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 3,801–3,900 of 3,954 · page 39 of 40
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building nwswb.eduIPEDS UnitID 458140; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | No | 2 | |
| Northwest University northwestu.eduIPEDS UnitID 236133; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Northwest University-Center for Online and Extended Education northwestu.eduIPEDS UnitID 487603; 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 | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Olympic College olympic.eduIPEDS UnitID 236188; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | Gated | 32 | |
| Pacific Lutheran University plu.eduIPEDS UnitID 236230; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 45 | Gated | 32 | |
| Pacific Northwest Christian College pnwcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 495147; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 31 | |
| Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences pnwu.eduIPEDS UnitID 455406; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Peninsula College pencol.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 236258; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Perry Technical Institute perrytech.eduIPEDS UnitID 236212; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 30 | |
| Pierce College District pierce.ctc.eduIPEDS UnitID 235237; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Pima Medical Institute-Renton pmi.eduIPEDS UnitID 449074; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 16 other institutions, measured once | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Pima Medical Institute-Seattle pmi.eduIPEDS UnitID 368629; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 16 other institutions, measured once | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| Renton Technical College rtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 236382; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Saint Martin's University stmartin.eduIPEDS UnitID 236452; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Seattle Central College seattlecentral.eduIPEDS UnitID 236513; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Seattle Film Institute sfi.eduIPEDS UnitID 488448; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 29 | |
| Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine sieam.eduIPEDS UnitID 439914; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| Seattle Pacific University spu.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 236577; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Seattle University seattleu.eduIPEDS UnitID 236595; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| Shoreline Community College shoreline.eduIPEDS UnitID 236610; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Skagit Valley College skagit.eduIPEDS UnitID 236638; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| South Puget Sound Community College spscc.eduIPEDS UnitID 236656; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| South Seattle College southseattle.eduIPEDS UnitID 236504; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Spokane Community College scc.spokane.eduIPEDS UnitID 236692; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 42 | No | 32 | |
| Spokane Falls Community College sfcc.spokane.eduIPEDS UnitID 236708; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 43 | No | 32 | |
| Tacoma Community College tacomacc.eduIPEDS UnitID 236753; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| The Evergreen State College evergreen.eduIPEDS UnitID 235167; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | Gated | 32 | |
| The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology theseattleschool.eduIPEDS UnitID 441131; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Puget Sound pugetsound.eduIPEDS UnitID 236328; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| University of Washington-Bothell Campus uwb.eduIPEDS UnitID 377555; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 32 | |
| University of Washington-Seattle Campus washington.eduIPEDS UnitID 236948; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| University of Washington-Tacoma Campus tacoma.uw.eduIPEDS UnitID 377564; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| Walla Walla Community College wwcc.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 236887; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Walla Walla University wallawalla.eduIPEDS UnitID 236896; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| Washington State University wsu.eduIPEDS UnitID 236939; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| Wenatchee Valley College wvc.eduIPEDS UnitID 236975; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Western Washington University wwu.eduIPEDS UnitID 237011; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 38 | No | 1 | |
| Whatcom Community College whatcom.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 237039; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Akamai) | — | No | — | |
| Whitman College whitman.eduIPEDS UnitID 237057; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Whitworth University whitworth.eduIPEDS UnitID 237066; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Whitworth University-Adult Degree Programs whitworth.eduIPEDS UnitID 475200; 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; 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 | 60 | No | 32 | |
| Yakima Valley College yvcc.eduIPEDS UnitID 237109; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| American Public University System apus.eduIPEDS UnitID 449339; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | No | 32 | |
| Appalachian Bible College abc.eduIPEDS UnitID 237136; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| Bethany College, West Virginia bethanywv.eduIPEDS UnitID 237181; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Blue Ridge Community and Technical College blueridgectc.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 446774; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 | — | No | — | |
| Bluefield State University bluefieldstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 237215; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 55 | Gated | 32 | |
| BridgeValley Community & Technical College bridgevalley.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 484932; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Catholic International University catholiciu.eduIPEDS UnitID 475398; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | Gated | 28 | |
| Concord University concord.eduIPEDS UnitID 237330; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | Gated | 32 | |
