GradFit's program data comes from federal databases, official program disclosures, and peer-reviewed research. This page explains exactly where our data comes from and how fit scores are calculated.
Important Disclaimer
GradFit is an informational platform only. Fit scores, recommendations, and program data are AI-generated estimates based on publicly available information and user-provided data. They are not official assessments and do not guarantee admission to any graduate program. Admission decisions are at the sole discretion of each institution. Always verify program requirements directly with the institution before applying.
GradFit aggregates data from the following authoritative sources. Where data conflicts between sources, we prioritise official program disclosures, followed by federal databases.
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education
IPEDS is the primary federal database for postsecondary institution data in the United States. GradFit uses IPEDS data for enrollment figures, graduation rates, faculty counts, institutional characteristics, and tuition costs.
U.S. Department of Education
The College Scorecard provides data on student outcomes, including median earnings after graduation, student debt loads, and employment rates. GradFit uses this data to populate career outcomes estimates on program detail pages.
Common Data Set Initiative
The Common Data Set is a collaborative effort between higher education institutions and publishers to provide standardised, comparable data. GradFit references CDS submissions for GRE/GMAT averages, acceptance rates, and application requirements.
Council of Graduate Schools
CGS publishes annual reports on graduate enrollment trends, funding patterns, and degree completion rates. GradFit uses CGS data to contextualise funding rates and program-level trends across disciplines.
Individual Graduate Programs
For many programs, GradFit's team manually reviews official program websites, admissions pages, and department disclosures to verify or supplement data from federal sources. This is especially important for stipend amounts, funding availability, and research area tags.
National Science Foundation
The NSF Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering provides field-level data on funding sources, stipend levels, and support mechanisms for graduate students in STEM fields.
GradFit's AI fit score is a weighted average of five dimensions, each scored 0–100. The overall score reflects how well a program matches your academic profile, research interests, funding needs, location preferences, and career goals. You can adjust the weight of each dimension in your Settings.
Compares the user's self-reported GRE scores and GPA against the program's average admitted student profile from CDS data. A higher score indicates the user's academic credentials are well-aligned with the program's typical admit.
Weighted based on user's custom dimension weights (default: 20%)
Measures alignment between the user's stated research interests (from the Profile Survey) and the program's tagged research areas. The AI evaluates semantic similarity between the user's research statement and the program's research area tags.
Default: 25%
Compares the user's funding preferences and financial need (from the survey) against the program's funding rate, average stipend, and fellowship availability. Programs with full funding and stipends above the user's target score higher.
Default: 20%
Evaluates how well the program's geographic location matches the user's stated location preferences, including region, state, and urban/suburban/rural setting.
Default: 15%
Assesses alignment between the user's degree type preference, program length, and career goals against the program's degree type, typical time-to-completion, and placement outcomes.
Default: 20%
GradFit's program database is updated on a rolling basis as new IPEDS releases, CDS submissions, and program disclosures become available. However, graduate program requirements — especially GRE policies, funding structures, and application deadlines — change frequently. Always verify current requirements directly with the program before submitting an application.
Acceptance rates and average test scores reflect historical data and may not represent current admissions standards. Programs may have changed their policies, become more or less selective, or modified their funding structures since the data was collected.
If you notice inaccurate or outdated data for a specific program, please submit a correction via our Feedback page. We review all submissions and update the database accordingly.