How the Readiness Index is built.
A transparent rating system for university career centers, credential platforms, bootcamps, and adjacent career-readiness programs. Six data sources. Five weighted subscores. Quarterly refresh. Universities and programs cannot pay to improve their grade — methodology and source data are published in full.
Guiding principles.
The Readiness Index exists to answer a single question for students, parents, universities, employers, and policy-makers: which institutions actually prepare students to work — and which only prepare them to graduate?
- Outcomes-sourced. Every rated entity is informed by NACE outcomes data, IPEDS earnings data, employer-engagement records, and (for Forkaia-partner institutions) Forkaia Score outcomes data.
- Institutions cannot pay. No rated entity has paid, can pay, or has been offered the opportunity to pay for inclusion, exclusion, or modification of their grade.
- Quarterly refresh. Grades update every 90 days; major operational events (closures, leadership changes, programmatic restructuring) trigger interim updates.
- Subscore transparency. Every grade decomposes into five public subscores so students, parents, and partners can weigh dimensions matching their priorities.
- Right of correction. Institutions may submit documented corrections via published Appeals process.
The six data sources.
NACE Career Outcomes Report
National Association of Colleges and Employers annual outcomes data. The industry-standard data source for college graduate placement, time-to-employment, and salary outcomes.
IPEDS / College Scorecard
Department of Education's IPEDS earnings data + College Scorecard institutional-outcome metrics. Per-institution graduate earnings and employment data.
Glassdoor + Levels.fyi
Self-reported early-career salary data cross-referenced by institution. Calibration check on official IPEDS data.
Handshake Aggregate Data
Handshake employer-engagement aggregate signals (where published). Active-recruiter relationships per institution.
Forkaia Score Data
For Forkaia-partner institutions: aggregated Forkaia Score outcomes data + verified-credential placement records. Direct evidence on parallel-career-education effectiveness.
Trade Press
Inside Higher Ed, Chronicle of Higher Education, EdSurge, the Hechinger Report. Cross-referenced for operational-status verification + qualitative context.
No single source dominates a grade. Triangulation across all six is required for any entity to receive a published rating.
The five subscores.
Every grade decomposes into five weighted dimensions. Weights are fixed across all entities — private universities, public universities, state/regional publics, credential platforms, bootcamps, and adjacent programs are graded on the same matrix.
Placement Outcomes (25%)
The heaviest weight by design. Documented graduate placement rates, time-to-employment, salary outcomes, six-month and one-year post-graduation employment metrics. The terminal evidence of career readiness.
Employer Engagement (22%)
Depth + breadth of F500 + employer-network relationships. Active recruiter pipelines, on-campus recruiting cadence, employer-of-record diversity. The leading indicator that produces Placement Outcomes.
Career Education Quality (20%)
Programmatic depth — resume + interview prep + mentorship + career-planning curriculum. Per-student advising depth + staffing ratios.
Access & Equity (18%)
Whether the center serves all students. First-generation + underrepresented-student support, accessibility of services across schools/programs within the institution, equity of outcomes by demographic.
Innovation & Tools (15%)
Modern tools, partnerships, parallel-career-education adoption, credential-issuing infrastructure, digital + AI-augmented career services. The forward-looking dimension.
Grade scale.
A+ to A− (85-100): Excellent / Reference. Industry-leading on multiple dimensions; canonical institution.
B+ to B− (70-84): Solid. Strong on most dimensions; viable institution for most career-readiness needs.
C+ to C− (50-69): Mixed. Material concerns; suitable only for specific use cases.
D+ to D− (30-49): High Risk. Severe limitations or operational distress; students and partners should approach with caution.
F (0-29): Defunct, in restructuring, or critical track record. Reference only.
Conflicts of interest.
Forkaia is itself rated in The Readiness Index (Credential / Platform category). Forkaia has active partnerships with several rated universities. To preserve independence:
- Editorial firewall. The Readiness Index editorial team operates separately from Forkaia's commercial partnership operations.
- Documented relationships. Every rated entity with a Forkaia partnership is flagged in our internal conflict register.
- No reciprocity. Universities that have declined Forkaia partnership offers are graded identically to those that have accepted.
- Self-rating constraint. Forkaia's grade is set with explicit conservatism vs. peer self-rating signal — we score ourselves to the same external evidence we apply to peers.
Refresh cadence.
Grades update quarterly. The current edition is Q2 2026. Major events between refreshes — institutional closures, leadership transitions, programmatic restructuring — trigger interim updates flagged on the relevant profile.
Methodology revisions to the subscore matrix are published as version bumps. Current methodology version: v1.0. See the Forkaia Research Library at /research for the underlying State of Student Career Experience Annual Report.