# College Scorecard: US Colleges, Costs, Earnings by Major (`pushbuild/college-scorecard`) Actor

Every US college from the Department of Education College Scorecard: admission rate, SAT/ACT, tuition, net price, completion and retention, median debt and graduates' earnings, plus program-level (major) debt and earnings 1 to 5 years after graduation.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pushbuild/college-scorecard.md
- **Developed by:** [Pushbuild Data](https://apify.com/pushbuild) (community)
- **Categories:** Education, Lead generation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.30 / 1,000 rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## College Scorecard: US Colleges, Costs and Earnings by Major

Every US college and every program from the US Department of Education's College Scorecard, in clean JSON.

### What you get

- **Colleges:** name, city, state, website, ownership, degree level, locale, coordinates, accreditor, HBCU and online-only flags, undergraduate enrollment, **admission rate, average SAT, ACT midpoint**, in-state and out-of-state tuition, cost of attendance, **average net price**, Pell and federal loan rates, completion and retention rates, **median debt** and **median earnings 6 and 10 years after entry**.
- **Programs (majors):** each field of study x credential at each school with graduate count, **median debt and monthly payment**, **median earnings 1, 4 and 5 years after graduation**, the share earning more than a high-school graduate, and national earnings benchmarks.

### Use cases

- College comparison and ROI tools.
- "Best-paying computer science degrees" rankings.
- Lead lists of institutions by state, size and type.

### Input examples

```json
{"states": ["CA"], "ownership": ["public"], "sortBy": "earnings", "maxItems": 50}
```

```json
{"dataset": "programs", "programQuery": "nursing", "credentialLevels": [3], "sortBy": "earnings", "withEarningsOnly": true}
```

```json
{"query": "harvard"}
```

### Notes

- Source: College Scorecard, US Department of Education (public domain). Rates are fractions (0.04 = 4%); money in USD.
- Pricing: per row returned.

# Actor input Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Whole schools, or individual programs (field of study x credential).

## `query` (type: `string`):

All words must appear in the school name (or city).

## `unitIds` (type: `array`):

e.g. 166027 (Harvard).

## `states` (type: `array`):

Two-letter codes.

## `ownership` (type: `array`):

public, nonprofit, for-profit.

## `degreeTypes` (type: `array`):

Colleges only: Certificate, Associate, Bachelor's, Graduate.

## `minUndergraduates` (type: `integer`):

Colleges only.

## `operatingOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Colleges only.

## `programQuery` (type: `string`):

Programs only, e.g. nursing, computer science.

## `cipCodes` (type: `array`):

Programs only, prefix match, e.g. 11 (computer science), 5138 (nursing).

## `credentialLevels` (type: `array`):

Programs only: 1 certificate, 2 associate, 3 bachelor's, 4 post-bacc cert, 5 master's, 6 doctoral, 7 professional, 8 graduate cert.

## `withEarningsOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Programs only.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Ordering of results.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum rows.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "dataset": "institutions",
  "query": "university",
  "operatingOnly": true,
  "withEarningsOnly": false,
  "sortBy": "none",
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "query": "university"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pushbuild/college-scorecard").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "query": "university" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pushbuild/college-scorecard").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "query": "university"
}' |
apify call pushbuild/college-scorecard --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pushbuild/college-scorecard"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/oY8bXpNYD73gzPIZ1/builds/J1bPNgj26L91Ewf9L/openapi.json