College Scorecard Normalizer — US College Data

Search and normalize US college and university data from the official Department of Education College Scorecard API. Get cleaned, human-readable data for 6,200+ institutions — tuition costs, admission rates, post-graduation earnings, demographics, and more.

No API key required — uses the free DEMO_KEY by default. For higher rate limits, get a free key at api.data.gov/signup.

Features

• 🔍 Search by school name, state, city, ownership type, or degree level
• 🧹 Automatic normalization: school names, degree types (Certificate → Bachelor's → Graduate), ownership (Public/Private), size categories
• 💰 Cost filters: max in-state tuition, min post-grad earnings
• 📊 Rich output: tuition (in/out of state), net price, admission rates, SAT/ACT scores, completion rates, enrollment, demographics, Pell Grant rates
• 📋 Human-readable output: formatted summary table in run log + KVS OUTPUT
• 🤖 AI-ready: output schema enables AI agents and MCP clients to discover and chain results

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
searchQuery	string	School name to search (e.g. "Harvard", "Community College")
state	string	2-letter state abbreviation (e.g. "CA", "NY")
city	string	City name (e.g. "Boston")
ownership	select	Public / Private Nonprofit / Private For-Profit
degreeType	select	Certificate / Associate's / Bachelor's / Graduate
minAdmissionRate	number	Minimum admission rate % (0 = open admission)
maxAdmissionRate	number	Maximum admission rate %
maxTuitionInState	number	Maximum in-state tuition ($)
minEarnings	number	Minimum median earnings 10yr after entry ($)
maxResults	integer	Max schools to return (1-500, default 50)
apiKey	string	Your data.gov API key (optional, uses free DEMO_KEY by default)

Example Input

{
  "searchQuery": "Engineering",
  "state": "MA",
  "degreeType": "bachelor",
  "maxTuitionInState": 30000,
  "minEarnings": 60000,
  "maxResults": 20
}

Example Output (Dataset Item)

{
  "id": 166683,
  "name": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology",
  "nameRaw": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology",
  "city": "Cambridge",
  "state": "Massachusetts",
  "zip": "02139",
  "website": "https://web.mit.edu/",
  "ownership": "Private Nonprofit",
  "degreeType": "Graduate",
  "sizeCategory": "Medium (4-year)",
  "admissionRate": "4.1%",
  "tuitionInState": 53450,
  "tuitionOutOfState": 53450,
  "avgNetPrice": 20232,
  "medianEarnings10yr": 124213,
  "completionRate": "95.4%",
  "enrollment": 11520,
  "satAvg": 1543,
  "pellGrantRate": "16.2%"
}

Use Cases

• College comparison platforms — power search-by-outcome tools for students and families
• Education research — analyze ROI, access, and outcomes across 6,200+ institutions
• Real estate investment — identify college towns with growing enrollment
• College admissions consulting — build data-driven recommendation engines
• Workforce development — match employer needs with graduate output by region
• AI/ML pipelines — feed normalized education data into models for socioeconomic analysis

Data Source

U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard — official government data updated annually. Public domain. API: api.data.gov/ed/collegescorecard.