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 3,201–3,300 of 3,954 · page 33 of 40
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown University brown.eduIPEDS UnitID 217156; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| Bryant University bryant.eduIPEDS UnitID 217165; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| College Unbound collegeunbound.eduIPEDS UnitID 493822; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Community College of Rhode Island ccri.eduIPEDS UnitID 217475; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Johnson & Wales University-Online online.jwu.eduIPEDS UnitID 460349; 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 | 54 | No | 32 | |
| Johnson & Wales University-Providence jwu.eduIPEDS UnitID 217235; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, 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 | 38 | No | 1 | |
| New England Institute of Technology neit.eduIPEDS UnitID 217305; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Providence College providence.eduIPEDS UnitID 217402; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Rhode Island College ric.eduIPEDS UnitID 217420; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Rhode Island School of Design risd.eduIPEDS UnitID 217493; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Roger Williams University rwu.eduIPEDS UnitID 217518; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Roger Williams University School of Law law.rwu.eduIPEDS UnitID 409616; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| Salve Regina University salve.eduIPEDS UnitID 217536; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| University of Rhode Island web.uri.eduIPEDS UnitID 217484; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 1 | |
| Aiken Technical College atc.eduIPEDS UnitID 217615; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | No | 32 | |
| Allen University allenuniversity.eduIPEDS UnitID 217624; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 32 | |
| American College of the Building Arts acba.eduIPEDS UnitID 485698; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 43 | Gated | 30 | |
| Anderson University, South Carolina andersonuniversity.eduIPEDS UnitID 217633; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 31 | |
| Benedict College benedict.eduIPEDS UnitID 217721; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 32 | |
| Bob Jones University bju.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 217749; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Central Carolina Technical College cctech.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 218858; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Charleston School of Law charlestonlaw.eduIPEDS UnitID 451510; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 32 | |
| Charleston Southern University charlestonsouthern.eduIPEDS UnitID 217688; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | No | 32 | |
| Citadel Military College of South Carolina citadel.eduIPEDS UnitID 217864; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Claflin University claflin.eduIPEDS UnitID 217873; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 32 | |
| Clemson University clemson.eduIPEDS UnitID 217882; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Clinton College clintoncollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 217891; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| Coastal Carolina University coastal.eduIPEDS UnitID 218724; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | Gated | 32 | |
| Coker University coker.eduIPEDS UnitID 217907; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| College of Charleston charleston.eduIPEDS UnitID 217819; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Columbia College, South Carolina columbiasc.eduIPEDS UnitID 217934; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| Columbia International University ciu.eduIPEDS UnitID 217925; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 32 | |
| Converse University converse.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 217961; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Denmark Technical College denmarktech.eduIPEDS UnitID 217989; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 31 | |
| Erskine College erskine.eduIPEDS UnitID 217998; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Florence-Darlington Technical College fdtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218025; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| Fortis College-Columbia fortis.eduIPEDS UnitID 460020; 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 | |
| Francis Marion University fmarion.eduIPEDS UnitID 218061; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 31 | |
| Furman University furman.eduIPEDS UnitID 218070; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 4 | |
| Galen Health Institutes-Myrtle Beach galencollege.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 498100; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 19 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; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Greenville Technical College gvltec.eduIPEDS UnitID 218113; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Horry-Georgetown Technical College hgtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218140; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| Lander University lander.eduIPEDS UnitID 218229; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Limestone University limestone.eduIPEDS UnitID 218238; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Medical University of South Carolina web.musc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218335; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 1 | |
| Midlands Technical College midlandstech.eduIPEDS UnitID 218353; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| Miller-Motte College-Charleston miller-motte.eduIPEDS UnitID 441025; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 10 other institutions, measured once | 55 | No | 32 | |
| Miller-Motte College-Conway miller-motte.eduIPEDS UnitID 460835; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 10 other institutions, measured once | 55 | No | 32 | |
| Morris College morris.eduIPEDS UnitID 218399; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Newberry College newberry.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 218414; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| North Greenville University ngu.eduIPEDS UnitID 218441; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Northeastern Technical College netc.eduIPEDS UnitID 217837; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Orangeburg Calhoun Technical College octech.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 218487; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Piedmont Technical College ptc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218520; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Presbyterian College presby.eduIPEDS UnitID 218539; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| Sherman College of Chiropractic sherman.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 218751; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| South Carolina State University scsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 218733; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| South University-Columbia southuniversity.eduIPEDS UnitID 251312; 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 College-Charleston sec.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 443261; 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 College-Columbia sec.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 444866; 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 | — | |
| Southern Wesleyan University swu.eduIPEDS UnitID 217776; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Spartanburg Community College sccsc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218830; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Spartanburg Methodist College smcsc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218821; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Technical College of the Lowcountry tcl.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 217712; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Tri-County Technical College tctc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218885; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 32 | |
| Trident Technical College tridenttech.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 218894; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| University of South Carolina Aiken usca.eduIPEDS UnitID 218645; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| University of South Carolina Beaufort uscb.eduunreachableIPEDS UnitID 218654; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | — | No | — | |
| University of South Carolina-Columbia sc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218663; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 4 other institutions, measured once | 64 | No | 32 | |
| University of South Carolina-Lancaster sc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218672; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 4 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 | 64 | No | 32 | |
| University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie sc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218681; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 4 other institutions, measured once; the address IPEDS carries pointed at a page, not the site root; the root is scanned | 64 | No | 32 | |
| University of South Carolina-Sumter sc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218690; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 4 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 | 64 | No | 32 | |
| University of South Carolina-Union sc.eduIPEDS UnitID 218706; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 4 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 | 64 | No | 32 | |
| University of South Carolina-Upstate uscupstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 218742; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Voorhees University voorhees.eduIPEDS UnitID 218919; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Williamsburg Technical College wiltech.eduIPEDS UnitID 218955; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | No | 32 | |
| Winthrop University winthrop.eduIPEDS UnitID 218964; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| Wofford College wofford.eduIPEDS UnitID 218973; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | Gated | 32 | |
| York Technical College yorktech.eduIPEDS UnitID 218991; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 31 | |
| Augustana University augie.eduIPEDS UnitID 219000; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Black Hills State University bhsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 219046; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 30 | |
| California Intercontinental University caluniversity.eduIPEDS UnitID 485546; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Dakota State University dsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 219082; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Dakota Wesleyan University dwu.eduIPEDS UnitID 219091; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Kairos University kairos.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 219240; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Lake Area Technical College lakeareatech.eduIPEDS UnitID 219143; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Mitchell Technical College mitchelltech.eduIPEDS UnitID 219189; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| Mount Marty University mountmarty.eduIPEDS UnitID 219198; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| National American University-Rapid City national.eduIPEDS UnitID 219204; 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 | 62 | No | 32 | |
| Northern State University northern.eduIPEDS UnitID 219259; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Oglala Lakota College olc.eduIPEDS UnitID 219277; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 26 | |
| Sinte Gleska University sintegleska.eduIPEDS UnitID 219374; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 31 | |
| Sisseton Wahpeton College swcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 219408; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 1 | |
| South Dakota School of Mines and Technology sdsmt.eduIPEDS UnitID 219347; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| South Dakota State University sdstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 219356; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Southeast Technical College southeasttech.eduIPEDS UnitID 219426; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Sioux Falls usiouxfalls.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 219383; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| University of South Dakota usd.eduIPEDS UnitID 219471; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Western Dakota Technical College wdt.eduIPEDS UnitID 219480; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| American Baptist College abcnash.eduIPEDS UnitID 219505; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | No | 29 |
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