About CampusAtlas
CampusAtlas is an explorer for every currently operating Title IV college in the United States — universities, community colleges, technical and trade schools and graduate-only institutions. All numbers come from official public data; nothing is estimated unless labeled as a CampusAtlas estimate.
Data sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard — Most Recent Institution-Level Data and Most Recent Data by Field of Study, released June 10, 2026. Column names and code labels are read from the official data dictionary.
- U.S. Census Bureau ZCTA Gazetteer (public domain) — ZIP code centroids for distance search.
- Map tiles © CARTO, map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
This build includes 6,243 currently operating institutions (of 6,273 in the file) and 214,976 institution × program × credential records across 420 CIP programs. Built September 23, 2026.
Methodology for derived fields
- Sector
- Control (CONTROL: public, private nonprofit, private for-profit) combined with level (ICLEVEL: 4-year, 2-year, less-than-2-year).
- Region
- U.S. Census Bureau region and division from the state; territories are grouped separately.
- Size
- Undergraduate degree-seeking enrollment (UGDS): Very small <1k, Small 1k–5k, Medium 5k–15k, Large 15k–30k, Very large 30k+.
- Selectivity
- Admission rate (ADM_RATE): Most selective <15%, Highly 15–35%, Selective 35–60%, Less 60–85%, Open/near-open 85%+ — or open admission policy (OPENADMP) when no rate is reported.
- Net price
- NPT4_PUB for public institutions, NPT4_PRIV otherwise; the same rule applies to the five income brackets (NPT41–NPT45).
- Graduation and retention
- C150_4 (or C150_L4 for schools without a 4-year rate); RET_FT4 (or RET_FTL4).
- Value score (CampusAtlas estimate)
- Median earnings 10 years after entry (MD_EARN_WNE_P10) ÷ average net price (floored at $1,000), ranked as a percentile (0–100) among schools reporting both. It is a rough signal, not an official metric: earnings reflect only federally aided students and are not adjusted for field mix or region.
- Specialties
- Minority-serving flags (HBCU, TRIBAL, HSI, PBI, ANNHI, AANAPII, NANTI), women’s/men’s-only, distance-only, religious affiliation, Carnegie special-focus classes, and up to three program families making up at least 10% of degrees awarded (PCIP).
- Similar schools
- Nearest neighbours on standardized log enrollment, admission rate and net price, plus penalties for a different sector or region and program-mix cosine distance.
Field coverage
Share of institutions with a reported (non-missing, non-suppressed) value.
| Map coordinates | 99.8% |
| Undergraduate enrollment | 87.5% |
| Graduate enrollment | 32.2% |
| Admission rate | 30.6% |
| Average SAT | 16.6% |
| ACT range | 14.7% |
| In-state tuition | 57.7% |
| Average net price | 80.4% |
| Pell share | 87.0% |
| Graduation rate | 81.7% |
| Retention rate | 77.7% |
| Median earnings (10 yr) | 81.7% |
| Median debt | 76.1% |
| Value score | 70.6% |
| Carnegie classification | 58.9% |
| Field-of-study programs | 90.5% |
Known limitations
- Data lag: Scorecard “most recent” figures mix cohorts; earnings and completion describe students who entered years ago.
- Suppression: values Scorecard marks as NULL, NA, PS or PrivacySuppressed are shown as “Not reported” — never as zero. Filters let you include or exclude schools missing a value.
- Only Title IV institutions (eligible for federal student aid) are included; many small or unaccredited schools are not.
- Admissions and test-score data are reported mostly by selective 4-year schools; test policy reflects ADMCON7 and may lag recent changes.
- For about 0.8% of schools without coordinates, map positions use the ZIP code centroid.
- Graduate enrollment is reported for only some institutions; exact graduate headcounts await IPEDS enrichment (see roadmap).