How your ranking works

Each criterion becomes a percentile among all colleges with data, with better values scoring higher. Your importance levels weight each comparison: 3, 2, 1, or 0. Every pair of colleges is compared using only criteria available for both. Missing data receive no penalty. The Brand Prestige groups count a college once, under the highest importance you give a group it belongs to. Closest to Home and Furthest from Home use the straight-line distance from the hometown you choose under Location.

Margin-of-victory Elo reflects the size of the weighted percentile gap, so close comparisons have less influence.

Areas and Majors rank by degrees awarded (IPEDS 2025), an area by the total across its majors; Sports favor colleges fielding a men's or women's team in it. Both use the same percentile normalization and importance weights. A missing program list is ignored for scoring. Must Have is a requirement, not an extra weight: only colleges awarding at least one degree in every required area and major, and fielding every required sport, appear in your results and clipboard export. An unreported program does not satisfy a requirement. Requirements filter the completed ranking, preserving scores; the qualifying colleges are then ranked continuously. If you select only requirements, qualifying colleges tie at 1,500.

All colleges start at 1,500. Ratings update together over 100 rounds of all pairwise comparisons, so the order of colleges does not affect the result. Margin-of-victory outcomes equal 0.5 plus half the weighted percentile difference. The Elo expectation uses the usual 400-point scale and an update factor of 200 divided by the maximum number of opponents. Calculations always use the full college universe. Table filters only hide or show results; scores and ranks stay unchanged. Colleges with no usable comparisons are left unranked. Correlated criteria can reinforce one another, and sparse data can make scores less representative.