Explore Top Colleges has covered career education since 2018. Today the site does one thing: put the official numbers — cost, completion, debt, earnings — side by side for trade schools, and show the paid-apprenticeship alternative next to them.
We built this because the underlying federal data is public but nearly unusable where it lives, and because most "top schools" sites rank whoever pays them. Our lists are ranked by one transparent formula (methodology), and no school can pay to move up.
The site is operated by Ikan Media Inc., a U.S. digital publisher. We may earn fees when readers request information from schools or partners — that never changes rankings or data, and is disclosed where it happens.