Start from the career you actually want. We'll show you the majors that lead there, the colleges teaching them, and what graduates earn after they leave. All from real federal data.
Pick the entry point that fits how you think. Start from a state, a career you want, or a college you already have in mind.
Verified US colleges with admissions rates, net price, and real graduate earnings.
Most affordable colleges, best value for your money, and lowest tuition rates.
Answer six quick questions. We'll surface your best-fit college matches.
Colleges across all 50 states plus DC, with per-state rankings and city navigators.
38 fields of study from STEM and Health to Trades and Humanities.
375 specific degree programs with completion counts across every credential level.
395 careers with real BLS wages, job outlook, and the majors that lead there.
Six free tools to compare, calculate ROI, estimate cost, and match a quiz.
Four-year colleges with the lowest net price in the country, every one with complete data on admissions, cost, and graduate earnings.
Saint Cloud, MN
Baltimore, MD
Richmond, VA
New York, NY
Albion, MI
Florence, AL
Colleges where graduates earn the most ten years after entry, with complete federal data on admissions, cost, and outcomes.
Tacoma, WA
Blacksburg, VA
Denver, CO
Philadelphia, PA
Peoria, IL
Seattle, WA
Three ways into the data: the field you study, the specific degree colleges grant, and the job at the end of the path.
UCD Score ranks colleges 0–100 inside their peer group, blending four sub-scores from real federal data.
Every college is scored against its peer group: selective four-year, open-admission four-year, or two-year community. Comparing Harvard to a community college tells you nothing, so we don't do that.
Each score blends four sub-scores from College Scorecard and IPEDS: Outcomes (graduate earnings + completion rate), Value (earnings vs. cost), Affordability (real net price), and Selectivity (acceptance rate, four-year only).
Three things set us apart, all backed by real numbers, not marketing claims. Start exploring the most comprehensive college data platform we've built.
Start Exploring →Every number traces to an official federal source. No bias, no opinions, no marketing. Just the facts colleges report to the US government.
Every accredited US college from the Department of Education. No gaps, no cherry-picking.
Programs linked to real jobs, with salary ranges from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Every student lands here with a different worry. Pick the question that's on your mind. The tool below it gives you a clear, data-backed answer in seconds.
Real federal data, side by side.
Pick a career, trace the path back.
What you'll really pay.
Is the degree worth it?
Schools where your score fits.
Every state has its own scene. Pick yours to see top-ranked colleges, state averages, and per-city navigators.
Read our full methodology See all data sources Last refreshed August 2026
The College Decision System: plain-English guides on picking a college, choosing a major, paying, applying, and deciding. All built on the same federal data as the rest of the site.
Narrowing from 3,811 US colleges to a list of about 10 worth applying to. Cost, fit, selectivity, and the stats that actually predict outcomes.
Picking a major or program. How to use federal earnings data and BLS job-growth projections without falling into the rankings trap.
Financial aid, FAFSA, net price, scholarships, and the loan decisions families get wrong. Built on the same data the federal government uses.
How the UCD Score works, what federal data actually measures, and how to read a college profile critically.
The application process from junior year through senior spring. Common App, essays, recommendations, testing, and decision strategy.
The April decision. Comparing offers and aid packages, weighing fit against cost, handling waitlists, and committing to one school by May 1.
Original analyses built from the same federal data: rankings, outliers, and patterns across cost, earnings, majors, and careers. No opinions, just the numbers and where they lead.
The colleges where graduates earn the most for every dollar of net price are mostly community colleges and CUNY campuses, not the famous names. Here is the ranking.
Across 1,600 four-year colleges, the earnings gap between a selective school and an open-admission one is about $5,000. Only the most exclusive tier truly separates.
The highest-earning college major out-pays the lowest by a factor of two and a half. The full ranking of all 38 fields by median graduate earnings, with job growth alongside.
A handful of schools with little national name recognition post elite-level graduate earnings at a public-college price. The low-cost, high-outcome colleges nobody talks about.
Only 12 of 38 college majors clear both an above-median salary and above-median job growth. Two of them, math and computer science, stand alone with double-digit growth.
Air traffic controllers earn more than the typical bachelor's-degree career, with an associate degree. The occupations that pay six figures without four years of college.
Plain-English explainers that connect the data across colleges, majors, costs, and careers, the big questions answered straight from the numbers.
What a degree is really worth, on the federal data: net price, 10-year earnings, and the colleges that return the most for every dollar paid.
How much your major really matters for earnings, which fields and categories pay the most, and how to choose without chasing salary alone.
How selective American colleges really are, why most admit the majority of applicants, and what a low acceptance rate is actually worth in earnings.
What college graduates actually earn: typical salaries a decade out, how earnings grow over time, and why your major matters more than your school.
How much college graduates really borrow, the difference between grants and loans, and why the biggest debt risk is leaving school without a degree.
How fields of study connect to occupations and pay, why earnings rise with education, and the six-figure careers that need no bachelor's degree.
Honest answers to the questions that come up most when researching colleges. Open any to expand.
Sticker price is the total published cost of attendance. Net price is what students actually pay after grants and scholarships are subtracted.
Every college profile shows real net price from federal data. The Cost Calculator estimates yours by state and family income.
It's the median annual salary of students who enrolled at a given college 10 years earlier, regardless of whether they graduated.
This figure appears on every college profile.
A major is the broad field of study. A program is the specific degree a college actually grants within that field.
Major: 38 categories from the federal CIP system, like Business, Engineering, Computer Science, and Health. Browse all majors.
Program: 375 specific degrees that fall inside a major, such as Marketing Management, Mechanical Engineering, or Nursing Practice. One major contains many programs. View all programs.
The median full-time worker with a bachelor's degree earns around $75,000 per year nationally, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Earnings vary heavily by field:
Field-specific earnings for all 38 majors are on the majors archive.
The national 6-year graduation rate at 4-year colleges is around 63%, per the Department of Education. It varies dramatically by college type:
That's why every UCD Score ranks colleges against their peer group, not against each other.
The split is who funds them, which drives what students pay.
Public: funded by state governments, with lower in-state tuition (around $11,000 per year on average) and higher out-of-state tuition.
Private: nonprofit or for-profit institutions funded by tuition, donations, and endowments. Sticker price averages $40,000+, but larger aid budgets often bring net price closer to public schools.
Our database covers every accredited US college. Filter by type.
Use the SAT/ACT College Finder to see every college where your score lands inside the admit range.
A score inside that band means you're competitive on test alone, but acceptance still depends on grades, essays, and the rest of your application.
For most students, yes. Bachelor's-degree holders earn around $1.2 million more over a lifetime than high school graduates, per BLS data.
But the answer depends on three variables:
The ROI Calculator runs your specific numbers across all of these.
Six questions. Personalized college matches in 90 seconds. From real federal data, not opinions.
Take the Match Quiz →Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
