# US College Finder: Filter by Admission Barriers & State (`scrapemint/us-college-finder`) Actor

Every US college and university, filtered how students choose: open-admissions vs selective, online-only, 2-year vs 4-year, public vs private, by admission rate, test policy and state. Official Dept of Education College Scorecard data, one row per school with website and net-price links. Keyless.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapemint/us-college-finder.md
- **Developed by:** [Ken M](https://apify.com/scrapemint) (community)
- **Categories:** Education, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$8.00 / 1,000 college rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## US College Finder: Filter by Admission Barriers & State

Shortlist US colleges the way a student actually decides: by how open the
door is and how they can attend, not by trawling one school website at a
time. Filter every Title IV college and university in the United States
(~6,600 institutions) by open-admissions policy, online-only delivery,
2-year vs 4-year, public vs private, admission rate, test-score policy and
state, and get one clean row per school with its official website and
net-price calculator.

### Data source

Official **US Department of Education College Scorecard** institution file
(the same dataset behind collegescorecard.ed.gov). Downloaded fresh each run
from the department's public download bucket. No API key, no login, no proxy.

### Filters (input)

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `states` | Two-letter codes, e.g. `CA`, `TX`. Empty = all states/territories. |
| `levels` | `4-year`, `2-year`, `less-than-2-year`. Empty = all. |
| `controls` | `public`, `private-nonprofit`, `private-forprofit`. Empty = all. |
| `openAdmissionOnly` | Keep only open-admissions schools (best proxy for "start soon, low barriers"). |
| `onlineOnly` | Keep only schools that deliver exclusively online. |
| `testNotRequired` | Keep only schools that do not require SAT/ACT (see coverage note). |
| `offersCredential` | Keep schools offering programs at any of: `certificate`, `associate`, `bachelor`, `graduate`. |
| `federalAidOnly` | Keep only schools approved for federal Title IV student aid (Pell / federal loans). |
| `maxAdmissionRate` | Keep schools with admission rate at or below this (0-1). |
| `keyword` | Case-insensitive match on the institution name. |
| `sortBy` | `name` (state then name), `admissionRate`, or `size`. |
| `maxRows` | Cap on rows returned. Controls cost. |

### Output (one row per institution)

`name`, `city`, `state`, `zip`, `level`, `control`, `openAdmissions`,
`onlineOnly`, `admissionRate`, `testScoresRequired`, `undergradSize`,
`credentialLevels`, `federalAidParticipating`, `pctStudentsWithPellGrant`,
`pctStudentsWithFederalLoan`, `website`, `netPriceCalculator`, `scorecardUrl`,
`unitId`, `opeId`.

- `credentialLevels` is an array of the levels the school offers programs at,
  e.g. `["certificate","associate","bachelor"]`.
- `federalAidParticipating` is `true` when the school is approved for federal
  Title IV student aid; `pctStudentsWithPellGrant` and
  `pctStudentsWithFederalLoan` show the share of undergrads who actually
  receive each.

### What this actor does not include (read before buying)

Two things students often want are **not published in any national
dataset**, so this actor does not guess at them:

- **Term start dates** (Summer I / Summer II / Fall). There is no central
  feed for academic calendars; each school posts its own. Use the `website`
  link to read the current calendar at the source.
- **"High-school transcript required."** College Scorecard omits the IPEDS
  admission-requirement fields for secondary-school records, so a reliable
  transcript flag cannot be derived. The `website` link is where each school
  states its document requirements.

The `openAdmissions`, `onlineOnly` and `testScoresRequired` flags are the
honest, data-backed signals for low-barrier, start-soon options.

- **Aid eligibility for a specific program.** `federalAidParticipating` is an
  institution-level flag: the school participates in federal Title IV aid.
  Whether one particular certificate or associate program qualifies for aid is
  program-level Title IV eligibility, which is **not** published as a clean
  flag in any national dataset (the field-of-study loan data is
  privacy-suppressed for ~78% of programs and reflects borrowing, not
  eligibility). So this actor reports which levels a school offers and whether
  the school takes federal aid, but not per-program aid eligibility.

#### Coverage notes

- `openAdmissions` is populated for ~85% of institutions; the rest come back
  as `null` (unknown, not "selective").
- `testScoresRequired` is reported by ~30% of institutions (mostly 4-year
  schools). When `testNotRequired` is on, schools with no reported policy are
  excluded rather than assumed.
- `admissionRate` exists mainly for schools that admit selectively; open and
  community colleges usually leave it blank.

### Pricing

Pay per event: **$0.008 per institution row**. The first **2 rows per run are
free**, so you can preview the shape of the output at no cost.

### Example

```json
{
  "states": ["TX"],
  "levels": ["2-year"],
  "openAdmissionOnly": true,
  "sortBy": "size",
  "maxRows": 100
}
```

Returns Texas community colleges with an open-admissions policy, largest
first, each with a link to enroll.

# Actor input Schema

## `states` (type: `array`):

Two-letter state codes to include, e.g. CA, TX, NY. Empty = all US states and territories.

## `levels` (type: `array`):

Which levels to include. Empty = all.

## `controls` (type: `array`):

Public, private nonprofit, or private for-profit. Empty = all.

## `openAdmissionOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only schools with an open-admissions policy (accept essentially all applicants with a high-school diploma or equivalent). Best proxy for "I can start soon with low barriers".

## `onlineOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only institutions that deliver programs exclusively via distance education.

## `testNotRequired` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only schools that do not require SAT/ACT scores (test-optional or scores not required). Only applies to schools that report a test policy (~30% of the file); others are dropped when this is on.

## `offersCredential` (type: `array`):

Keep only schools that offer programs at one or more of these levels. Empty = any.

## `federalAidOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only schools approved for federal Title IV student aid (Pell grants and federal loans). Note: this is institution-level participation; whether a specific program qualifies for aid is not in the public data.

## `maxAdmissionRate` (type: `string`):

Keep only schools whose admission rate is at or below this value, 0-1 (e.g. 0.8 = 80%). Only schools that report an admission rate are kept. Empty = no limit.

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Case-insensitive substring match on the institution name, e.g. "community", "tech", "state".

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Order of the returned rows.

## `maxRows` (type: `integer`):

Cap on institutions returned. Controls total cost. First 2 rows per run are free.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "states": [
    "TX"
  ],
  "levels": [
    "2-year"
  ],
  "controls": [],
  "openAdmissionOnly": false,
  "onlineOnly": false,
  "testNotRequired": false,
  "offersCredential": [],
  "federalAidOnly": false,
  "maxAdmissionRate": "",
  "keyword": "",
  "sortBy": "name",
  "maxRows": 200
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "states": [
        "TX"
    ],
    "levels": [
        "2-year"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapemint/us-college-finder").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "states": ["TX"],
    "levels": ["2-year"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapemint/us-college-finder").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "states": [
    "TX"
  ],
  "levels": [
    "2-year"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapemint/us-college-finder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapemint/us-college-finder",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/OBLqX0grqJRTJOU9Y/builds/bLEdlRCxV9390HGdY/openapi.json