A benchmark, not a target
Alongside a college’s median earnings, the federal data includes a threshold: the typical earnings of a worker whose education stopped at high school, in the same state and nationally. It comes from the American Community Survey, and it exists so that the earnings figure can be judged against something rather than in isolation.
The comparison is blunt but revealing. If a college’s median graduate earns no more than a typical high-school-educated worker in the same state, then the financial return on that enrolment deserves a hard look — at least for the median student, in the cohort measured.
Why medians can hide a lot
- The median describes the middle of the distribution. Half of the measured students earned less than it.
- The cohort includes students who did not complete a credential, which pulls the median down at colleges with low completion.
- It excludes anyone not matched to tax records, which skews the group in ways that are not fully documented.
- It is measured years ago, in that year’s dollars, and the benchmark is measured for its own period — the two are not perfectly aligned in time.
How to use it
- Find it on a college page next to the median earnings figure, and check which year each covers.
- Look at the gap, not just the direction. A small positive gap at a cheap college can be a better financial position than a large gap at an expensive one.
- Split by programme where the data allows. Institutional medians mix very different outcomes together.
- Treat it as a prompt to ask questions, not as a verdict on the college or on you.