Every number on this site, and exactly where it comes from.
All institutional data comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, the federal dataset compiled from mandatory institutional reporting (IPEDS), federal financial aid records, and tax data. It is the most complete and consistently defined dataset on American higher education that exists.
Our current snapshot was retrieved on September 11, 2026. We refresh when the Department publishes a new vintage, typically annually.
We include institutions that are currently operating, located in Georgia, and report at least 50 enrolled students. The enrollment floor excludes microscopic and effectively dormant institutions whose reported figures are too volatile to compare meaningfully.
| Metric | Definition | Known limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Acceptance rate | Share of applicants admitted | Open-enrollment schools often do not report it; absence is not a quality signal |
| Net price | Cost of attendance minus grant aid | An average across aided students; your figure may differ substantially |
| Graduation rate | Completion within 150% of normal program time | Excludes transfer-out students, penalizing schools that serve as launch points |
| Retention rate | First-year students returning for year two | Reflects student circumstances as much as institutional quality |
| Median earnings | Median income 10 years after entry | Covers federally aided students including non-completers; varies more by major than by school |
| Median debt | Median federal loan debt of completers | Excludes private and parent PLUS loans, understating true borrowing |
Each ranking page states its inclusion rule and sort key in a box above the table. Where a composite score is used, the weights are printed. Schools missing a required field are excluded rather than imputed — we would rather publish a shorter list than a fabricated one.
Our blended outcome score weights graduation rate at 35%, first-year retention at 25%, and median earnings at 40% (normalized against a $120,000 ceiling). These weights are a judgment call; we publish them so you can disagree with them.
Federal earnings data lags by several years and covers only students who received federal aid. Graduation rates use a cohort definition that disadvantages institutions serving part-time and transfer students. Net price averages conceal wide variation by income. None of these are fixable at our end — they are properties of the source data, and we flag them rather than paper over them.