The Higher Education Scorecard provides institutional-level data to give a clear and transparent view of how individual colleges and universities perform across a range of key indicators. Developed by the U.S. Department of Education, the Scorecard serves as a crucial tool for prospective students, families, policymakers, and researchers, offering insights into the costs, outcomes, and value of attending specific institutions.At the institutional level, the Scorecard includes data on several core metrics such as tuition costs, graduation rates, student loan default rates, median student debt, and post-graduation earnings. These metrics are designed to help users assess the return on investment (ROI) for attending a particular institution. For example, the Scorecard allows users to see how much students typically pay after accounting for financial aid, how much debt they accumulate, and how much graduates typically earn, broken down by institution.
The tool also highlights student success outcomes, offering data on graduation rates, retention rates, and loan repayment rates at the institutional level. By examining these figures, users can better understand how well a college supports its students from enrollment through graduation and beyond. For instance, low graduation rates may indicate potential challenges in student support or academic quality, while high loan default rates might signal that graduates struggle with debt repayment, possibly due to low earnings.Institutional-level data is also valuable for policymakers and researchers, as it provides a basis for comparing the performance of colleges and universities across the country. This information can be used to track institutional effectiveness, identify disparities across different sectors, and inform policy decisions regarding higher education funding and student aid programs.