How EDsmart Ranks Colleges

by EDsmart Staff · Methodology updated October 2026

EDsmart ranks 1,934 four-year colleges on four equally weighted pillars: completion, affordability, student support, and career outcomes. Each college is scored against every other ranked college on seven federal measures, including graduation rate, net price after aid, and graduates' earnings five years after finishing. One calculation produces every college's rank, 0-100 EDsmart Score, and letter grade from A+ to D-. The data comes from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, October 15, 2026 release.

Choosing a college is one of the biggest financial decisions a family makes. Our rankings focus on what affects students directly: whether they finish, what they pay after grants, how much support they get, and how graduates do in the job market. We don't use reputation surveys, research spending, or paid placement.

What we measure

Every ranked college is scored on the same seven measures, grouped into four pillars. Each pillar counts for 25% of the overall result, so no single area, such as earnings or price, can carry a college on its own.

How much each measure counts

Retention appears in two pillars, so it carries the most weight of any single measure. It reflects both whether students stay on track to graduate and whether the college supports them through the first year. Here is each measure's share of the overall result:

How we turn the data into a score

1. Collect the data. We pull all seven measures for every eligible college from the latest College Scorecard release.
2. Fill gaps evenly. When a value is missing or withheld for privacy, we use the median for all ranked colleges. That leaves the college near the middle on that measure, so a gap doesn't push it far up or down.
3. Put every measure on the same scale. Graduation rates are percentages, net price is in dollars, and student-faculty ratio is a count. We convert each one to a z-score: how far a college sits above or below the average of all ranked colleges, measured in standard deviations. For net price and student-faculty ratio, we flip the sign so lower values score higher.
4. Build the four pillars. We combine each pillar's measures using the weights above.
5. Combine and rescale. We add the four pillars together, then convert the total to a z-score again so every college's final result is measured against the same ranked group.
6. Rank, score, and grade. Colleges are ranked by that final result. The same number sets the EDsmart Score and the letter grade.

A z-score keeps any one measure from dominating just because it uses bigger numbers. A $5,000 difference in net price and a five-point difference in graduation rate each count by how unusual they are among ranked colleges, not by their raw size.

Every college goes through the same calculation with the same weights. Ranks come straight from the results. We don't reorder colleges by hand after the calculation runs.

EDsmart Score and letter grades

• EDsmart Score (0-100): the college's percentile among all ranked colleges, shown to one decimal place. A score of 90.0 means the college's final result beats about 90% of ranked colleges.
• Category scores (0-25): the same percentile idea for each pillar, scaled to 25 points. You'll see these on school profiles.
• Letter grades (A+ to D-): set by fixed cutoffs on the final z-score. There is no F; D- is the lowest grade a ranked college can receive. Pillar grades on profiles use the same cutoffs within each pillar.

Because the rank, score, and grade come from one number, a higher score never pairs with a lower grade. Here are the grade cutoffs and how many of the 1,934 ranked colleges earned each grade:

A z-score of 0 is the average ranked college. Each step of 1.00 is one standard deviation above or below it.

Which colleges we rank

A college is ranked when it meets all of these conditions:

• It mainly awards bachelor's degrees or higher, or it mainly awards associate degrees but also grants graduate degrees.
• It takes part in federal student aid programs, so it reports to College Scorecard.
• It has usable data in at least three of the four pillars.
• It is currently operating. Colleges that closed or merged into another college are left out.

Two-year and certificate colleges are not in this ranking, and neither are colleges missing data in two or more pillars. Being unranked isn't a judgment of quality. It means we don't have enough comparable federal data for a fair score. Those colleges may still be accredited and serve students well, and many still have an EDsmart profile.

Data sources

All seven measures come from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, using the October 15, 2026 release. College Scorecard combines the data colleges report to the federal government each year with federal student aid and tax records. Earnings and employment figures cover students who received federal financial aid, which is how the government tracks them after college.

We take a few extra steps so small colleges and data errors don't distort the results:

• Steadier rates for small colleges: we use the Department of Education's two-year combined graduation and retention rates when they're available. A single year can swing widely at a small college.
• Minimum group size: a graduation rate counts only when at least 10 students are in the group it measures. Below that, one or two students can move the rate to 0% or 100%, so we treat it as missing.
• Automatic checks: before a refresh is published, we check that each state's data looks reasonable and that every college's rank, score, and grade agree.

See the method in action

Every EDsmart ranking page uses the same scores and grades. Some lists then narrow the field to one group of colleges or sort on a single measure, like price. Each page explains its own order:

Recent methodology changes

Updates and corrections

We update the rankings when a new College Scorecard release changes the measures we use. When we find a material data or publishing error, we correct the affected ranks, grades, and scores on every page that shows them, and we note significant corrections on the article.

How to use our rankings

Use our rankings as a starting point, not the final word. Compare the programs you care about, confirm the college's accreditation, and run the net price calculator on the school's site for an estimate based on your family's finances. Location, class format, and strength in your major matter too.

About EDsmart

EDsmart helps students and families compare colleges with transparent rankings built from federal data. Learn more about EDsmart.