How to read College Scorecard program data

Every number on this site comes from public federal files. Here is what each one means and where it can mislead.

Field-of-study (program) data

• Completers per year: how many students finished the program in the most recent reporting year.
• 1-yr earnings: median annual earnings of completers who were working and not enrolled in school one year after completion.
• Median debt: median federal student-loan debt of students who borrowed for the program.
• Monthly payment: Scorecard's estimate of the monthly payment on that debt over ten years.

Institution data

• Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for students who receive federal aid.
• Completion rate: share of first-time students who finished within 150% of normal time.

Limits

Figures cover federal-aid students only, are medians of past cohorts, and are suppressed for small programs. Programs that do not take federal aid may not appear. Use the data to compare options, not to predict your pay.

The full definitions are in the Department of Education's data documentation. See our methodology for how we filter and rank.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard Field of Study and Institution files (release dated 10/15/2026). Earnings are median annual earnings of completers working and not enrolled one year after finishing; debt is median federal loan debt of borrowers; both describe past cohorts and small programs are suppressed by the Department. See our methodology.