Catholic School CompassAuthentically Catholic.

Authentically Catholic.

Find a Catholic college or high school.

Independent, sourced ratings of Catholic colleges, Catholic high schools, and Catholic life on every accredited U.S. campus. Every grade links to the official page it came from.

Find schools nearest you, or type a city or ZIP code.

Browse:Catholic collegesHigh schoolsCampus ministryHonor RollBy state

Top-rated so far

Ranked by the Compass Score among schools we have researched.

All rankings →

Catholic collegesRanked by Compass Score

Full ranking →

Catholic life at other collegesPublic and private · Catholic Life Score

Full Catholic life ranking →

Catholic high schoolsRanked by Compass Score

Full ranking →

Ranked by the same published rules as every school page, with the criteria shown.

All top school lists →
Today in the Church · Oct. 13, 2026Tuesday of the twenty-eighth week of Ordinary TimeOrdinary Time · Liturgical color: greenToday’s Mass readings (USCCB) · A prayer before study

Explore

RankingsColleges and high schools, ranked by the Compass Score and its parts.Catholic colleges by stateFind every rated Catholic college, state by state.GuidesChoosing a Catholic college, and questions for a campus visit.ArticlesEssays on faith, reason, and education from the Compass.

From the Compass

All articles →

Article

Who was St. Robert Bellarmine?

The Jesuit scholar, catechist, and cardinal, a Doctor of the Church, and why his example still speaks to students.

Article

Why Ex Corde Ecclesiae still matters

St. John Paul II’s charter for Catholic universities gives families a shared, non-partisan vocabulary for asking what makes a college Catholic.

Article

Faith and reason: two wings

Why a Catholic education asks students to think hard and pray deeply, and why the two belong together.

The Fides et Ratio Formula

The Compass Score

Three parts faith, one part reason. Our own formula combines a school’s Faith score (sacramental life, theology, campus culture, and service, from verified research) with its Academic Excellence score (from federal data on graduation, retention, preparation, and teaching). Cost is never part of it.

How the formula works

75%Faith (Fides)25%Academics (Ratio)0–100Compass Score
4,006accredited colleges
229Catholic colleges
1,090Catholic high schools
881faith scorecards so far
“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”

How we rate

Researchers record what each school’s own catalog, handbook, campus ministry, and parish pages say. Every fact is stored with a verbatim quote, and a program re-checks each quote against the live page. Grades are then computed by a published rubric. Where public information runs out, we say Not enough information rather than guess.

Cost, debt, and earnings come from the U.S. Department of Education and appear in a separate Value panel. They never change a grade.

For every Catholic family

The Compass is written for Catholics across the spectrum. It reports strengths and concerns plainly, using Church documents such as Ex Corde Ecclesiae as reference points, without factional labels, rumors, or anonymous allegations.

Choosing a Catholic collegeQuestions for a campus visit