What is College Scorecard?
College Scorecard brings together federal information about colleges, student aid, and taxes. It covers costs, debt, completion, and later earnings.
- Full name
- U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard
- Published by
- U.S. Department of Education
- Edition in EduInsights
- June 2026
- Current availability
- Used in the current EduInsights data release.
Why it matters
Why we use College Scorecard
This source helps us compare college costs, debt, completion, and earnings for clearly defined groups of students.
What college costs and who finishes
You can compare listed price, price after grants, financial aid, retention, and completion.
Debt and later earnings
These figures follow groups of former students after they attended or completed college.
Results for broad fields
A field such as computer science may contain several named programs at the college.
Good to know
What to keep in mind
- An earnings figure is not a starting salary
- It belongs to a past group of students and a specific number of years after college.
- Listed price and price after aid are different
- Price after aid subtracts grants and scholarships for the students included in that measure.
- A broad field is not one exact program
- Use the result as context unless the field and degree level line up with the program you mean.
On its own
Questions this source can answer by itself
These questions need no facts from another source.
- What do students typically pay at a college?
- What debt do former students carry?
- What are later earnings for graduates in a broader field?
With other sources
Questions this source helps answer
We use another source only when it describes the same college, field, career, place, or time.
- How do broader field outcomes compare with reported degrees?
- How do costs and earnings compare among similar colleges?
Where it stops
What this source cannot tell you
- Field outcomes may cover a broader field than one named program.
- Historical student groups may not describe students enrolling today.
- Some values are hidden to protect student privacy.
Use this source in a real question.
Ask about a college, field, career, place, or change over time.
