How the quiz works
The quiz filters all 2,663 colleges in our data by your answers, then ranks the ones left by what you said matters most:
- A balance of everything ranks by our outcome score, which blends graduation rate, earnings and net price.
- Graduating on time ranks by graduation rate.
- Lowest cost ranks by net price for your income (or the average net price if you skip the income question).
- Earnings after college ranks by the median earnings of former students 10 years after they started.
Your budget is compared with the net price for your family's income group, which is usually much lower than the sticker price. At private nonprofit 4-year colleges, the median net price for families earning $0 to $30,000 is $18,720, against $30,076 for families earning over $110,000.
About the score labels
If you enter a test score, each result gets a label. In range means your score is inside the middle 50% of students who enrolled. Above range means it is higher than the 75th percentile. Below range means it is lower than the 25th percentile. Colleges that admit fewer than 15% of applicants are marked as a reach for everyone, because strong scores alone rarely decide admission there.
The quiz does not store your answers. They stay in your browser, and the page address updates so you can save or share your results.