Explore a college affordability and transparency guide

Use this college navigator tool to make informed decisions about college options

Balancing the benefits and costs of higher education on a school-by-school basis can be overwhelming. This database from the National Center for Education Statistics provides an easily searchable database with comprehensive information on costs, student aid, outcomes for alumni, retention rates, and much more.

Where colleges get their money, visualized

If you're curious about how different colleges and universities generate their revenue, this National Center for Education Statistics webpage offers a clear visual breakdown. See how public, private nonprofit, and for-profit institutions fund their operations, highlighting the differences between funding sources depending on the type of institution.

College budgets, explained

In this episode of the FutureU podcast, higher education experts Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn explore why so many colleges seem to be struggling financially. Hear how college budgets actually work, and why so many are unsustainable. It’s a crash course in revenue, expenses, and the big shifts schools need to make to survive.

The cost of college has more than tripled over the past five decades

Determining the all-in cost for each student’s specific circumstances can be tricky. But what is behind the rise in price? Analysts point to a number of factors—lack of transparency around cost, expansive government support, increased administrative burdens at schools, and more.

A guide to US pay transparency laws

Pay transparency laws in the US are evolving quickly, as some states introduce them for the first time and others update existing legislation. This resource has an updated list of key pay transparency legislation in states across the country, as well as general explainers about what each of those laws dictate. Check it out here.

The federal government uses the FAFSA to determine student's eligibility aid

Apply for billions of dollars in scholarships, grants, loans, and Federal Work-Study funds using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. Get an overview of how the FAFSA form can help you finance your education with money from the federal government, your state, and school; understand when to apply; and find out what you'll need to fill it out.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Evaluating college endowment returns

According to a new study, US college and university endowments achieved an average net return of 11.2% in fiscal year 2024. Harvard University maintained its position as the largest endowment, valued at $53.2B. Read this Forbes article to learn more about how institutions manage and grow their financial resources through endowments.

Play the role of a student as you try to navigate college and remain debt-free

Is college worth it?

Higher education has long been viewed as a stepping stone to more stable and higher-paying careers. Estimates suggest a college degree nearly triples average lifetime earnings. But the perception of value is different—only 22% of Americans say college is worth taking out loans for.

Explore data on every US county with this interactive

The Community Explorer is an interactive tool that brings the power of big data and machine learning to the equity-related policy discussion. Search by economic profile and county and see the country from a different lens.

Visualize energy sources and uses across the US

Want to understand the basics of America’s current energy situation? The National Academies, advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine, provides objective information about the United States’ current energy sources and uses, as well as a look forward to the future of energy.

Calculate your student loan payments

As of summer 2024, interest rates on federal student loans ranged from 6.5% for undergraduates to above 9% for loans taken out by parents (private loans can exceed 17%). The interest rate determines how quickly the amount owed grows. Use this calculator to estimate your monthly payments.

Visually explore the federal government’s evolving role in education

This photo collection traces the US shift from community and private schooling to federal oversight and ongoing political debates about the Department of Education.

GoBankingRates evaluated whether the middle class can afford the American Dream

To do so, they looked at two studies: One that shows middle-class income ranges in each state, and another that determined the cost of the American dream in each state.

US child care costs, mapped

It's no secret that child care in the US is expensive, but this map provides more color to that observation by showing the average annual price of child care in licensed child care centers for infants, by state, in 2023. South Dakota, for instance, had the lowest infant child care cost at $7,862 per year. See how the rest of the states fared here.

Hear why one author thinks college rankings may be irrelevant

For more than three decades, US News & World Report has released an annual ranking of the country's best colleges. An extremely influential list that can determine application volume, funding decisions, and more, the rankings have been compiled by a secret algorithm indecipherable to many on the opposite side of the table. Author Malcolm Gladwell attempts to unpack the calculation, ultimately raising the question: How relevant is the list?

The US lags behind other developed countries in math and science scores

The Programme for International Student Assessment, administered every three years by the OECD to 15-year-olds, scores US students below the OECD average in math (465 vs. 472) and only slightly above average in science (499 vs. 485). These figures place US pupils in the lower half of developed nations.

Determine your carbon footprint with this web tool

This tool from the Environmental Protection Agency calculates a user's carbon footprint based on their zip code, household size, and emission factors involving home energy, transportation, and water production.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

Explore a guide to 529 college savings plans

Investors put after-tax dollars into these education-earmarked accounts, and like a 401(k) or IRA, they invest them into stocks, bonds, or funds. When it comes time to withdraw, investors do not pay any taxes on distributions. However, the money must be used for approved expenses like college tuition, textbooks, and trade schools.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Try to balance the budget

This interactive calculator challenges users to rebalance the federal budget by adjusting taxes and spending. Try your hand at weighing difficult trade-offs that shape long-term deficits, debt growth, and the sustainability of US public finances.

The average US household carries $105,056 in total debt

This article breaks down the average household debt by category, including credit card debt ($6,523), personal loans ($11,274), and more.

Explore current CD interest rates

Data itself is not (exactly) a financial advisor, but it can help you decide between a variable or fixed rate CD, or CDs with different term lengths. A chart from the Federal Reserve shows the three-month trend of CD interest rates.

How to check your credit score

Contrary to popular belief, checking your credit score doesn’t hurt your credit. Many credit card companies show your score when you log into their app online, but there are other ways to check it.

Explore a worldwide ranking of smart cities

This interactive site evaluates residents' perceptions of the infrastructure and technologies available to them across 146 cities to produce a ranking based on a Smart City Index. Users can utilize the City Comparison feature to compare their city with others around the world.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Calculate creator economy platform costs

The creator economy continues to be an attractive way to earn money for many people. While many platforms exist to help creators monetize their work, each has different feature sets and pricing models. This calculator helps workers decide which platform works best for them.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace