BestColleges is a comprehensive resource for current and prospective students, giving them the tools they need to make informed decisions about their educations and careers. Whether you are looking for financial aid, comparing college programs, or exploring school disability accommodations, we offer free guides and rankings that can take the stress out of your online search.

Editorial independence is our top priority, and we provide these resources because we believe transparent information and accurate data are powerful tools for accessing high-quality education. Our experts do all the fact-finding for you, and we can even help identify the schools that match your ambitions, geographic location, and financial circumstances.

How We Make Money

Every company needs to generate revenue, and at BestColleges, we do this by matching prospective students with programs that best fit their professional needs and circumstances. These financial partnerships allow us to provide in-depth research and high-quality editorial content for our readers.

Essentially, this means that when users make their school selections using BestColleges, we may receive compensation. However, we strive to be as transparent as possible about our financial partnerships. Schools we partner with are clearly and unambiguously identified with terms like "Sponsored," "Featured," or similar language.

Sponsored schools also provide us with information about their programs, including admission requirements, financial aid, tuition, and graduation rates. We do not independently verify these statements from school partners and therefore do not endorse or guarantee their accuracy.

To learn about how we use user information, please review our privacy policy.

How We Maintain Editorial Independence

Our proprietary methodology for evaluating college programs ensures that our guides and rankings are unbiased. All of our data is properly vetted, and our sources -- including online surveys, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Common Data Set Initiative, and Peterson's -- are all widely recognized for providing accurate educational and occupational information from around the country.

In addition to maintaining the highest standards for our sources, we strictly maintain the following guidelines to ensure we remain impartial and independent in our content:

  • Unless prominently noted with language such as "Sponsored," "Featured," or similar language, we have not received any financial payment from schools when they are listed in one of our rankings.
  • Schools never received preferential treatment. All the schools in our rankings are evaluated using the same criteria and are awarded total scores that reflect the hard data. We do not award schools rankings that do not directly reflect variables such as admission rates, retention rates, and program costs.
  • Our experts, writers, and editors are never made aware of our financial partnerships when creating content such as school information and guides, which ensures we maintain editorial independence.
  • All schools in our rankings are nationally or regionally accredited, providing an extra layer of quality assurance and transparency in our rankings.

If you have additional questions regarding our data or editorial content, please consult our FAQ page.