Learn how much you will earn after graduating from college in the USA.

Paying for college is no easy financial task. Students should consider in advance how much it will cost, how long the training will take, and how much they will be able to earn approximately per year after graduation. Until recently, finding this information was not easy.

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“We know a lot about investments,” said CNBC Make It John Marcus is higher education editor at The Hechinger Report. “But we don’t always know what students get out of it.”

In 2013, the Obama administration took steps to make a difference, and announced the creation of college scorecardswhich could be used as a “report to consumers”. In the college grading card, it was necessary to indicate information on graduation statistics, tuition fees and graduate income.

Now, after many years of collecting data, students can use this system to see graduate income by school and program.

“Every student is unique,” ​​said Education Commissioner Betsy DeVos. “What he studies, and when, where and how he chooses to receive his education, influences his future.”

As a rule, there is a wide range of how much graduates earn depending on what they study and in what areas they pursue a career, so college scorecards can help make an informed decision about what to choose.

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Similar comparisons of salaries may be offered by special sites, but for the first time such detailed information was compiled, verified and published by a government organization.

“Choosing a major may seem inconsequential, but it is one of the few choices you make at 19 or 20 years old that can have a huge impact on your entire career—and perhaps your entire life,” said Chris Colmar, co-founder of the site career planning Zippia. “If you want a high-paying job after college, ideally you should look for a subject you care about, but also consider the hiring market.”

Students can now use the college scorecard to view the average earnings and average debt of high school graduates depending on their chosen field of study.

Search by school

The “Name Search” section of the College Scorecard allows students to enter the name of their school to see how much graduates with varying degrees earn.

For example, a student plans to attend the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The average annual salary one year after graduating from a university varies from 19 200 to 86 900 dollars, depending on the field of study.

To learn more about how much graduates of the University of Michigan earn on various programs, students should go to the “Fields of Study” section, where they can evaluate each of the 313 study areas of the school by size, earnings and level of debt.

Program Search

Another way students can use the new tool is by using the Custom Search feature, which allows them to enter information about where students want to study, what field they want to pursue, and what degree they want to pursue.

Students can also filter educational institutions by graduation statistics and average annual cost. This can help students exclude programs that are not able to complete a significant portion of their students on time, or programs that are outside the desired price range.

How to use this information

After students collect information about the educational institutions in which they are interested, about how much the tuition will cost and how much graduates will earn, they will be able to make a more informed decision about what debts they can incur and pay them relatively painlessly after graduation.

According to Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, students should think about how much they will have to pay per month on loans after graduating from college—ideally, this amount should not exceed 10-15% of their post-graduation salary. Otherwise, the student “will face problems in the long run,” the expert says.

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Horn also emphasized that it is important to pay attention to graduation statistics, which are often overlooked in the college search process.

“The hardest debt is when you don’t graduate,” he explained. “If a student doesn't graduate, they won't be able to earn more for having a degree, so they'll earn about the same as someone with a high school diploma—but they'll still have $10 in debt.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 41% of new full-time students receive a bachelor's degree in 4 years, and only 59% receive a bachelor's degree in 6 years. Economists point out several reasons why the 4-year college graduation rate in the US is so low, including under-preparedness of students, financial barriers and limited school resources, especially in government offices.

Nevertheless, the best colleges in the country consistently graduate more than 90% of students after an 6-year course of study.

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