How do we rank schools?
The CollegeCalc academic rating identifies the most academically rigorous and effective colleges. Four year public and private not for-profit colleges are eligible for consideration. Non-traditional schools, community colleges or for-profit institutions are not considered as many do not report sufficient data to formulate a rating.
Current inputs to the academic rating formula are incoming freshman standardized test scores, college selectivity and graduation rate. The overall academic score assigned by the rating process is a national percentile ranking of all rated colleges. A score of fifty represents the median ranked college.
The relative dollar value of a college ranks the relative academic value per net tuition dollar spent. The rating additionally factors in average discount from list price and scholarship aid directly funded by the institution. A score of 50 represents a median value school.
Colleges which receive a score of 'n/a' did not report comprehensive data for consideration.
Academic Rating and Value scores are based on the methodology of our partner site CollegeSimply. A detailed examination of the data and ranking calculation can be found here.