AdmitMeThe U.S. News top 100 national universities
What each college weighs, in its own words.
Every college publishes a Common Data Set, and section C7 of it is that college rating nineteen admission factors on its own four-point scale — how far the transcript carries you, whether the essay is read closely, whether it counts that you visited. We read that table for all 100 and built the site on it: a profile for every college you can question directly, odds anchored to each one's real acceptance rate, a counselor that builds your list out of what you tell it, and essay feedback that knows what the colleges on your list actually reward.
Where a figure could not be read from a published source, the college is marked Estimated rather than quietly filled in.
Where the numbers come from
Every figure on this site traces to a document you can open yourself. Where we couldn't read a source, the college is labelled Estimated rather than quietly filled in.
The Common Data Set
Every college publishes one. Section C7 is the college stating, on its own four-point scale, how much it weighs GPA, course rigor, test scores, essays, recommendations, activities, talent, character, legacy, state residency and demonstrated interest. That table is our model's weighting — we don't invent it.
Acceptance rates, SAT and ACT ranges come from the same documents. Verified colleges link straight to the PDF or spreadsheet they came from.
U.S. News & World Report
Used for one thing only: deciding which colleges appear here. The list is their top 100 national universities — all of it, nothing else — and each card shows its rank. Nothing in the odds model uses the ranking; a college's position doesn't change how it reads your application.
U.S. News ties six schools at #98. Showing exactly 100 means breaking that tie, so we take them alphabetically and stop at 100.
Wikimedia Commons & Wikidata
Campus photos are freely licensed, and each one credits its photographer and licence on the college's card. Logos come from each institution's own Wikidata entry, so it's that college's mark rather than whatever a search turns up.
Where a college's profile comes from
Not from us, and not from a model guessing at a school's character. Every college fills in section C7 of its Common Data Set — nineteen admission factors, each rated on its own four-point scale. That table is the personality. It is why the desk you are talking to answers differently at every school, and why it can tell you when it does not know.
They rate themselves
"Very important", "important", "considered", "not considered" — nineteen times, in a document they publish. We read it out of the PDF, and every card links to the one it came from.
It becomes a voice
A school rating four soft factors at the top reads your whole file, and says so. One rating them all at the bottom tells you plainly that the transcript decides it. They are not the same conversation, because they did not give the same answers.
It never exceeds the document
Ask about a deadline, a major, or a professor and it will tell you it has nothing to go on — because inventing an answer in a real university's voice is how a student ends up acting on something that was never true.
How your odds are worked out
Measured against that college's own pool
Your GPA and score are compared to the college's reported average and middle 50%. Activities and essays are re-centred by selectivity — club president is a strong record at a college admitting 85%, and unremarkable at one admitting 5%.
Weighted the way that college says it weighs
A college rating essays "very important" leans on your essay. One rating them "considered" barely does. UNC weighs state residency very heavily; the University of Georgia decides on the transcript alone. Same student, different answers.
Anchored to the real acceptance rate
This is the part other calculators skip. A flawless application still comes out a reach at a college admitting 4%, because it is one — and nothing below a 35% admit rate is ever called a safety, for anyone.
What you get
Five things, and the edge of each one. Nothing here is a prediction of a decision.
Colleges
All 100, each with the nineteen factors it rates itself on, its admit rate, test range, average GPA and net price — and an admissions desk you can put questions to, answering as that college from those same ratings.
Stops at the document: ask it a deadline, a major or a professor and it tells you the college has never published that, rather than inventing an answer.
My chances
Every one of the 100 sorted into reach, target and safety for you, plus the single change to your application worth the most — measured by re-running the whole model with that one thing different.
Anchored to real acceptance rates, so nothing admitting under 35% is ever called a safety. It shapes a balanced list; it does not predict a decision.
My counselor
A conversation about what you actually want — subject, cost, distance, size, how bold a list you want — that ends in one built round your answers, with the reason on every line. It keeps what you tell it, and you can read and delete all of it.
Records only what you actually said: anything it cannot quote back to your own words is thrown away rather than guessed at.
Essay lab
Clichés, telling instead of showing and flat rhythm, flagged with your own sentences quoted back, and read against the rest of your application so it can say what your file does not yet.
Runs entirely in this browser. Your essays are never uploaded, to us or to any model.
My list
Round, deadline and status for every application in one place, with a warning when your list has no genuine safety on it.
The deadlines are the ones you enter. We do not publish application dates, for the same reason the desks refuse them.
What this can't do
It can't read your file
No model sees your actual essays, who reads your application, or a college's priorities that year. Treat a number here as a way to shape a balanced list, never as a prediction of a decision.
It isn't your counselor
Use it to work out which colleges are worth the application fee, then talk to someone who knows you.
Your work stays yours
Essays are analysed in your browser and never uploaded. Resume files are read on your device — only the text is saved, and only if you sign in. We don't sell data, run ads, or train anything on your writing.
We're not affiliated with any college
Nor with U.S. News. We quote their published data and link to it so you can check us.
