Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, today the U.S. Department of Education released an interactive College Scorecard, which provides students and families the critical information they need to make smart decisions about where to enroll for higher education.

The College Scorecard – as part of President Obama’s continued efforts to hold colleges accountable for cost, value and quality – highlights key indicators about the cost and value of institutions across the country to help students choose a school that is well-suited to meet their needs, priced affordably, and is consistent with their educational and career goals.

“Through tax credits, grants and better loans, we’ve made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers can’t keep on subsidizing higher and higher and higher costs for higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure that they do,” President Obama said in his State of the Union Address last night. “… My Administration will release a new College Scorecard that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” 

“We know students and families are often overwhelmed in the college search process – but feel they lack the tools to sort through the information and decide which school is right for them,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “The College Scorecard provides a snapshot about an institution’s cost and value to help families make smart decisions about where to enroll.”

The College Scorecard provides students and families with clear information through an interactive tool that lets them choose among any number of options based on their individual needs – including location, size, campus setting, and degree and major programs. Each Scorecard includes five key pieces of data about a college: costs, graduation rate, loan default rate, average amount borrowed, and employment. These data will be updated periodically, and the Department plans to publish information on earnings potential in the coming year.

The launch of the College Scorecard illustrates President Obama’s commitment to provide consumers with information about college costs and value in an easy-to-read format. After receiving comments on the prototype of the College Scorecard – and following many conversations with leaders of higher education institutions, college counselors, students and parents – the Department updated  this tool  to better meet families’ needs and provide them with the information they found most valuable in making decisions about where to enroll. Consumers can access a College Scorecard for every degree-granting institution starting today at whitehouse.gov/scorecard, and they can email comments or questions about the tool to collegescorecard@ed.gov.