How We Rank Schools
Here at TheBestSchools.org, we take the trust and welfare of our readers very seriously. That’s why we’ve developed a rigorous ranking methodology that keeps the needs of our readers front and center.
Our proprietary, multicriteria ranking algorithm analyzes key data indicators — as collected by the federal government — for each school or program. What data we use depends on the focus of each specific ranking, but in all cases, our ranking methodology is impartial: Schools cannot buy better rankings at TBS.
While specific criteria under consideration can vary by ranking, there are three key metrics that we value most highly for our rankings: academic quality, affordability, and online enrollment.
- Academics: The most important metric for us, academics counts for 75% of our ranking criteria and includes admissions, retention, and graduation rates.
- Affordability: Weighted at 15%, affordability is about more than the net price. It also includes data on financial aid value and accessibility.
- Online Enrollment: Online enrollment, which accounts for 10% of our ranking criteria, is the number of online students as a percentage of total enrollment.
Below, we break down our algorithm to help you understand what you’re getting when you use one of our rankings.
Data Sources
We use trusted sources like the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which we aggregate and analyze to build our rankings. We also source data from Peterson’s, a test prep company with extensive research on higher education, and College Scorecard, a tool created by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to compare and contrast college costs and values.
IPEDS
IPEDS is our primary source, which comes from annual surveys conducted by NCES. Every college, university, or technical school with access to federal financial aid must participate in these surveys, which include questions about enrollment, graduation rates, finances, and faculty qualifications. This is publicly available data, which you can access yourself through College Navigator.
Peterson’s
For more than 50 years, Peterson’s has served as a prominent source for higher education data. Over that time, the organization has created a deep data resource on admission, retention, and graduation rates, as well as career outcomes. At TBS, we use this data to analyze schools on our list and inform our rankings. Occasionally, we may use Peterson’s data to supplement missing IPEDS data.
College Scorecard
Owned by the ED, College Scorecard collects and publishes extensive data on individual colleges, career trajectories, and fields of study. Our TBS team uses College Scorecard data when we display institution-specific information.
Expert Opinion
Additionally, because we value the personal touch and professional experience of our staff, we vet all results and adjust rankings as necessary based on our collected knowledge of schools and degree programs.
When applicable, our independent, third-party panel of experts reviews page content — excluding school descriptions — for accuracy. Depending on the ranking, we may obtain additional input from prior TBS ranking lists or other sources we deem relevant.
Exclusion Criteria: Under the Hood
Strong academic and financial data by itself is not enough to qualify a school for our list. We also aim to align our college rankings with our commitment to supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in higher education — and our belief that people of all identities and backgrounds deserve to learn in a safe environment.
| Category | We remove schools from consideration if they: |
|---|---|
| Graduation Rate | Have a graduation rate of <10% |
| Retention Rate | Have a retention rate of <10% |
| Completion Rate | Have a four-year completion rate for low-income students of <10% |
| Transparency | Don’t provide any of the above data to IPEDS, College Scorecard, or Peterson’s |
| Exclusion | Explicitly support or promote anti-LGBTQ+ policies, groups, or practices |
Specific ranked lists have additional exclusion criteria, as follows:
- Affordable Lists: Schools are ineligible if they do not report the average net price after aid (i.e., the average amount students paid after aid).
- General Online Colleges and Universities Rankings: Schools must offer at least 10 online bachelor’s and 3 online master’s programs.
TBS’s rankings team may exercise discretion in removing schools from rankings that do not provide sufficient data or otherwise fail to serve a nationally representative audience of online learners.
A Deeper Dive Into Our Ranking Factors
Here at TBS, we value what you value: quality education, affordability, and access to online education. These factors guide all our program rankings.
We chose the following factors for our rankings because they influence learning experiences and graduate outcomes. However, you should always balance our rankings against your personal priorities.
For instance, a learner who needs a fully online program may prioritize online flexibility more than our rankings do. Our rankings are designed to help you make a decision — not to make a decision for you.
Subfactors for Our TBS Rankings
Each of these factors is further broken down into weighted subfactors. For example, retention rates are weighted more heavily than the availability of program options because they are a better indicator of student success.
Subfactors for Academics
- Admissions Rate: The rate at which students are accepted to a school says a lot about that institution’s reputation and selectivity. Though there are exceptions, schools with low admissions rates tend to offer more comprehensive, rigorous programs than schools with open admissions.
- Full-Time Retention Rate: The retention rate is the number of students who enroll in an institution compared to the number who remain enrolled there. Students might leave an institution for various reasons, but some common examples include lack of institutional support, lack of academic options, and lack of access to financial aid. Generally speaking, a high retention rate indicates that an institution is meeting the expectations of the students who enroll there.
- Graduation Rate: Similar to the retention rate, the graduation rate is the number of students who finish their degrees at a particular institution compared to the number of students who enrolled there initially. Graduation rates are often measured in four-year and six-year increments.
- Faculty Strength/Influence: Like any industry, higher education thrives on professional experience and excellence. An institution is only as good as its professors, which is why we include faculty strength among our academic subfactors. Faculty strength is measured in data points like average level of education and contributions to academic research.
Subfactors for Affordability
- Percent of Students Awarded Financial Aid: Access to financial aid can be the deciding factor in whether a student is able to attend college. While federal financial aid is decided largely by the FAFSA, individual institutions also award their own financial aid, making some schools more accessible than others for low-income students. Availability of financial aid options matters to students, so it matters to TBS.
- Percent of Students Taking Loans: With student loan burdens at an all-time high, the percentage of an institution’s students who have to take on that burden says a lot about that school’s affordability and accessibility. That’s why we include average student loan rates in our affordability rankings.
- Average Net Price: Perhaps the most important piece when it comes to affordability is the overall cost of an education at a given institution. This cost includes tuition, of course, but it also considers factors like student fees, textbook costs, and whether online students are charged a different per-credit tuition rate than students on campus.
Subfactors for Online Enrollment
- Undergraduates Enrolled in Distance Education: With the ever-expanding presence of online education, an institution’s commitment to supporting online students has become a major factor in determining educational quality. Simply put, a school that has more online students is a school that invests more in its online students.
- Graduates Enrolled in Distance Education: Similar to undergraduate online enrollment, the number of graduate students enrolled in distance education at a given institution speaks to the quality of its graduate programs. A school with few online graduate students doesn’t have the same level of investment as an institution that is committed to providing the best possible online education to as many graduate students as possible.
- Graduates Enrolled in Only Distance Education: The final element is how hard an institution is working to make online education a full-time option for its graduate students. Fully online programs indicate that a school is more experienced and committed to supporting online students, whereas programs only partially available online tend to be less well developed and offer fewer resources for distance learners.
