Online tool assesses cost of college degree
An often overlooked online tool from the U.S. Department of Education can help you and your prospective college student narrow down a list of schools to attend and what to study.
The tool, which is free and doesn’t require setting up an account, is called the College Scorecard (https:// collegescorecard.ed.gov).
The gauge — launched about 10 years ago and significantly updated in 2022 — is loaded with data collected for thousands of two-year and four-year schools across the country. The data covers public and private universities, essentially all schools that rely on federal financial aid.
While many in the current crop of high school seniors should already have the answers to all their questions about their favorite schools and field of study, the tool at the very least is a good starting point for students who are a year away from the college admissions process.
Students and parents can use the education department data to learn more about individual schools, such as graduation and student retention rates, the annual cost to attend, and average SAT and ACT admissions test scores.
In addition, demographic data looks at students’ race, ethnicity, full-time or part-time status and Pell Grant eligibility for low-income students.
But where it really helps is in providing users with data to compare the earnings of recent graduates from most institutions. To provide context, the scorecard uses the median earnings of students who received financial aid and started school 10 years ago.
The site also shows the percentage of graduates who earn more than a typical high school graduate.
For example, the median annual earnings for a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin is $68,000, compared with $47,922 for graduates at all other public higher education institutions. In addition, 80% of University Texas graduates earn more than those with just a high school diploma.
The scorecard also makes it easy to compare data from different institutions, including the percentage of students who graduate within eight years of starting school, and student borrowers’ median total debt after graduation.
The scorecard has some limitations, especially since every students’ financial aid needs are different. The data points on the average cost of attending a particular school is based on in-state students only.
There are other websites and books — some free, some not — that help students break down all the data points that go into picking a college. Even colleges and universities are becoming more transparent about helping a prospective student determine whether the cost of the degree will pay off in the long run.
The education department’s scorecard was created with the goal of helping “students make informed choices about attending college.” That said, the online tool is worth bookmarking on your favorite’s list.