Last updated: October 2026
Every number we show about a school, and every benchmark we compare you with, has a short line that says where it came from. This page explains each kind. If we can’t prove where a number came from, its line says so.
What each source line means
The school published this number on its own website, or in its university's fact book. We link to the page, and name the entering class the number describes when the school says. Admissions numbers of this kind describe a class that entered in 2022 or later. Some say "exact page not recorded": an earlier check proved the number came from the school's own pages, but kept only one page per school, and we couldn't find the number on that page today.
A person read this number from the school's own class profile, such as a printed sheet, where there is no public page to link to.
The school's admissions office sent us this number directly.
Some schools don't publish the average GPA of the class that enrolled, but do publish their admitted students' average, or a typical GPA range. We use that as an estimate, and for a range we use its middle. A minimum GPA is never used as an estimate.
Some optometry estimates come from the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry's yearly profile of the entering class, which lists each school's average GPA and OAT. We use it only where the school hasn't published its own number, and we replace each estimate as soon as the school does.
Some dental and medical estimates come from a spreadsheet compiled by students. We don't link to it. We use it only where the school hasn't published its own number, and we replace each estimate as soon as the school publishes or sends its own number.
The DAT moved from a 1 to 30 scale to a 200 to 600 scale. Where the only score we have is on the old scale, we convert it with the ADA's approximate conversion table, so treat it as approximate. A school's own score on the new scale always replaces it.
When a school publishes no GPA at all, we may group it using the typical GPA for that career path: the middle value of the averages that schools on the path publish themselves. It is worked out from our own school data, and it is not that school's number.
On Target Schools, schools are grouped by White Coat World's estimate of the GPA for the class you'd enter, not last year's number, because school averages tend to rise a little each year. It is the school's newest published average plus the usual yearly rise for its kind of school, measured from schools' own published numbers over several years, and looking at most 4 years ahead. It is White Coat World's estimate, never the school's number: the school's own average keeps its own line. Test scores aren't projected. Where we don't know which year a number is from, we use it as is and say so.
An acceptance rate is something we calculate: the number of students who enrolled divided by the number who applied. We show it only as traced when both of those numbers are.
The "typical applicant" figures we compare you with on your dashboard and transcript are benchmarks we haven't traced to a published report yet, so each one says so. The veterinary benchmark is different: it is the average of the vet schools that publish their own entering-class GPA, and its line says that.
We have the number, but no record of where it came from. We keep it on screen and say so, so you can decide how much weight to give it, and check it with the school.
Many schools don't publish an average for the class they enrolled. Without an estimate, every one of those schools would look the same to you. Each estimate is labelled, it is never shown as the school's own average, and it is replaced as soon as the school's own number arrives.
A school's own admissions numbers describe a class that entered in 2022 or later. Where the school names the entering class, the source line says which one. Admissions numbers change every year, so check anything important with the school's admissions office.
Tell us through our contact form, with a link to the school page that shows the right number if you have one. We check it against the school itself before changing anything.
Send us your entering class’s numbers through our contact form, and we’ll replace our estimates with them. Their source line will say they were sent to us by the school.