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 3,901–3,954 of 3,954 · page 40 of 40
| Site | Score | Gated | Pages read | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madison Area Technical College madisoncollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 238263; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 70 | No | 32 | |
| Maranatha Baptist University mbu.eduunreachableIPEDS UnitID 239071; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | — | No | — | |
| Marian University, Wisconsin marianuniversity.eduIPEDS UnitID 239080; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| Marquette University marquette.eduIPEDS UnitID 239105; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 48 | Gated | 32 | |
| Medical College of Wisconsin mcw.eduIPEDS UnitID 239169; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Mid-State Technical College mstc.eduIPEDS UnitID 239220; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 34 | Gated | 32 | |
| Midwest College of Oriental Medicine-Racine acupuncture.eduIPEDS UnitID 383020; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; shares one website with 1 other institution, measured once | 33 | Gated | 1 | |
| Milwaukee Area Technical College matc.eduIPEDS UnitID 239248; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 50 | No | 31 | |
| Milwaukee Career College mkecc.eduIPEDS UnitID 449861; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | Gated | 18 | |
| Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design miad.eduIPEDS UnitID 239309; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 44 | No | 32 | |
| Milwaukee School of Engineering msoe.eduIPEDS UnitID 239318; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 52 | No | 32 | |
| Moraine Park Technical College morainepark.eduIPEDS UnitID 239372; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 32 | |
| Mount Mary University mtmary.eduIPEDS UnitID 239390; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | No | 32 | |
| Nashotah House nashotah.eduIPEDS UnitID 239424; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| Nicolet Area Technical College nicoletcollege.eduIPEDS UnitID 239442; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 45 | Gated | 32 | |
| Northcentral Technical College ntc.eduIPEDS UnitID 239460; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 72 | No | 32 | |
| Northeast Wisconsin Technical College nwtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 239488; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | Gated | 32 | |
| Northland College northland.eduIPEDS UnitID 239512; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | Gated | 6 | |
| Northwood Technical College northwoodtech.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 240198; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Ottawa University-Milwaukee ottawa.eduIPEDS UnitID 428259; 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 | |
| Rasmussen University-Wisconsin rasmussen.eduIPEDS UnitID 450571; 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 | |
| Ripon College ripon.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 239628; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Saint Norbert College snc.eduIPEDS UnitID 239716; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 67 | No | 32 | |
| Southwest Wisconsin Technical College swtc.eduIPEDS UnitID 239910; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire uwec.eduIPEDS UnitID 240268; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Green Bay uwgb.eduIPEDS UnitID 240277; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-La Crosse uwlax.eduIPEDS UnitID 240329; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 53 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison wisc.eduIPEDS UnitID 240444; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee uwm.eduIPEDS UnitID 240453; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Flex flex.wisconsin.eduIPEDS UnitID 491288; 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 | 37 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh uwosh.eduIPEDS UnitID 240365; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 51 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Parkside uwp.eduIPEDS UnitID 240374; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Parkside Flex flex.wisconsin.eduIPEDS UnitID 491297; 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 | 37 | Gated | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Platteville uwplatt.eduIPEDS UnitID 240462; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 66 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-River Falls uwrf.eduIPEDS UnitID 240471; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point uwsp.eduIPEDS UnitID 240480; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 68 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Stout uwstout.eduIPEDS UnitID 240417; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Superior uwsuper.eduIPEDS UnitID 240426; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 60 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-System Administration wisconsin.eduIPEDS UnitID 240435; 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 | 68 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wisconsin-Whitewater uww.eduIPEDS UnitID 240189; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 65 | No | 32 | |
| Viterbo University viterbo.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 240107; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Waukesha County Technical College wctc.eduIPEDS UnitID 240125; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 54 | Gated | 32 | |
| Western Technical College, Wisconsin westerntc.eduIPEDS UnitID 240170; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 62 | Gated | 32 | |
| Wisconsin Lutheran College wlc.eduIPEDS UnitID 240338; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 69 | No | 32 | |
| Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology wspp.eduIPEDS UnitID 240213; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 58 | No | 32 | |
| Casper College caspercollege.edublockedIPEDS UnitID 240505; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it; not measured: HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) | — | No | — | |
| Central Wyoming College cwc.eduIPEDS UnitID 240514; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Eastern Wyoming College ewc.wy.eduIPEDS UnitID 240596; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 31 | |
| Laramie County Community College lccc.wy.eduIPEDS UnitID 240620; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 63 | No | 32 | |
| Northern Wyoming Community College District sheridan.eduIPEDS UnitID 240666; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 56 | Gated | 32 | |
| Northwest College nwc.eduIPEDS UnitID 240657; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 61 | No | 32 | |
| University of Wyoming uwyo.eduIPEDS UnitID 240727; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 28 | Gated | 1 | |
| Western Wyoming Community College westernwyoming.eduIPEDS UnitID 240693; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 57 | No | 32 | |
| WyoTech wyotech.eduIPEDS UnitID 240718; web address as the institution reported it to IPEDS (HD2024), not checked by loading it | 64 | 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