College Abacus: Updating Results Page

ECMC Innovation Lab Design Team: Samantha Zucker, Theresa Winters, and Justin Hernandez. My main role was design and usability testing of the new data feature.

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The Challenge

Back in late 2015, our office was asked to partner with the U.S. Department of Education as one of six beta partners to provide students with their College Scorecard data, which is in an effort to make the college search process more accessible and transparent for American families.

While access to the entire database of information was incredibly powerful, it was also overwhelming to sift through. 

The Solution

Using White House College Scorecard data, we broke down and curated a selection of the six key areas that we thought would the biggest impact on a student's college decision. By focusing on only certain data points and showcasing each in a more visual way, students are able to digest the information much better and become aware of more metrics - aside from just tuitiion cost - to help choose a college.

College Abacus is now able to include school-specific data on important financial factors beyond personalized net price, including the percentage of students with federal loans, monthly income-to-debt ratios for graduates and salary ranges six years after enrollment.

The goal was not only to create a simple and cleaner results page that allows net price comparison, but also provide students - and teachers / counselors - with an extra level of information which will put that net price in context.