FIELD DEFINITIONS

What these measures mean

Average net price

Average cost of attendance minus grant and scholarship aid for the defined full-time, first-time Title IV cohort. It is not an individual aid offer.

Completion rate

First-time, full-time students completing within 150% of normal time, using the published pooled and suppressed field appropriate to four-year or less-than-four-year institutions.

Median graduate debt

Federal median debt of completers, using the Scorecard field suppressed below 30 borrowers. It is not total educational cost.

Median earnings

Median earnings of graduates working and not enrolled four or five years after completion. The cohort omits graduates not working and those enrolled.

Borrower progress / paid in full

The sum of the Scorecard shares making progress and paid in full after four years for the specified federal borrower cohort. Other statuses remain outside that sum.

Program evidence rule

A program page requires at least 75 working graduates in the four-year earnings count plus non-suppressed earnings and debt medians.

Source lineage

College Scorecard downloads provide both files. The technical documentation and release data dictionary define cohort years, sources, suppression, and field notes.