Our Ranking Methodology

At TradeCareerPath.com, our school rankings come from federal data, not opinions or advertising. This page explains exactly how the BOC Score is calculated, how local pages use location in their ordering, and which government sources we rely on.

Data-First, Never Pay-to-Rank

Our school data comes from primary government sources:

• National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) / IPEDS – our directory of institutions, locations, programs offered (by CIP code), and distance-education availability.
• U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard – school-level outcomes: graduation rate, retention, median earnings, and average net price.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – wage and job-outlook data on our career pages (OEWS + Employment Projections).

Advertising on this site appears only in clearly labeled units. Money cannot move a school up our rankings.

How the BOC Score Works

Step 1: The school universe

We start from a directory of 6,072 institutions, built from the U.S. Department of Education’s IPEDS database (2024 release). Each page filters this universe to schools that actually offer the relevant program, using official CIP (Classification of Instructional Programs) codes.

Step 2: Eligibility gate – accreditation

A school is only eligible for a BOC Score if it appears in the College Scorecard as a currently operating institution. Scorecard inclusion requires Title IV participation, which in turn requires accreditation by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Schools that fail this gate are excluded from ranked lists (358 of our 6,072 directory schools as of June 2026).

Step 3: Five indicators, five weights

Outcomes (graduation + earnings = 55%) are weighted above price, because finishing a program that leads to higher earnings matters more than saving on one that doesn’t.

Step 4: Peer-group percentiles, not raw numbers

Raw values are never compared across school types – a technical or community college shouldn’t lose points against a research university. Each indicator becomes a percentile (0-100) within the school’s peer group, defined by its predominant credential level: certificate, associate, bachelor’s, or graduate.

Step 5: Missing data is handled honestly

Not every school reports every metric. As of June 2026, of the 5,714 eligible schools: 5,116 have graduation data, 4,678 have earnings, 5,020 have net price, and 4,938 have retention. When an indicator is missing, its weight is redistributed proportionally across the indicators that exist – we never fill in a guess.

A school must have at least one outcome indicator (graduation or earnings) and three indicators total to be ranked (5,213 schools). Schools below that threshold are listed instead – shown after ranked schools, clearly without a score.

Step 6: Ordering on local and ranking pages

On city and state pages, location is the first ranking factor: schools are ordered by proximity to the page’s city or state location, and the BOC Score appears on each card for outcome context. On ranking and comparison pages, ranked schools appear in descending BOC Score. Ties break by earnings percentile, then graduation percentile.

What the BOC Score Does Not Include

• No sponsored placement. Advertising never affects the order of these lists.
• No reputation surveys or editorial opinion. If it isn’t in the federal data, it isn’t in the score.
• No programmatic-accreditation weighting yet – we name those accreditors in our guides but don’t score them until coverage is complete.

Update Cadence

Scores are recomputed when the Department of Education releases new College Scorecard data (typically annually) or when our IPEDS directory refreshes. The engine is a single auditable script; the weights and rules on this page are the actual production values.

Questions about how we ranked a specific school? Contact us.