President Obama has announced the launch of a new College Scorecard, meant to help students and parents identify which schools provide the biggest bang for your buck.
Designed with input from those who will use it most, the Scorecard offers reliable data on factors important to prospective students, such as how much graduates earn, and how much debt they have when they graduate.
In an economy where some higher education is still the surest ticket to the middle class, the choices that Americans make when searching for and selecting a college have never been more important.
In the breakdown for each school, prospective college students can research basic facts about the school and student body, average annual costs (minus average federal aid), graduation and retention rates, salary after attending, financial aid and debt figures, and average ACT/SAT scores. By no means is this website a comprehensive way for a prospective college student to find out about a college, but it is an excellent way for a student with costs and debts in mind to move their dream of college into reality.
Furthermore, a prospective student and his/her family will find easy links to start the FAFSA on the website.
Data included in the scorecard include the following:
- URLs for the Institution’s Homepage and Net Price Calculator
- Accrediting Agency
- Public/Private Nonprofit/Private For-Profit
- Carnegie Classifications
- Specialized Mission or Religious Affiliation
- Distance-Education-Only Indicator
- School Revenue and Expenditures
- Heightened Cash Monitoring Indicator
- Percentage of Degrees Awarded by Program
- Programs Offered by Degree Type
- Acceptance Rate
- SAT and ACT scores
- Number of Undergraduate Students
- Undergraduate Student Body by Race/Ethnicity
- Undergraduate Students by Part-Time status
- Undergraduate Students by Age (25 or Over)
- Income Brackets of Federal Financial Aid Recipients
- Share of First-Generation Students
- Number of FAFSA Submissions to Colleges
- Average Cost of Attendance
- Tuition and Fees
- Average Net Price, by Income Level
- Percent of Undergraduates Receiving Federal Loans
- Percentage of Pell Grant Recipients
- Cumulative Median Debt, Disaggregated by Student Subgroups
- Typical Monthly Loan Payments of Graduates
- Cohort Default Rate
- Repayment Rate on Federal Student Loans, Disaggregated by Student Subgroups
- Completion Rates for First-Time, Full-Time Students
- Retention Rates for First-Time Students
- 150 percent Completion Rate (IPEDS)
- 200 percent Completion Rate (IPEDS)
- Completion and Transfer Outcomes for Title IV Students, Disaggregated by Student Subgroups
- Average and Median Earnings, Disaggregated by Student Subgroups
- Share of Former Students Earning Over $25,000
For more information, please visit: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
The link to the data that powers the scorecard is here: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/
