Free college admissions API and MCP server

CollegeCalcAI gives AI assistants and developers a free, keyless API for U.S. college admission chances: estimate a student’s chance at 1,100+ colleges, score a whole college list, find colleges for a SAT, ACT or GPA, and pull federal admissions data. It runs the same deterministic model as the CollegeCalcAI calculator, so the same profile always gets the same answer. Use it as a REST API with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, or as a remote MCP server.

REST API (OpenAPI 3.1)

https://collegecalcai.com/openapi.json

MCP server

https://collegecalcai.com/mcp

REST endpoints

No key, no signup. JSON in, JSON out.

GET/api/v1/chances

Chance at one college

/api/v1/chances?school=Cornell&gpa=3.9&sat=1500&ap=8

GET · POST/api/v1/college-list

Up to 15 colleges, list balance, chance of at least one acceptance

/api/v1/college-list?schools=Cornell,UCLA,Purdue&gpa=3.8&sat=1450

GET/api/v1/score-range

Colleges by tier for a SAT, ACT or GPA

/api/v1/score-range?sat=1350&state=TX

GET/api/v1/colleges

Search and filter colleges

/api/v1/colleges?state=CA&type=public&limit=5

GET/api/v1/colleges/{school}

Federal data plus chances at typical profiles

/api/v1/colleges/university-of-michigan-ann-arbor

Profile inputs: gpa (unweighted, 4.0 scale) or weightedGpa, plus optional sat or act, ap, homeState, round, major, firstGen, legacy, athlete. Send an optional X-Client-Name header so we can see which apps use it.

curl "https://collegecalcai.com/api/v1/chances?school=Cornell&gpa=3.9&sat=1500&ap=8"

{
  "school": { "name": "Cornell University", "state": "NY", "type": "private",
              "acceptanceRate": 9, "page": "https://collegecalcai.com/schools/cornell-university?..." },
  "estimate": { "chancePercent": 17, "verdict": "reach", "verdictMeaning": "under 25%", "profileStrength": 71 },
  "facts": { "applied": 65635, "admitted": 5358, "satMiddle50": [1500, 1570], ... },
  "whatMovesIt": [ "Deepen one activity into a leadership or recognized role to lift your impact.", ... ],
  "disclaimer": "An estimate from a published, deterministic model on federal admissions data, ...",
  "fullCalculator": "https://collegecalcai.com/calculator?school=cornell-university&...",
  "attribution": "CollegeCalcAI (collegecalcai.com)"
}

ChatGPT GPT Actions

Make a GPT that answers chance-me questions with real numbers.

In the GPT editor, open Configure, then Create new action, then Import from URL and paste https://collegecalcai.com/openapi.json. Authentication: none. Privacy policy: https://collegecalcai.com/privacy. Every operation has an operationId and a short description, so it imports cleanly.

MCP server

Streamable HTTP, no authentication, no API key. Pick your client; each takes under a minute.

Claude (claude.ai and the desktop app)

Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector. Name it CollegeCalcAI and paste https://collegecalcai.com/mcp.

ChatGPT

Settings, then Apps & Connectors, then Create (developer mode). Paste https://collegecalcai.com/mcp and choose no authentication.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http collegecalcai https://collegecalcai.com/mcp

Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf and other clients

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "collegecalcai": { "url": "https://collegecalcai.com/mcp" }
  }
}

Tools

All read-only. Every answer links back to the school page and the full calculator.

estimate_admission_chances

A student's chance at one college from GPA, SAT/ACT, AP courses, rank, state, round, major and hooks. Returns the percentage, a Reach / Target / Likely / Safety verdict, what would move it, and the school's federal data.

estimate_college_list

One profile scored against up to 15 colleges: every school sorted by chance, the Reach / Target / Likely balance, the chance of at least one acceptance, and advice to balance the list.

search_colleges

Find colleges by name, state, public or private, acceptance-rate range, or rank them by SAT fit.

find_colleges_for_score

“What colleges can I get into with a 1350?” Every college bucketed into safety, target, reach and high reach for one SAT, ACT or GPA, optionally within a state.

get_school_admissions_data

Applicants, admits, yield, SAT/ACT middle 50%, test policy, cost, net price after aid, graduation rate and earnings for one college, plus the estimated chance for typical GPA and SAT profiles.

Try it

Ask the way a student would.

“I have a 3.8 unweighted, 1450 SAT and 6 APs. What are my chances at Michigan, UCLA and Northeastern?”
“Build me a balanced list of 10 schools in the Northeast for computer science. 3.6 GPA, 1350 SAT.”
“Is Boston College a reach for me if I apply Early Decision with a 4.1 weighted GPA?”
“What SAT range does Georgia Tech admit, and what does it cost after aid?”

Discovery

Agents can find all of this without a person: /llms.txt, /openapi.json, /.well-known/api-catalog (RFC 9727), /.well-known/mcp.json (MCP server card) and /api/v1 (endpoint index with examples). Every page also carries rel="service-desc" and rel="api-catalog" links.

How the estimate works

A deterministic model scores the profile against each school’s admitted-student data from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS and College Scorecard) and its Common Data Set factor weights. Identical inputs always return identical numbers. It is an estimate, not a prediction or a guarantee; courses, activities and essays change the result, and the full calculator collects them. Read the methodology.

Terms and limits

Free for assistants, apps, schools and counselors. Two asks: present results as estimates, not guarantees, and credit CollegeCalcAI with the link each response includes. Limits: 120 requests an hour per caller; hosted assistants that fetch on a user’s behalf (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) get 1,200. Need more? Email us.

Questions: support@collegecalcai.com.