine cusm.eduIPEDS UnitID 496043; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| California Western School of Law cwsl.eduIPEDS UnitID 111391; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 24 | |
| Canada College canadacollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 111434; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Career Care Institute ccicolleges.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 446118; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Career Networks Institute cnicollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 433013; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| Carrington College-Administrative Office carrington.eduIPEDS UnitID 485467; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 13 other institutions, measured once; IPEDS reports this as a branch of another institution or an administrative office, such as a system office | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Carrington College-Pleasant Hill Campus carrington.eduIPEDS UnitID 438258; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 13 other institutions, measured once | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Carrington College-Sacramento carrington.eduIPEDS UnitID 125532; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 13 other institutions, measured once | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Carrington College-San Jose carrington.eduIPEDS UnitID 437936; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 13 other institutions, measured once | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Carrington College-San Leandro Campus carrington.eduIPEDS UnitID 246974; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 13 other institutions, measured once | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Carrington College-Stockton carrington.eduIPEDS UnitID 450696; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 13 other institutions, measured once | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Casa Loma College-Los Angeles casalomacollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 111638; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 1 | |
| CBD College cbd.eduIPEDS UnitID 439367; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 31 | |
| Central Coast College centralcoastcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 378105; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 40 | Gated | 32 | |
| Cerritos College cerritos.eduIPEDS UnitID 111887; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Cerro Coso Community College cerrocoso.eduIPEDS UnitID 111896; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 28 | |
| Chabot College chabotcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 111920; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Chaffey College chaffey.eduIPEDS UnitID 111939; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Chamberlain University-California chamberlain.eduIPEDS UnitID 489353; 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 | |
| Chapman University chapman.eduIPEDS UnitID 111948; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science cdrewu.eduIPEDS UnitID 111966; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| Church Divinity School of the Pacific cdsp.eduIPEDS UnitID 112127; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 31 | |
| Citrus College citruscollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 112172; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| City College of San Francisco ccsf.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 112190; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Claremont Graduate University cgu.eduIPEDS UnitID 112251; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Claremont Lincoln University claremontlincoln.eduIPEDS UnitID 488387; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Claremont McKenna College cmc.eduIPEDS UnitID 112260; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Claremont School of Theology cst.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 124283; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — |
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