Updated March 2026 · College Scorecard data
Search U.S. Colleges & Universities
Search across 2,202 accredited U.S. institutions — 749 public and 1,453 private — covering 58 states and 30,224 school + major combinations. Average debt across the database is $26K, and average first-year earnings are $58K.
What You’ll Find on Each School Page
Every school page in this database starts with the institution’s graduation rate, control type, and state — the three context factors that frame every other number. Below that you’ll find a per-major table: median debt at completion, first-year earnings, fifth-year earnings, an A–F ROI grade, and a verdict tag. Schools with deep major coverage (engineering, business, education, health) usually have ten or more rows; smaller liberal-arts colleges may have only a handful.
The school-level ROI Score is an enrollment-weighted average across the available majors. A school with strong engineering programs but weak humanities programs will have a school score that pulls toward the median; a school where every major scores A will sit near the top of the rankings. The score uses the same five-factor methodology applied to individual programs — debt-to-income, earnings premium, job-growth outlook, graduation rate, and debt vs. national average.
How to Use Search Effectively
The fastest way to evaluate a school is to compare it side-by-side with a peer institution. Search for both, open them in tabs, and look at the major you actually plan to study — the cross-school differences inside a single major are usually larger than the differences between schools at the institution level. A computer science degree from State University A might show a debt-to-income ratio of 0.6x while the same major at State University B shows 1.4x; the school-level ROI score will not surface that gap.
For more structured browsing, the homepage ranks the top school + major combinations by ROI, and the majors index shows national averages by field. The ROI calculator lets you plug in your own debt and salary projections to test scenarios that the published data does not cover.
Where the Data Comes From
Every figure on every school page is sourced from a federal public dataset. School identity, control type, and graduation rate come from IPEDS, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics. Debt and earnings figures by program come from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. Job-growth outlook is from the BLS Employment Projections program. For borrower-rights and repayment information, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the most accessible federal source.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the school search work?
The search box matches your query against every school name and state in the database (currently 2,202 institutions across 58 states). Multi-word queries are AND-matched — typing "texas state" returns institutions where both words appear in the name or location. Results are capped at 50 to keep the page fast; refine with state or school type if you do not see what you expect.
What data is shown for each school?
Each school result displays the institution name, state, control type (public or private), and the count of distinct majors with ROI data. Click through to the school profile to see graduation rate, average debt, average first-year earnings, and a school-level ROI Score that aggregates across all available majors at that institution.
How current are the school records?
School-level data is pulled from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard and IPEDS. Both update on annual cycles tied to the federal Title IV reporting calendar. The current dataset was refreshed March 2026; freshness is shown on every individual school page.
Why are some schools missing from the results?
The database includes accredited Title IV institutions that report debt and earnings data to the College Scorecard. Very small specialty schools, institutions that did not meet College Scorecard reporting thresholds in the latest cycle, and unaccredited programs are excluded. If a school you are evaluating is missing, the College Scorecard search at collegescorecard.ed.gov will show whether it reports federally.
Can I trust ROI data on a school that just reopened reporting?
Treat one-cycle reports as preliminary. Schools with multi-year reporting history yield more reliable ROI scores because earnings cohorts have had time to graduate, find work, and report income. Look at year-over-year stability; large swings between cycles usually mean the cohort is small enough that one or two unusual graduates skewed the median.
Sources: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard and IPEDS, Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. All federal datasets are public domain.
Last updated 2026-03-15 · 2,202 schools indexed.