Shiny app · Higher education
College peers
Find comparable U.S. colleges using institutional characteristics from IPEDS.
Open app ↗Explore similar colleges using the 2024–25 provisional IPEDS collection. Choose a target school, adjust how important different characteristics are, and set candidate pool size.
What makes a peer?
The matcher compares 38 measures, lumped into seven domains, using a weighted Gower-style distance. Domain weights are adjustable. Pairs need at least 70% coverage of the target’s active feature weight.
Geographic distance is a completely separate filter, and isn’t used for matching, but you can constrain matches to be close geographically if you want. All counts and dollar values used for matching are log-transformed before robust scaling, and rates remain as percentages.
Data and interpretation
Source: NCES Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Program composition uses broad CIP shares of 2023–24 awards.
Results help with exploring institutional similarities, and aren’t a ranking of institutional quality.