Your chances
We need your stats before anything here means much — about three minutes, once.
Your college list
Reach
Under 40% — apply if you love them, never count on them.
Target
40–75% — squarely in their range. Most of your list belongs here.
Safety
Over 75% at a college admitting most applicants — and one you'd be glad to attend.
Colleges
All 100 of the U.S. News top 100 national universities, in rank order. Each is scored the way it says it scores you — cards marked Verified have their criteria read from that college's own Common Data Set.
Essay lab
Analysed in your browser. It checks the craft signals admissions readers complain about — it cannot tell you whether your story is good, and a plain essay about something real can score mid and still be excellent.
My list
Track every application in one place — round, deadline, and where it stands.
My counselor
A short conversation about what you actually want, then a list built round it — reaches, targets and safeties, each with the reason it is there.
My profile
Your academics
This is the part nearly every college weighs most. Answer honestly — an optimistic answer only buys you an optimistic list.
Grades
Takes 20 secondsCourse rigor
Colleges read this against what your school offers. Eight APs where thirty are offered is a weaker transcript than four where four are offered.
I don't know the counts — let me describe it instead
Test scores
Most colleges are test-optional. Sending a score below a college's middle 50% usually hurts more than sending nothing.
Your activities
List them individually rather than rating yourself. Students are consistently bad at self-rating — give the facts and the tier gets worked out for you. Depth beats breadth: two excellent activities read better than ten memberships.
Start from your resume
OptionalUpload a resume and we'll suggest activities from it — you confirm each one before it counts. The file is read on your device and never uploaded; only the text is saved, and only if you're signed in.
Scanned PDF, or nothing came through? Paste the text instead
See exactly what we read from your file ()
Your activities
Depth beats breadthList them individually rather than rating yourself. Two excellent activities read better than ten memberships.
Context colleges weigh
Not gaming the system — colleges state in their own Common Data Sets that they consider these.
Essays and recommendations
Rate these honestly. If you analyse a draft in the Essay lab, that score is used instead.
What you're looking for
Preferences filter and sort. They never change your admission odds.
About you
These change your oddsChanges your odds a lot at public universities.
Computer science, engineering, business and nursing are admitted separately at many colleges, and that changes your odds. Art, music, theatre, film and architecture usually turn on a portfolio or audition this model cannot see — we say so rather than guess.
What you're looking for
Filters and sorts only — never your oddsAdd a college that isn't on the list
Enter its numbers from its Common Data Set and it gets scored exactly like the rest.
Privacy
Plain English, because you should be able to tell what happens to your work.
What we keep
- If you never sign in: nothing leaves your browser. Your stats, list and essays sit in this device's local storage and we cannot see them.
- If you sign in with Google: we store your Google account id, email address, name and profile picture, plus whatever you save — your calculator answers, college list, essay drafts, LinkedIn URL and the text of any resume you import.
- What My counselor sends. When you type to the counselor, that message is sent to Anthropic's Claude API purely to work out what you meant and to word a reply. Anthropic does not train on data sent through their API, and we do not store the message itself. The model is never asked about a college: every figure and every admission policy on this site is computed from published data before the model sees anything, and anything it reports about you is thrown away unless it can quote your own words back for it. What the counselor concludes about you — including any specific detail it keeps for essay ideas later — is saved to your profile, shown back to you there in full, and you can delete it in one click. If you would rather not send anything, the counselor still works with the connection off — it falls back to matching on your own words.
- Your essays are still never uploaded. The essay lab runs entirely in this browser, as it always has. Nothing you write there is sent anywhere, including to any model.
- Resume files are never uploaded. The file is read on your own device and only the extracted text is saved, so we never hold a document containing your address, phone number or employers.
What we never do
- We do not sell or rent your data, and we do not run advertising.
- We do not share your essays with colleges, or with anyone else.
- We never store a password, because sign-in goes through Google and we never receive one.
- We do not put essay text in our logs.
Your controls
- Download everything we hold about you as a JSON file, any time.
- Delete your account and every associated record. Deletion is immediate and permanent — we keep no shadow copy.
- Signing out clears this device. Your stats, college list and essay drafts are removed from this browser when you sign out — they are saved to your account first, and come back when you sign in. This matters on a school or library computer.
Age
AdmitMe is intended for students aged 13 and over. If you are under 13, please do not create an account. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we delete it.
Cookies
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Contact
Questions, or want your data removed? Email the address in the footer and we will action it.
Terms
What this is
AdmitMe estimates admission chances and gives feedback on essays. It is a planning tool, not advice, and not a prediction.
What it is not
- Not affiliated with any college. Admissions data is quoted from each college's own published Common Data Set, and linked so you can check it.
- Not a guarantee. No model can see your actual essays, who reads your file, or a college's priorities that year. Never treat a number here as a decision.
- Not a substitute for your counselor. Use it to shape a balanced list, then talk to a human.
Your work stays yours
You keep all rights to essays you write. We store them only to show them back to you, and we do not use them to train anything.
Fair use
Do not upload other people's work, and do not scrape or resell the data here.