Aren’t you curious? Wondering where your college degree programs will land on the affordability spectrum when the new earning premium metrics are implemented? 

The research is on your side. A 2021 study shows that a college degree is well worth the financial investment. But does that still hold true with today’s ongoing economic uncertainty, tight job market, and stubborn inflation? 

Here, I’ll share how you can understand in advance where your school stands. That way you can craft your own narrative around value and affordability—one that’s based on facts…not speculation.  

Get ready—October is fast approaching. 

That’s when colleges and universities must start providing the U.S. Department of Education with student-level data to fulfill the requirements of the Financial Value Transparency (FVT) and Gainful Employment (GE) regulations. The first reporting deadline for historical data is October 1, 2024.

The goal is to measure college graduate’s financial outcomes by degree program compared to the financial outcomes of high school graduates. Or, to put it more simple: are students who invest in a college degree better or worse off financially than high school graduates? 

To comply with this new mandate, schools must “pass” two key metrics. 

• The earnings of college graduates must be higher than high school graduates. 

• Students must not be overly burdened with debt relative to their earnings and discretionary income. 

Consequences of “failing” these metrics can range from bad publicity that hurts recruiting—at a precarious time when the traditional college experience is losing some of its luster—to the eventual loss of Title IV eligibility.  

Yet behind the data—whether good or bad—is a story. And it’s the story of your school. It might be a testimony of timeless leadership or a tale of transformation. 

But if you’re not ready, in advance, to tell that story, you’re already behind.  

Unlock the power of data visualization. 

To better understand your graduates' earnings and related financial outcomes, you need one thing: data—and lots of it. 

However, managing, analyzing, and interpreting large volumes of data can involve a lot of time and dedicated resources. Often, it requires a data scientist because dealing with raw data is a lot like reading hieroglyphics for the everyday business user. 

But, let me paint you a different picture. One where you bypass the technical stuff. Skip the tedious data aggregation, parsing, testing, modeling, etc. Eliminate the frustrating, back-and-forth requests and explanations between data teams and business users. 

Instead, your business users go directly to the source. There, they can access a sophisticated data-powered dashboard with on-demand illustrated graphs, charts, and other visualizations of your graduate outcome data. These images are easy to read and understand. They’re also interactive so you can drill down deeper to see details on interesting trends, numbers, and demographics. 

They can look at your data—without help from a data expert—and know where your school stands in terms of affordability in seconds. 

Well, this is all possible today with help from Equifax. Here’s how. 

Discover your story and share it. 

The Equifax Ignite for Graduate Outcomes dashboard can provide quick visibility into your school’s earnings premium metrics. It reveals how your graduates are faring financially…five, 10, and 15 years later. 

You get validated cohort data—not self-provided survey data—from the largest repository of up-to-date nationwide payroll, income, and credit data from us. You also receive unmatched coverage pertaining to:

• mortgages and property value estimates, 

• state of residence, 

• household composition, 

• communication channel preferences,

• and more. 

All insights are automatically converted into a mix of data visualizations. These are available on demand via your Equifax Ignite for Graduate Outcomes Dashboard. 

Anyone from your school—whether a data expert, a dean, or a director of admissions—can easily see across your student, graduate, and alumni populations via a mix of illustrated charts, graphs, and tables to better understand outcomes related to: 

• Income and earnings

• Wealth and affluence

• Homeownership 

• Debt (including student loans)

• Fairness and equity 

• Degree programs 

Your business users can fold these unique insights into an engaging narrative that reflects the distinctive influence of your school, including your faculty, degree programs, student services, and curricula. These stories can then be shared with regulators to support reporting compliance. But they can also support other campus initiatives like recruiting and admissions, research, fundraising, alumni engagement, and more. 

Likewise, the data can reveal gaps in service and areas for improvement. These insights can help you develop a well-defined strategy for crafting more rewarding student experiences and graduate outcomes in the future, adding yet another compelling facet to your school’s story. 

With compliance deadlines fast approaching for the new FVT and GE rules, not knowing what to expect can feel stressful. The Equifax Ignite for Graduate Outcomes dashboard can help simplify everything. It eliminates the “unknowns” by giving anyone—not just your data experts—easy, on-demand visibility into graduate earnings, lifestyles, and preferences. 

It provides the fresh, differentiated graduate insights you need to tell the true story of your school…one that showcases the financial value and ROI of your degree programs, spotlights areas of exceptional performance, and conveys your aspirational vision for the future.  

You can learn more about the Equifax Ignite for Graduate Outcomes dashboard in this brief infographic: VIEW NOW