For Students

What it costs.
What you get.
How it works.

Nobody explains college in plain English. The price, the payoff and the process are scattered across brochures, websites and people trying to sell you something.

Here's the real data. Simple, straight, all in one place.

Be the smartest college planner you know.

The problem

You're picking a school + major at 17. Based on a campus tour.

High schoolers' top two reasons for going to college

To make money. To get a good job.

81% each

Few ever see the data on which schools and majors actually lead there.

Everyone has advice. Almost none of it comes with numbers.
Here's what you've been told, next to what the data actually says.

What they tell youWhat the data says
"Get into a top-ranked school and you're set."Rankings mostly measure who gets in. Not what happens to the people who get out.
"Your major doesn't matter. Just get the degree."A year out, typical computer engineering grads make about $79,000. Theater grads, about $21,000.
"Follow your passion. The money will follow."About one in seven bachelor's programs pays its grads less than the median barista, a year after graduation.
"College takes four years."At the typical four-year college, fewer than half of students finish in four.
"Relax. Almost nobody pays full sticker price."They sure try to get you to pay full price.

Everyone's focused on getting you in.
Almost nobody shows you what happens after.

Test prep, applications, counselors, rankings, the emails filling your inbox: all are about admissions. Nothing about projected outcomes: jobs, salaries, or whether the job you want will still exist in the age of AI.

You're the one who will live with the outcome.
You need to see this data.

Now you can. No spin. No sales pitch.

What you get

The real numbers. All of them. One place.

Plus the studies we did to figure out what they mean.

Every major, researched

What each major tends to pay at year one and year five, the jobs it actually leads to, which of those are growing over the next 10 years, and how exposed they are to AI. Haven't picked one yet? Good. Compare them all first.

Your real odds of getting in

Admit rates at every school, how many freshmen each one takes from your state, how much early decision changes the odds, who gets off the waitlist, the test scores, and how many essays each school wants.

What college really costs

The real price at every school, who actually pays full price, where the merit money goes, and the out-of-state discounts most families never hear about.

What real life costs after graduation

Rent, taxes and take-home pay in the cities where the jobs are. What your first salary really buys in New York, Austin or Columbus once you're paying your own bills.

Nobody tells you what to pick. You get the facts. You make the call.

Everything. Well, almost.*

A mile deep.
Half a mile wide.

Not an 864-page guidebook. Not 100,000 web pages.

150+
things you can look up, school by school, major by major, city by city
*We add more every month.

Built for you

Tools that work on your choices.

Not a personality quiz. Not a list of "best colleges." Your majors, your schools, your numbers.

1

539 Schools, Side by Side

Build your list. Then see how the schools really compare.

  • Admit rates, test scores, graduation rates, cost, and what grads tend to earn
  • Campus life: size, sports, Greek, weather, safety
  • Peer schools you'd never have thought to look at
2

Major → Job → Salary

Start with what you're into. See where it leads, in actual jobs.

  • Pick from what interests you: tech, health, business, art, law, the trades and more
  • See the majors that match, and the jobs each one tends to lead to
  • Which jobs are growing over the next 10 years, and what they tend to pay
  • Which ones AI is coming for
3

Your Decision Matrix

Rank your schools on what matters to you. Not to anyone else.

  • Weight what you care about: cost, the major, size, sports, weather, distance from home, gut feel
  • Get a ranking with your reasons behind it
  • Bring it to the conversation with your parents
4

Application Workload

Every deadline for your schools, month by month.

  • Application deadlines, test dates and aid dates in one timeline
  • How many essays you're actually signing up for
  • Built for juniors and seniors
5

Your College Plan

Everything above, in one PDF with your name on it.

  • Your schools side by side, with their projected cost
  • Your majors compared: pay, underemployment and AI impact
  • Your application timeline and To Do list, ready to print
  • A personalized plan for the all-important family discussions

Where it comes from

120+ sources. 250+ papers. Zero sponsors.

No ads. No colleges paying us. Nobody buying your name and email.

You Haven't Seen College Data Like This

Your parents are paying for college. It's still your call. Show them this first.

See plans