Rankings Methodology

Undergradly publishes three rankings. All share one principle: measure what shapes a student's life after graduation — not reputation, not selectivity.

Common ground

Data sources. IPEDS (federal), College Scorecard (federal), Opportunity Insights (Chetty et al.). No surveys, no self-reported data.
Scoring. Each metric is converted to a percentile within the eligible pool, then weighted into a composite score (0–100).
Tie-breakers. Higher primary metric → larger undergraduate enrollment → lower institution ID. Results are deterministic.
Size floor. Two of the three rankings require ≥500 undergraduates, to keep metric ratios meaningful.

Ranking 1 of 3

Best Colleges for Economic Mobility

Which colleges move low-income students into the top income quintile, by Opportunity Insights data.

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Eligibility

Institutions covered by Opportunity Insights (Chetty et al.) — ~2,200 colleges with longitudinal mobility tracking. Birth cohorts 1980–1991.

Metric weights

mobilityRate 100%

1,966 institutions ranked · Primary metric: mobilityRate

Ranking 2 of 3

Best Community Colleges for Transfer

Community colleges whose students successfully transfer out within six years.

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Eligibility

Two-year institutions with IPEDS transfer-out rate and ≥500 undergraduates.

Metric weights

transferredOutRate 55%
fullTimeRetentionRate 25%
logScale 20%

1,247 institutions ranked · Primary metric: transferredOutRate

Ranking 3 of 3

Best Colleges for Transfer Students

Four-year colleges that welcome transfer students and graduate them on time.

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Eligibility

Four-year institutions with an IPEDS transfer-student completion rate and ≥500 undergraduates.

Metric weights

transferStudentCompletionRate 60%
transferShare 25%
logScale 15%

1,898 institutions ranked · Primary metric: transferStudentCompletionRate

Limitations and honest disclosures

Opportunity Insights vintage. Mobility figures track students born 1980–1991 (college entry ~1998–2009). The ranking reflects durable mobility track record, not current outlook.
No National Student Clearinghouse data in this release. Transfer-student signals come from IPEDS. Transferred-out rate captures transfer action but not destination quality; transfer-student completion rate captures 4-year success but not full pipeline breadth. Planned to address in a later release.
Transfer retention rate not used. IPEDS collects a transfer-specific first-year retention rate, but fewer than 1% of four-year institutions report it. The Best Colleges for Transfer Students ranking omits this field rather than score most colleges on an incomplete basis; it uses completion rate, transfer share, and enrollment scale instead.
Expect broad-access publics high on the mobility list. Opportunity Insights' "bottom-quintile → top-quintile" lens rewards access + success, not selectivity. Readers expecting Ivy League at the top will be surprised; that's the point.
What we don't rank. We don't publish "best overall colleges" or "best value" lists. We focus on mobility and transfer because those are the questions undergraduate students should actually ask.