| Davis & Elkins College dewv.eduIPEDS UnitID 237358; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College easternwv.eduIPEDS UnitID 438708; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| Fairmont State University fairmontstate.eduIPEDS UnitID 237367; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Future Generations University future.eduIPEDS UnitID 481030; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Glenville State University glenville.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 237385; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Huntington Junior College hjc.eduIPEDS UnitID 237437; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 1 | |
| Marshall University marshall.eduIPEDS UnitID 237525; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Martinsburg College martinsburgcollege.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 487977; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Mountwest Community and Technical College mctc.eduIPEDS UnitID 444954; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 71 | No | 32 | |
| New River Community and Technical College newriver.eduIPEDS UnitID 447582; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 32 | |
| Pierpont Community and Technical College pierpont.eduIPEDS UnitID 443492; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 31 | |
| Potomac State College of West Virginia University potomacstatecollege.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 237701; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Salem University salemu.eduIPEDS UnitID 237783; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 31 | |
| Shepherd University shepherd.eduIPEDS UnitID 237792; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 49 | Gated | 31 | |
| Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College southernwv.eduIPEDS UnitID 237817; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Charleston ucwv.eduIPEDS UnitID 237312; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| Valley College-Beckley valley.eduIPEDS UnitID 377652; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 2 other institutions, measured once | 68 | No | 32 | |
| Valley College-Martinsburg valley.eduIPEDS UnitID 377661; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 2 other institutions, measured once | 68 | No | 32 | |
| West Liberty University westliberty.eduIPEDS UnitID 237932; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| West Virginia Junior College-Bridgeport wvjc.eduIPEDS UnitID 442383; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 2 other institutions, measured once | 60 | No | 32 | |
| West Virginia Junior College-Charleston wvjc.eduIPEDS UnitID 237987; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 2 other institutions, measured once | 60 | No | 32 | |
| West Virginia Junior College-Morgantown wvjc.eduIPEDS UnitID 237996; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 2 other institutions, measured once | 60 | No | 32 | |
| West Virginia Northern Community College wvncc.eduIPEDS UnitID 238014; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 32 | |
| West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine wvsom.eduIPEDS UnitID 237880; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| West Virginia State University wvstateu.eduIPEDS UnitID 237899; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| West Virginia University wvu.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 238032; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| West Virginia University at Parkersburg wvup.eduIPEDS UnitID 237686; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 31 | |
| West Virginia University Institute of Technology wvutech.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 237950; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| West Virginia Wesleyan College wvwc.eduIPEDS UnitID 237969; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 39 | No | 28 | |
| Wheeling University wheeling.eduunreachableIPEDS UnitID 238078; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | — | No | — | |
| Alverno College alverno.eduIPEDS UnitID 238193; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Bellin College bellincollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 238324; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Beloit College beloit.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 238333; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (CloudFront) | — | No | — | |
| Blackhawk Technical College blackhawk.eduIPEDS UnitID 238397; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | No | 32 | |
| Bryant & Stratton College-Wauwatosa bryantstratton.eduIPEDS UnitID 451750; 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 | |
| Carroll University carrollu.eduIPEDS UnitID 238458; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Carthage College carthage.eduIPEDS UnitID 238476; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Chippewa Valley Technical College cvtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 240116; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | No | 32 | |
| College of Menominee Nation menominee.eduIPEDS UnitID 413617; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | Gated | 32 | |
| Concordia University-Wisconsin cuw.eduIPEDS UnitID 238616; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| Edgewood College edgewood.eduIPEDS UnitID 238661; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 59 | Gated | 32 | |
| Fox Valley Technical College fvtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 238722; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 40 | Gated | 32 | |
| Gateway Technical College gtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 238759; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | Gated | 32 | |
| Herzing University-Brookfield herzing.eduIPEDS UnitID 459851; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 10 other institutions, measured once | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Herzing University-Kenosha herzing.eduIPEDS UnitID 459842; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 10 other institutions, measured once | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Herzing University-Madison herzing.eduIPEDS UnitID 240392; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 10 other institutions, measured once | 73 | No | 32 | |
| Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University lco.eduIPEDS UnitID 260372; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 45 | Gated | 32 | |
| Lakeland University lakeland.eduIPEDS UnitID 238980; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | Gated | 31 | |
| Lakeshore Technical College gotoltc.eduIPEDS UnitID 239008; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 1 | |
| Lawrence University lawrence.eduIPEDS UnitID 239017; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | 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