About the Data

CollegeAtlasUSA is built from two U.S. Department of Education sources: the College Scorecard (institution-level cost, admissions, completion, debt and post-enrollment earnings, plus field-of-study earnings and debt) and IPEDS, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (detailed institutional statistics). A CIP–SOC crosswalk links fields of study to occupations.

Earnings are cohort data, not a promise

The earnings figures describe people who were enrolled in a specific year and were working a set number of years later — typically measured through federal tax and aid records. They are a useful signal, not a guarantee of what any future graduate will earn. Every earnings figure on the site is labelled with its measurement year.

Net price

"Net price" is the average cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid, for students who received federal aid. It is usually far below the published sticker price and varies by family income band, which the Scorecard also reports.

Small programs

For small programs the Department suppresses figures to protect privacy or because the sample is too small to be reliable. Where a number is missing, we leave it blank rather than estimate it.

No opinion rankings

We do not publish a "best colleges" list. Any ranking here sorts by a single named official figure — lowest net price, highest completion rate, highest earnings-to-debt ratio — and says which.