Quad

New featurePull request #2

Cost and outcomes, financial aid, and source citations

What college really costs, who gets aid, and what it leads to, on every page, with every number linked to its source.

What's new

On each school profile, a Cost & outcomes section:

  • What families at each income level actually pay, from $0–30K up to $110K+, and sticker price against what aided students pay ("grants cover 82%").
  • Median debt with its monthly payment, and a rough payback estimate in years of median salary.
  • Earnings against every college, and how they grow from year 6 to year 10.
  • Retention and graduation rings, and a cost-vs-earnings map with the school highlighted.

The average cost for all students. Published "average net price" only counts students who got grants, so it understated what a typical student pays (at Vanderbilt, $15,846 shown against about $46,300 in reality). The site now estimates the average paid by all first-years, with students who got no grants counted at full price. This figure is used everywhere cost appears.

Who actually gets aid. The share of first-years who got grants and who didn't ("about 1 in 3 got no grant aid and paid close to the sticker price"), where aid comes from (college, Pell, state, loans), and a link to each college's net price calculator.

Public universities show in-state and out-of-state prices side by side, with the share of students paying each.

Everywhere else:

  • Explore: a net price meter on cards, cost and outcome columns, a net price filter, new sorts, and a "Cost vs. earnings" chart.
  • Compare: a Cost & outcomes group, a "what families at each income level pay" chart, and new key differences such as "UCLA costs $3.3K less per year than Vanderbilt".
  • Home: an "Is it worth it?" chart, Highest earnings and Lowest net price leaderboards, and a "Low cost, high earnings" lens.
  • Glossary: 15 new terms, including net price, sticker price, median debt, merit aid, and percent of need met.
  • New "Known for" badges: Great value, High earners, Low net price, High graduation rate.

Every number is cited. Each section ends with its source and edition, profiles list their sources, and a new Sources page explains the datasets, coverage, and how each figure is calculated.

Behind the scenes

  • New data: College Scorecard cost and outcomes, the IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, and IPEDS Institutional Characteristics prices.
  • npm run import-cds reads a college's official Common Data Set spreadsheet. Imported for Vanderbilt, NYU, William & Mary, UIUC, UC Berkeley, Maryland, Purdue, and Cornell. The importer cross-checks totals and caught a typo in Purdue's own file.
  • Cost and outcomes share one new amber color, validated for color-blind safety in both themes.