Higher-Education Research Team

How DegreeCalc evaluates college net price, student debt service, and major-level earnings outcomes.

Tobias Merrick, Founder & Higher-Education Financial Analyst at DegreeCalc

Tobias Merrick

Founder & Higher-Education Financial Analyst

Tobias Merrick leads institutional data analysis and financial-aid modeling at DegreeCalc. After working in university institutional research and education policy analytics, Tobias saw firsthand how families confuse published sticker tuition with actual net price by income bracket—and how rarely students compare cumulative loan debt against early-career earnings by CIP major code.

Tobias built DegreeCalc to pair National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) IPEDS institutional filings with U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard earnings cohorts and Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage projections. Every calculator runs locally in the browser without lead-generation forms or student-loan refinance spam.

  • Primary datasets: NCES IPEDS, U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard, Federal Student Aid (FSA) interest rate schedules
  • Modeling focus: Income-band net price, opportunity cost of foregone wages, and debt-to-starting-salary ratios
  • Review schedule: Updated annually following IPEDS provisional releases and May federal student loan rate auctions
  • Contact: editor@degreecalc.com

Research & Calculation Principles

DegreeCalc evaluates higher-education investments using four empirical standards:

  1. Net price over sticker price. Institutional comparisons incorporate Title IV grant aid and income-tier net price tables from NCES IPEDS rather than headline tuition alone.
  2. Full opportunity-cost accounting. Degree ROI and graduate-school payback models account for years out of the full-time labor force, compounding student loan interest during enrollment, and completion-rate risk.
  3. Statutory federal loan rules. Repayment calculators reflect current Federal Direct Subsidized, Unsubsidized, and PLUS interest formulas, origination fees, and income-driven repayment (IDR) discretionary income thresholds.
  4. No student-loan lead generation. DegreeCalc is an independent analytical resource, not a private loan broker or college admissions consultancy.

Corrections Policy

If an institution's IPEDS tuition figure, graduation rate, or federal aid parameter requires an update, contact editor@degreecalc.com. Verified updates are logged within 48 hours.

Editorial Independence

DegreeCalc accepts no tuition referral fees, private lender kickbacks, or paid university placements. The platform is sustained solely by contextual display advertising.

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