The context is part
of the number.

A useful comparison begins with knowing what each figure represents. This reference separates institutional facts, historical field outcomes, verified current programs, and your own financial plan.

One field is not one program

A College Scorecard field-of-study record combines an institutional identifier, a four-digit Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code, and a credential level. It can group multiple named programs. This edition covers associate degrees in the included nursing-related and computer / information technology fields.

A nursing-related aggregate does not establish that every included program prepares registered nurses. We publish a specific current program only when an official college page supports it. Accreditation, licensure eligibility, and exam results require their own evidence; none is inferred from a CIP code.

Campuses may share outcomes

Earnings and debt can be grouped at the six-digit Office of Postsecondary Education identifier (OPEID6), field, and credential level. Those same figures may appear for several IPEDS UNITIDs. We retain the related identifiers and publish one representative outcome group, so repeated values do not become independent campus samples.

Institution names are labels, not join keys. Identity links retain the source file and observed time boundaries. An observation in two snapshots does not establish every intervening organizational change.

Who is included in earnings and debt?

Historical earnings generally describe a defined group of completers who received federal aid, with further exclusions specified by the measure. They do not describe all alumni or predict an individual salary. The field table shows the precise cohort, measurement period, population, and dollar basis used for each published metric.

Debt measures describe a specified borrower population. They exclude expenses covered without that borrowing and may exclude other debt categories. Institution-wide tuition, average net price, and graduation measures are never relabeled as program-level results.

Dates and dollar bases stay separate

The publication date of a source, our retrieval date, the completion cohort, and the measurement period answer different questions. The currently published snapshot is 2022-02-07 + IPEDS 2024–25 identity; its source publication date is 2022-02-07. See coverage for access and freshness limitations.

When the source already expresses earnings in inflation-adjusted dollars, we retain that basis without a second adjustment. Measures with different cohorts, horizons, or dollar bases must not be silently ranked together. We do not draw a trend line from unrelated cohorts.

Missing does not mean zero

Privacy-suppressed, unavailable, not applicable, and reported zero are separate states. The interface preserves those distinctions. We do not estimate hidden observations, substitute an average, or reconstruct suppressed values.

Publication rules

An entity page needs a verified identifier, a primary source, known measurement periods, and at least two useful data or explanatory sections. For search indexing, a field record also needs at least two reported field observations or a separately verified current program with matching institution, field, and credential identifiers. Other records remain available with noindex. Field and state collections need at least five distinct institutions with qualifying field records for indexing. Selection follows the documented data-quality rule, not a “best value” score.

Development and preview builds are marked noindex. A real configured production origin is required before indexing is enabled. There are no generated college-pair pages, location permutations, or indexable filter combinations.

The personal calculation

All entered money is represented in integer U.S. cents. Costs include tuition, mandatory fees, housing, food, books and supplies, transportation, and other entered expenses. Each item appears once and has an explicit term, academic-year, or whole-program period.

• Net cost = entered costs − confirmed grants and scholarships.
• Cash needed = the greater of zero and net cost − selected net loan proceeds − assumed earnings.
• Funding gap = the greater of zero and cash needed − planned own funds.

Borrowing and work-study do not reduce net cost. Work-study income starts at zero. Future amounts are not repeated unless you explicitly confirm them; unknown duration or renewal keeps the result a subtotal. Whole-program amounts are not silently spread across academic years.

The separate loan illustration uses the balance at the start of repayment, an entered fixed interest rate, and a number of months. Payments are rounded to cents and the final payment clears the remaining balance. It is not a federal repayment plan or a prediction of forgiveness.

What this reference does not calculate

It does not determine financial aid eligibility, guarantee program availability, predict personal earnings, or calculate a causal “return on a degree.” Historical earnings minus tuition is not a sound measure of the effect of education. An annual budget also cannot establish whether funds arrive in time to pay a bill.

Inspect the original sources · Read the coverage and limitations