CollegeDarbar standards

College Ranking Methodology

How CollegeDarbar ranking pages document sources, weighting, review and commercial separation.

Default evaluation framework

  • Academic standing and accreditation: 25%
  • Published student outcomes and placements: 25%
  • Fees and return-on-investment considerations: 20%
  • Admissions and selectivity: 10%
  • Infrastructure and student support: 10%
  • Research, compliance and institutional transparency: 10%

Page-level disclosure

  • A ranking page should record the data-collection date, sources used, factor weights and reviewer.
  • If data coverage requires a different weighting, that deviation must be explained on the page.

Missing and incomparable data

  • Missing institutional data is not replaced with a default value.
  • Where institutions publish metrics using different definitions, the limitation should be disclosed instead of forcing a false comparison.

Sponsored colleges

  • Payment or a commercial relationship does not increase an institution's editorial ranking.
  • Sponsored visibility must be labelled and kept separate from the ranking calculation.