How the Worth-It Score works

The CollegeLens Worth-It Score is a first pass affordability signal. It is built to answer one question quickly: does the cost path for a given school look workable for a typical student before you have your personalized aid picture in hand?

The model weighs affordability at 40%, after graduation outcomes at 40%, and repayment burden at 20%. Affordability reflects yearly net price and expected total program cost. Outcomes reflect graduation and long-run earnings where available. Repayment reflects the relationship between debt and expected income.

The public school pages use publicly available federal higher education data plus national average assumptions. Your personalized dashboard score is more precise because it uses your own school list, aid details, and intended major where available.

Earnings inputs come primarily from the Census Bureau's Postsecondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) experimental data product, an institution-level dataset of post-graduation earnings by major. When PSEO does not yet cover a specific school and major, we fall back to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (ACS PUMS), which gives state-level full-time full-year earnings by field of degree. If neither covers your state and field, we fall back to federal field-of-study averages. We label which source backs your number.

Field demand outlook comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Projections 2024-34, the federal forecast of occupational growth and openings over the next decade. When we can map your intended major to an occupation, we surface the projected 10-year growth rate alongside your score. The outlook is informational; it does not change the Worth-It Score itself.

Occupation profiles, related careers, and skills come from the U.S. Department of Labor's O*NET database. O*NET provides survey-based occupational data developed by the National Center for O*NET Development. It adds context and discovery; it does not change the score.