Your child has big dreams about where to go after high school. You have big dreams about their future. That’s why you have been saving for their college and career training with Ohio 529 CollegeAdvantage. You want to make sure that you use your savings wisely — at the right school for the career your child wants to pursue.
The U.S. Department of Education has an “app” for that. The College Scorecard is a treasure trove of data for all schools which receive federal financial aid. It’s a great place to compare the different higher education institutions that your student may be interested in attending. It can help you research:
- What schools offer the most bang for your 529 college savings bucks?
- Which majors at a school have the highest earning potential?
- Which schools have the best graduation rate?
- What is the average cost of attendance?
- What are the typical or average earnings of a school’s former students?
Just jump on the College Scorecard to gather that information and more. You can choose to filter by location, annual cost, or degree type. Or you can type in the name of the school.
For instance, you can search by location by entering your zip code to see the higher education institutions that are close to home. Or you can select to look at schools across the state or out of state. After you make your selection, a new page will show all the schools that are in your geographic search area.
Under each school, it will include if it’s a two-year, four-year or certificate program; whether it’s a public, private nonprofit, or private for-profit institution; if the campus location is considered city, suburban, town, or rural; and if it’s a small, medium, or large campus. The school information includes graduation rate, the average annual cost of attending, and the median earnings of its graduates.
If you select a specific school, a new page will highlight the school’s specific data. For example, the new page will show the school’s attendance costs based on family income, which includes federal, state, or institutional grants. If you would like to dig deeper, the page also shows the fields of study that the school offers along with tabs for the number of graduates from that major, the highest earning fields, and the programs with the lowest amount of debt. Under each of these three tabs, it will display the median earnings from a school graduate in that field as well as their monthly earnings. It also shows the median total debt and monthly loan payment for a graduate in this specific field from this school. Other data points available on this page include graduation rates and retention, financial aid and debt, campus diversity, ACT/SAT test scores and acceptance rate. Under the financial aid and debt tile, there is a link to Studentaid.gov, where you can start your Free Application or Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).It’s probably a good time to start the process to receive free financial aid for the next school year as you are doing your college and career training school research.
Then repeat the process to check out the other schools that your child might be interested in attending. Afterwards, you can review all the information to help create an apples-to-apples comparison to determine which schools should still be considered for your child to attend.
College Scorecard can be a very effective tool in narrowing down a list of dream schools to a list of the ones that best fit your child’s interests and your need to stretch your 529 savings to best cover qualified higher education expenses.
Since 1989, Ohio 529 CollegeAdvantage has been helping families across the nation save for their children’s or grandchildren’s education after high school. An Ohio 529 account covers qualified costs at any four-year college or university, two-year community college, trade or vocational school, apprenticeship approved by the U.S. Labor Department, or certificate and credential program nationwide that accepts federal financial aid. Learn, plan, and start for as little as $25 today at CollegeAdvantage.com.
