This page explains where every number on CostByCollege comes from, what year it describes, and how totals and averages are worked out.

Sources

The dataset is built from two official sources, both from the United States Department of Education. The first is the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, known as IPEDS, the federal survey system for colleges and universities. The second is College Scorecard, the federal dataset of earnings and debt outcomes.

Years for each figure

School identity, location, and sector come from the IPEDS 2024 to 2025 directory. Tuition, fees, books and supplies, room and board, other expenses, and total cost come from the IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey for the 2023 to 2024 academic year. Admissions figures, meaning applicants, admitted students, enrolled students, and the acceptance rate worked out from them, come from the IPEDS Admissions survey for fall 2023. Enrollment comes from the IPEDS fall enrollment figures for fall 2023. Graduation rates come from the IPEDS Graduation Rates survey published in 2023, measuring cohorts that finished within one and a half times the normal program length. Average net price comes from the IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. Median earnings ten years after entry and median debt come from the College Scorecard file dated June 10, 2026.

How totals are worked out

A total cost is never copied in on its own and never partly added up. For each school the total is the sum of five published parts, tuition, required fees, books and supplies, room and board, and other expenses. Where a school publishes complete on campus figures, the total uses those. Where it does not, the total uses the complete off campus figures for a student who is not living with family, and the page labels that basis in plain words. Where neither set of parts is complete, no total is shown. Out of state totals use the out of state tuition and fees with the same remaining parts. Every total printed on this site was checked by adding the printed parts back together.

How averages are worked out

Every average on this site is a simple arithmetic mean. The figures for the schools in the group are added together and divided by the count of schools that publish that figure. Schools that do not publish a figure are left out of that average, and the count is printed where it matters. Money averages are rounded to the nearest dollar and percentage averages to one decimal place. Differences printed on a page are worked out from the rounded averages printed on that page, so the figures on a page agree with each other. State averages cover only the pilot schools in that state that are listed on this site, and national averages cover only the 300 pilot schools. Neither describes every college in a state or in the country.

Key terms in plain words

Cost of attendance means the full published price for one year, counting tuition, fees, books and supplies, room and board, and other living expenses. Net price means that total minus grant and scholarship aid, averaged across a defined group of students. Acceptance rate means the share of applicants who were offered a place, worked out as admitted students divided by applicants. Median means the middle value, so half of the group sits above it and half below it.

Which schools are in the pilot

The 300 pilot schools were chosen in a set order. First came the schools with measured search demand for cost and acceptance questions. Next came schools with a fall 2023 acceptance rate at or below twenty percent and at least eight hundred enrolled students, plus the largest historically Black colleges and universities by enrollment. Next came the largest school in each state not already chosen, so every state and the District of Columbia has at least one school. Remaining places were filled by fall 2023 total enrollment, largest first. The mix is 206 public schools, 80 private nonprofit schools, and 14 private for profit schools, with 275 four year schools and 25 two year schools.

Refresh cadence

The dataset is refreshed twice a year, after new IPEDS and College Scorecard releases. Each page carries a last checked date, which is the date the page was built from the current dataset.

Limits

Figures describe the years named above, not the current admissions cycle, and schools change prices every year. Averages across the pilot schools are a comparison tool, not an official state or national statistic. Always confirm the current cost with the school.