Update on March 23, 2026: On March 22, 2026, the U. S. Department of Education updated its data to calculate the lower earnings indicator described in the Dec. 8, 2025, electronic announcement (GENERAL-25-49). Specifically, the indicator now reflects the median earnings of undergraduate completers in the 2017–18 and 2018–19 award years who received federal student aid, were earning income, and were not enrolled in an institution of higher education four years after graduation, with earnings measured four years after graduation (in calendar years 2022 and 2023, respectively). Earnings values are adjusted for inflation to January 2026 dollars using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). More details about the methodology and a downloadable data file are available on the FSA Data Center at StudentAid.gov/data-center/school/earnings.
Consistent with this update, the College Scorecard has also refreshed its publicly available data. The College Scorecard (collegescorecard.ed.gov) is a digital tool designed to help students and families compare higher education institutions based on data-driven metrics. On March 23, 2026, the College Scorecard updated earnings outcomes for students four years after graduation, including new information for the 2017–18 and 2018–19 completion cohorts. In addition, the College Scorecard refreshed data related to graduation rates, cost information, and other institutional metrics. Lastly, the College Scorecard enhanced its website to improve the user experience when searching for and comparing outcomes by field of study.
Effective Dec. 7, 2025, Federal Student Aid (FSA) has implemented a new lower earnings indicator as part of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) experience. This indicator provides students with additional information about the typical earnings of graduates from the schools they are considering.
This Electronic Announcement outlines how the lower earnings indicator works and provides guidance for accessing and interpreting the data.
The lower earnings indicator provides students greater transparency in how different postsecondary education choices translate into real-world earnings, supporting more informed college decision-making. Earnings are just one factor to consider when evaluating postsecondary education options, and students and families can explore this data further on the College Scorecard at collegescorecard.ed.gov. Students and families should use all resources available to them when making a decision about his or her postsecondary education, including speaking with school counselors and other knowledgeable members of their school community.
This lower earnings indicator applies only to first-year undergraduate students. It identifies schools where graduates’ median earnings are lower than those of typical high school graduates in the same state, or lower than those of typical high school graduates nationally if the school serves primarily out of state students.
After submitting the FAFSA form, students who selected one or more schools where lower earnings were identified will see the following notice on their FAFSA Submission Summary.
Clicking on the notice displays earnings information for all selected schools as shown below and gives students the option to update their list of schools, if they desire.
Since the indicator appears only after a FAFSA form has been processed, this information will not affect FAFSA completion rates or Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) submissions.
This disclosure is informational only. It does not affect -
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Title IV eligibility or participation,
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Student Aid Index calculations,
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Federal reporting, or
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ISIR processing.
The earnings indicator should not be interpreted as the Department passing normative judgment on what institutions are worthy of attendance, or the expected return on investment of attending a particular institution. Past post-graduation success of graduates at an institution is not necessarily predictive of the likely earnings of any individual borrowers. Furthermore, the data presented here is provided at the institutional level. Post-graduation earnings will vary by degree and program type, which are not reflected in the data presented. Some institution programs may have higher or lower average post-graduation earnings than the institutional earnings data presented on the FASFA Submission Summary.
Prospective borrowers should not rely on this data as a benchmark for what their likely post-graduation earnings will be.
The earnings indicator uses earnings data from the College Scorecard, with an adjustment for inflation to June 2025 dollars. Schools can view the data used for the earnings indicator on the FSA Data Center: StudentAid.gov/data-center/school/earnings
More details on the data sources and methodology are also available on the FSA Data Center. Note that this data, and the earnings indicator on the FAFSA Submission Summary, will be updated as more recent earnings data is available and updated on the College Scorecard.