Editorial Policy

How we research

Every article starts with a data pull, not a draft. Before anything is written, we collect school names, tuition figures, aid amounts, and accreditation status from primary sources: IPEDS (nces.ed.gov/ipeds), the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (collegescorecard.ed.gov), the DAPIP accreditation database (ope.ed.gov/dapip), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov), and each school's published tuition schedule. Writers work only from that verified data block — no figure appears in an article that isn't in the source record.

How we fact-check

• Accreditation: every school named on this site is verified against DAPIP before publication. We never describe a school as accredited without a current DAPIP record, and we name the accreditor.
• Dollar figures: every tuition, aid, and salary number is cross-checked against its primary source and dated. Where schools publish ranges, we say so.
• Claims: statements about outcomes carry a named source. We do not promise employment or earnings results from any degree.

How we update

Tuition and federal aid figures change annually; our articles carry a visible last-updated date and are reviewed on a rolling schedule, with the oldest pages re-verified first. When a reader or school reports an error, we correct the page, note the correction, and refresh the update date. The Colleges That Pay You Index is recomputed quarterly from fresh IPEDS and College Scorecard data.

Independence and compensation

UniversityFindr may receive compensation when readers request contact from partner schools through our quiz. Partners are listed on our partners page. Compensation never determines whether a school appears in an article, its position in a ranking, or how it is described. Rankings are computed from public data using the criteria stated on each page.