Reviewers say, “useful, but limited.”

From the Columbus Dispatch:

College Scorecard called useful but limited

In the ongoing quest to measure the bottom line in higher education, a new tool introduced by the U.S. Department of Education is meant to be a quantum leap.

Pulling from a trove of data from 2013, the department built a website called College Scorecard (www.collegescorecard.ed.gov). There, users can choose any college or university and find fundamental facts, including its average cost per year after financial aid, its graduation rate and the median earnings of people who went to school there.

A few clicks reveal more statistics, including the median student federal-debt load after leaving and what percentage of former students have paid anything on their debt within three years. Education-policy experts call the sheer volume and easy availability of the data unprecedented, and advocates for transparency in higher education cheered the massive release.