Buyer Beware: First-Year Earnings and Debt for 37,000 College Majors at 4,400 Institutions

This report and the accompanying interactive web tool are a first step toward helping students sort through the 37,000 programs in the College Scorecard data to learn which programs offer a pathway to good earnings and which threaten more debt. Part 1 examines earnings differences across different institutions. Just as there is overlap in earnings, there is also overlap in federal student loan debt payments, as examined in Part 2. Part 3 ties these two strands together by focusing on the overlap in monthly earnings net of federal student loan debt. These data help graduates to see how much money they will have available to spend on items such as rent, food, and credit card bills after paying their federal student loan obligations for various programs at various credential levels.