DegreeCalc Expertise & Methodology — Education ROI Data Sources, Calculation Methods, Editorial Standards

How DegreeCalc education ROI calculators work — data sources, methods, editorial standards, update cadence.

Why this page exists

College ROI decisions involve hundreds of thousands of dollars over a 40-year horizon. When a calculator influences whether to attend, which major to pick, or how much to borrow, you deserve to know exactly where the numbers come from and how they were computed.

Primary data sources

IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System)
Tuition, enrollment, graduation rates, financial aid data for 6,000+ U.S. colleges. Foundation for /college-cost/ and /college/ ROI calculations.
BLS Occupational Employment Wage Statistics
Median salary by occupation across all 50 states. Used in /career/[career]/ and /major/[major]/ ROI calculations.
BLS Employment Projections (10-year outlook)
Job growth projections feeding the "Job Outlook" field on every career page.
College Scorecard (U.S. Dept. of Education)
Median earnings 6 and 10 years after entry, debt outcomes, completion rates by major. Powers /major-comparison/ and /is-it-worth-it/ analyses.
Federal Student Aid Handbook
Federal loan limits, subsidized/unsubsidized rules, Pell Grant eligibility, and SAI methodology after EFC replacement. Powers /student-loan-calculator/ and /fafsa-simplification-2026-*/.
NCES Common Core of Data
K-12 enrollment and demographic data for state-level education outcome trends.

Calculation methodology

ROI payback years
Total tuition + opportunity cost (median earnings forgone × years to degree) divided by annual salary premium (degree median − HS median). Default years to break-even shown alongside lifetime earnings premium.
Lifetime earnings premium
40-year career horizon × annual salary differential between degree-holders and HS-only baseline. Adjusted for unemployment risk by major (BLS rate). Compared as net present value at 3% discount.
Salary by experience tier
Entry-level (0-2y) ≈ 0.85 × mid-career median. Mid-career (3-7y) = BLS median. Senior (8+y) ≈ 1.15-1.30 × median depending on field. Distribution per /career/[career]/ uses Occupation + MonetaryAmountDistribution schema.
College cost projection
Sticker tuition × 4 years (or program length) + room/board + books. Net cost subtracts average institutional grants from College Scorecard. Borrowing capacity capped by federal limits ($31K dependent / $57.5K independent undergrad).

Editorial standards

All calculators run client-side. No name, school, GPA, or financial aid data transmitted off-device.
BLS salary data shows survey year (most recent May survey) on every career/major page.
College Scorecard outcomes use most recent post-completion data window.
Articles cite primary sources (IPEDS, BLS, College Scorecard, USC Title 20) — not college marketing material.
When ROI is highly variable (arts, performance majors), we display range and disclose unemployment rate prominently.
We do not accept payment from colleges to influence rankings or recommendations.

Update cadence

What	When
IPEDS tuition data	Annual (NCES releases prior academic year data each spring)
BLS OEWS career salaries	Annual (May survey, published spring following)
BLS Employment Projections	Biennial (10-year outlook revised every 2 years)
College Scorecard	Annual (Dept of Education refresh)
Federal financial aid limits	Annual (Dept of Education July 1 award year start)
Article fact-checks	Annual review + within 14 days of major federal aid policy change

Corrections and feedback

Email [email protected] for factual corrections. We respond within 14 days.

Who builds DegreeCalc

See /about/team/ for team backgrounds.