A new White House search tool shows how students on financial aid fare after graduation


The White House released a revamped online tool Saturday designed to provide prospective students and their families with more information about colleges and universities. The College Scorecard is a search tool — not a ranking system — that allows people to search for schools by location, major, and student body size, among other attributes.
The tool draws on a massive database of income taxes from students who have received Pell Grants and student loans since 1996, using information compiled by the Department of Education and the Department of Treasury. That means it's possible for low-income prospective students to easily access vital information about the schools they're interested in attending: graduation rate, average annual cost, and average salary students on aid earn 10 years after enrollment.
Based on the government data, ProPublica launched a nifty tool of its own aimed at helping low-income families make college decisions that minimize their debt. Search away.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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