Download the data that appears on the College Scorecard, as well as supporting data on student completion, debt and repayment, earnings, and more. Last updated on 4-19-2023.

It's no secret that US university students often graduate with debt repayment obligations that far outstrip their employment and income prospects. While it's understood that students from elite colleges tend to earn more than graduates from less prestigious universities, the finer relationships between future income and university attendance are quite murky. In an effort to make educational investments less speculative, the US Department of Education has matched information from the student financial aid system with federal tax returns to create the College Scorecard dataset.

Kaggle is hosting the College Scorecard dataset in order to facilitate shared learning and collaboration. Insights from this dataset can help make the returns on higher education more transparent and, in turn, more fair.

Data Description

Here's a script showing an exploratory overview of some of the data.

college-scorecard-release-*.zip contains a compressed version of the same data available through Kaggle Scripts.

It consists of three components:

• All the raw data files released in version 1.40 of the college scorecard data
• Scorecard.csv, a single CSV file with all the years data combined. In it, we've converted categorical variables represented by integer keys in the original data to their labels and added a Year column
• database.sqlite, a SQLite database containing a single Scorecard table that contains the same information as Scorecard.csv

New to data exploration in R? Take the free, interactive DataCamp course, "Data Exploration With Kaggle Scripts," to learn the basics of visualizing data with ggplot. You'll also create your first Kaggle Scripts along the way.

The College Scorecard is designed to increase transparency, putting the power in the hands of the public — from those choosing colleges to those improving college quality — to see how well different schools are serving their students.

Overview

This comprehensive dataset provides detailed information on over 1,000 U.S. higher education institutions, combining admissions data, standardized test scores, tuition information, and student socioeconomic demographics. The dataset merges data from three sources: U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard that was uploaded on April 23, 2025, Harvard's Opportunity Insights elite colleges and universities admissions paper, and Top 100 rankings for 2025 from U.S. News & World Report.

College and University Inclusion

The U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard has data from over 6,400 colleges and universities across 3,306 features. Colleges and universities were included if the following values were not missing:

1. SAT average scores
2. Admissions rate
3. In-state tuition
4. Out-state tuition

Dataset Structure

Data type: Tabular Dimensions: 1,070 rows (institutions) x 37 variables

2018 DC School Report Card. The sum of the student group scores using all applicable STAR framework metrics. This is a number from 0 – 100 points. Overall STAR score for the school based on all applicable framework scores and student groups. Star value assigned to the school based on the STAR score.1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Supplemental:Metric scores are not reported for n-sizes less than 10; metrics that have an n-size less than 10 are not included in calculation of STAR scores and ratings.At the state level, teacher data is reported on the DC School Report Card for all schools, high-poverty schools, and low-poverty schools. The definition for high-poverty and low-poverty schools is included in DC's ESSA State Plan. At the school level, teacher data is reported for the entire school, and at the LEA-level, teacher data is reported for all schools only.On the STAR Framework, 203 schools received STAR scores and ratings based on data from the 2017-18 school year. Of those 203 schools, 2 schools closed after the completion of the 2017-18 school year (Excel Academy PCS and Washington Mathematics Science Technology PCHS). Because those two schools closed, they do not receive a School Report Card and report card metrics were not calculated for those schools.Schools with non-traditional grade configurations may be assigned multiple school frameworks as part of the STAR Framework. For example, a K-8 school would be assigned the Elementary School Framework and the Middle School Framework. Because a school may have multiple school frameworks, the total number of school framework scores across the city will be greater than the total number of schools that received a STAR score and rating.Detailed information about the metrics and calculations for the DC School Report Card and STAR Framework can be found in the 2018 DC School Report Card and STAR Framework Technical Guide (https://osse.dc.gov/publication/2018-dc-school-report-card-and-star-framework-technical-guide).

The annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard is an assessment tool to (1) measure how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals, (2) provide accurate and transparent contracting data and (3) report agency-specific progress. The prime and subcontracting component goals include goals for small businesses, small businesses owned by women (WOSB), small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB), and small businesses located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones). Each federal agency has a different small business contracting goal, negotiated annually in consultation with SBA. SBA ensures that the sum total of all of the goals meets the 23 percent target established by law.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for use by the Scorecard website, and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for use by the Scorecard website, and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

This is a dataset created for the Medicaid Scorecard website (https://www.medicaid.gov/state-overviews/scorecard/index.html), and is not intended for use outside that application.

2018 DC School Report Card. STAR Framework student group scores by school and school framework. The STAR Framework measures performance for 10 different student groups with a minimum n size of 10 or more students at the school. The student groups are All Students, Students with Disabilities, Student who are At Risk, English Learners, and students who identify as the following ESSA-defined racial/ethnic groups: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino of any race, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, and Two or more races. The Alternative School Framework includes an eleventh student group, At-Risk Students with Disabilities.Some students are included in the school- and LEA-level aggregations that will display on the DC School Report Card but are not included in calculations for the STAR Framework. These students are included in the “All Report Card Students” student group to distinguish from the “All Students” group used for the STAR Framework.Supplemental:Metric scores are not reported for n-sizes less than 10; metrics that have an n-size less than 10 are not included in calculation of STAR scores and ratings.At the state level, teacher data is reported on the DC School Report Card for all schools, high-poverty schools, and low-poverty schools. The definition for high-poverty and low-poverty schools is included in DC's ESSA State Plan. At the school level, teacher data is reported for the entire school, and at the LEA-level, teacher data is reported for all schools only.On the STAR Framework, 203 schools received STAR scores and ratings based on data from the 2017-18 school year. Of those 203 schools, 2 schools closed after the completion of the 2017-18 school year (Excel Academy PCS and Washington Mathematics Science Technology PCHS). Because those two schools closed, they do not receive a School Report Card and report card metrics were not calculated for those schools.Schools with non-traditional grade configurations may be assigned multiple school frameworks as part of the STAR Framework. For example, a K-8 school would be assigned the Elementary School Framework and the Middle School Framework. Because a school may have multiple school frameworks, the total number of school framework scores across the city will be greater than the total number of schools that received a STAR score and rating.Detailed information about the metrics and calculations for the DC School Report Card and STAR Framework can be found in the 2018 DC School Report Card and STAR Framework Technical Guide (https://osse.dc.gov/publication/2018-dc-school-report-card-and-star-framework-technical-guide).