Narrow the whole field down to the part that is yours
Three questions gets you a list — and the thing that matters more: what each cut removed, and whether it was worth it.
Act one · What do you want to become?
IllustrativeScores come later. Pick a direction you actually want to move toward — or just write something, even "my mother told me to use this".
The layer that reasons from an ambition to majors and schools is not built. Choosing here only records it; it will not change the numbers on the right.
Narrowing by major is not built — we hold no programme-level data at all, so there is no invented number here.
Act two · What do these places actually mean?
MeasuredCity versus small town is the cut that genuinely changes four years. Each choice shows what it alone removed, and what that was.
The small number beside each option is how many campuses would be left if you chose it. An option showing 0 would empty the list, but it is still clickable, and will tell you why.
The eight federal regions, not eight moods — the Southeast holds both Miami and rural Alabama. This replaces a list of more than fifty states; what actually shapes four years is still the Setting control above.
Which states are in which region
- New England CT ME MA NH RI VT
- Mid-Atlantic DE DC MD NJ NY PA
- Southeast AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC SC TN VA WV
- Great Lakes IL IN MI OH WI
- Plains IA KS MN MO NE ND SD
- Southwest AZ NM OK TX
- Rocky Mountains CO ID MT UT WY
- Far West AK CA HI NV OR WA
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) regions, as listed in the IPEDS 2023 data dictionary.
The December–February average of daily lows (NOAA 1991–2020 normals), at the nearest weather station within 25 km — a median of about 5.5 km away. A mountain campus can differ by several degrees from a station in the valley below.
Straight-line distance to the nearest salt-water shoreline (Natural Earth 1:10m, public domain), including bays, sounds and tidal river mouths, and excluding the Great Lakes — Chicago and Detroit do not count. Note that river cities such as Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia also read as close, because their rivers are tidal; they are not on the open ocean. Accurate to a few km, so read the 10 km band as "close", not as a precise line.
How much the land rises and falls within 25 km of the campus (a hiking radius): the 95th minus the 5th percentile of land elevation (USGS 3DEP / SRTM / GMTED2010, public domain). It measures relief, not altitude — Boulder and Denver are at almost the same altitude (about 1,650 m) but Boulder's relief is about 1,240 m and Denver's about 400 m. 25 km is a close radius: a campus near a big range reads low if the range lies beyond it — the University of Washington in Seattle reads about 170 m, below the lowest band.
Act three · What you are working with
Scores do not filter markets, only feasibility within one, which is why they come last. Nationality is the opposite — it is the single largest cut.
The aid layer is currently a single-digit sample extracted by hand, school by school, which is not enough to filter on. See DESIGN.md §13.
Act four · Major
MeasuredChoosing a subject removes no school. It does two things: it moves the schools that actually award it to the top, and it tells you when your location choice and your subject choice are in conflict.
An F-1 student who has studied full time for one academic year at a certified school can be authorized 12 months of OPT after graduating (the work must relate directly to the major; any major qualifies). If the degree is in a field on the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List, the student can apply for a further 24 months. The list is a list of CIP codes, not of major names.
None of the 1 programme codes under this selection that anyone graduated from is on the list: the standard 12 months of OPT is still available, the 24-month extension is not.
What this marker does and does not tell you
- It is the code that counts, not the name of the major. A school maps each programme to one CIP code, and the school's designated school official (DSO) puts that code in the major field of the I-20. For example, Economics, General (45.0601) is not on the list; Econometrics and Quantitative Economics (45.0603) is. Similar-sounding majors can be filed under different codes, so what matters is the code on the I-20 for the programme you would actually attend. This page uses the codes each campus reported its 2023-24 degrees under, which approximates the I-20 code and is not the I-20 itself.
- The list is applied at the moment a DSO recommends the extension in SEVIS, not at enrolment (8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(C)(2)(iii)). DHS reviews nominations every year: 22 codes were added in 2022, 8 in 2023 and 1 in 2024, and none of those three notices removed any code; the rule itself allows removals.
- The extension has further conditions: the employer is enrolled in E-Verify, you and the employer complete a Form I-983 training plan, the work is directly related to the qualifying degree, and the degree is from an accredited U.S. institution (8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(C)).
- A final rule published in July 2026 (91 FR 44976; the Federal Register gives an effective date of 2026-09-15, subject to congressional review, and we have not verified that it took effect on time) says an F-1 student below the graduate level may change major or transfer only after completing the first academic year, unless SEVP authorizes an exception, and a graduate student may not change educational objective at all. Changing major changes the CIP code on the I-20, and STEM OPT eligibility changes with it.
Source: DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List (updated 2024-07-22, ICE, CIP 2020 codes) · 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10) · Federal Register 87 FR 3317, 88 FR 44381, 89 FR 59748, 91 FR 44976 · U.S. government works, public domain. Not legal advice: confirm with the school's DSO.
- Indiana University-BloomingtonIN22 / 379
- Miami University-OxfordOH · Very few graduates in total, so this number says almost nothing either way.1 / 13
- University of California-RiversideCA · Very few graduates in total, so this number says almost nothing either way.1 / 11
- University of Illinois SpringfieldIL · Very few graduates in total, so this number says almost nothing either way.1 / 7
- Western Carolina UniversityNC0 / 105
- University of OregonOR0 / 66
- Ohio State University-Main CampusOH0 / 59
- James Madison UniversityVA0 / 45
- Grand Valley State UniversityMI0 / 22
- Central Michigan UniversityMI · Very few graduates in total, so this number says almost nothing either way.0 / 14
- Tarleton State UniversityTX · Very few graduates in total, so this number says almost nothing either way.0 / 14
- University of Missouri-ColumbiaMO · Very few graduates in total, so this number says almost nothing either way.0 / 11
※ A zero means only that no international student graduated from this programme in that one year. It does not mean the programme does not take international applicants — a small department graduates a handful of people a year and the number moves around. Conferral data also lags admission by about four years.
Source: IPEDS Completions C2024_A (degrees conferred 2023–24, provisional) · CIP 2020 · US Department of Education, public domain. "International" is the federal nonresident category; the file carries no nationality, so it does not mean Chinese students.
Official titles and definitions are in English (NCES CIP 2020). The Chinese field names are FREECC's own translation, not official; series and programmes keep their federal English names.
Schools in the essay library
In the libraryThe essay library covers only a small number of U.S. schools whose prompts have been checked one by one. Here is how they relate to your current filter: once on My list you can plan deadlines, and the reuse map shows which essays carry across.
The library covers 9 U.S. schools; 4 of them are inside your current filter.
- See promptsSign up to add →Cornell UniversityNY
- See promptsSign up to add →Northwestern UniversityIL
- See promptsSign up to add →New York UniversityNY
- See promptsSign up to add →University of Southern CaliforniaCA
- See promptsSign up to add →Brown UniversityRIExcluded by: Residential pattern
- See promptsSign up to add →Boston UniversityMAExcluded by: Residential pattern
- See promptsSign up to add →Duke UniversityNCExcluded by: Residential pattern
- See promptsSign up to add →Harvard UniversityMAExcluded by: Residential pattern
- See promptsSign up to add →University of ChicagoILExcluded by: Residential pattern
The library also holds 3 Hong Kong universities. They are outside the U.S. federal data, so they take no part in this filter: add them from the library directly.
Adding a school does not change your filter, and which schools your filter returns does not depend on whether they are in the library.