How much are college students making a decade later?

The White House has launched a redesigned College Scorecard website, which can help “students and parents identify which schools provide the biggest bang for your buck”, according to a press release.

The Obama Administration has recognized the need for college students and their parents to be fully educated on tuition costs and available financial aid – as well as the quality of education – among the nation’s public and private institutions of higher learning. The numbers were especially troubling at barber academies, cosmetology schools, and for-profit colleges.

University of Rochester students who enrolled back then had a median salary of $55,500 10 years later. The average salary of graduates is $48,800 and the average debt is $25,750, with an average monthly payment of $286.

The Scorecard also highlights new data on student loans: the share of borrowers who have begun paying down their principal within three years of leaving school. It spells out how students fare a decade after graduation and how they compare to those who entered the workforce with just a high-school diploma. Education consumers can use the results of their research to make more informed decisions on their academic and career choices and from where they seek to attain them. Unlike lists which focus on the best schools regardless of ability to pay, the goal of U.S. Department of Education is to help a much broader number of people who want to get higher degrees.

For example, at a glance it looks like the less money your family makes, the cheaper it is to attend KU. It’s a procedural change to allow students applying for federal aid to use the prior year’s income information instead of waiting until January or later. “But it doesn’t always serve our students well – and that doesn’t serve any of us well”, Obama said.

“Everyone should be able to find clear, reliable, open data on college affordability and value – like whether theyre likely to graduate, find good jobs and pay off their loans”, Obama said in his weekly radio address.

Obama recalled his own college experience where he saw and listened to people who had a different view of the world that was “infuriating to me”. And while no single data point may be pivotal in the ultimate selection of a school, students clearly ought to be aware of the sort of information the College Scorecard, at collegescorecard.ed.gov, provides.

The highest graduation rate: University of Arizona, where 61 percent of full-time, first-time students graduate after six years. The best school for you can’t be plucked off a static list; it has to be narrowed from a field of potentials.