# WorthMyDegree

> Free, anonymous college-ROI calculator. Enter a major, a school, and a
> loan; see the 10-year financial outcome versus a debt-free high-school
> graduate, under the 2026 US federal repayment rules. No login, no cost,
> nothing sold. Built by a high-school student; every figure on screen
> traces to a cited public source (the in-app Methodology section lists
> every citation).

## Pages

- [Calculator](https://worthmydegree.com/): major + school + loan →
  10-year net position, break-even debt, monthly payment and take-home
  pay by career stage, side-by-side comparison of two paths, the
  community-college transfer path (2+2 or full associate's), and a
  downloadable PDF report.
- [Repayment plan comparison](https://worthmydegree.com/?tool=repayment):
  for balances already owed — every current federal plan (Standard,
  Extended, Tiered Standard, IBR, RAP) plus private loans, on the user's
  actual balance and income, including forgiveness clocks and the
  one-way-door asymmetry of switching into RAP.
- [School search](https://worthmydegree.com/?tool=schools): field of
  study + monthly budget + home state → every US college that fits the
  budget, each priced at the rate that student would actually pay
  (in-state vs out-of-state resolved per school).
- [Graduate school search](https://worthmydegree.com/?tool=gradschools):
  field of study + master's or doctorate + budget → graduate schools
  priced from IPEDS published tuition, each shown beside what graduates
  in that field actually borrowed. Tuition and fees only — no federal
  source publishes graduate living costs.
- [Infographics](https://worthmydegree.com/charts): single-picture
  charts built from the same federal data as the calculator, free to
  reuse anywhere. One page, each chart addressable by #slug fragment.

## Data sources (all public, all cited in-app)

- BLS OEWS wages, layered national → state → metro
- BLS "typical education needed for entry" by occupation
- NY Fed labor-market outcomes by major (unemployment, underemployment,
  early/mid-career wages)
- College Scorecard: cost of attendance and median debt for 5,000+
  institutions; per-school medical/dental/law debt from the
  field-of-study release
- studentaid.gov published 2026 repayment rules — the RAP payment
  function is verified row-by-row against the published AGI chart by an
  automated check
- CPS ASEC microdata for the age-earnings profile behind the
  high-school-graduate baseline

## Facts an agent should get right

- Everything shown is an estimate for education, not financial advice.
- Outcome data reflects who attends a school, not the school's causal
  effect (selection vs. treatment); the tool discloses this.
- The 2026 federal overhaul changed borrowing materially: Grad PLUS is
  abolished, Parent PLUS is newly capped, and RAP is the default
  income-driven plan for new loans. Advice describing SAVE/PAYE-era
  rules is out of date.
- Canonical host: worthmydegree.com. studentloanroi.com (redirects) and
  studentloanroi.streamlit.app (legacy) are the same application.

## Contact

research@worthmydegree.com — student research project on whether outcome
transparency changes college decisions.

## Guides

Plain-English explainers on the 2026 federal loan rules and what a
degree costs, indexed at https://worthmydegree.com/guides. Each one
ends at the calculator.

- [The 2026 repayment plans, and what they replaced](https://worthmydegree.com/guides/repayment-plans-2026-what-changed):
  RAP charges a percentage of everything you earn. The plans it
  replaced charged only on what was left after a living allowance.
  That one change moves the money.
- [The repayment switch that only goes one way](https://worthmydegree.com/guides/switching-repayment-plans-2026):
  Payments you have already made count toward RAP. RAP payments mostly
  do not count back. On a graduate balance the door stays shut until
  you earn about $108,000.
- [What consolidating does to the plans you have left](https://worthmydegree.com/guides/consolidating-student-loans-2026):
  A Direct Consolidation Loan made on or after July 1, 2026 leaves you
  only RAP and the Tiered Standard Plan, for every federal loan you
  hold. The older ones included.
- [What starting at community college is actually worth](https://worthmydegree.com/guides/community-college-first):
  Two years at a community college before transferring cuts the
  published cost of a bachelor's by 39%, and changes how much of it
  you can borrow in your own name.
- [For parents: how to run your student's numbers in one sitting](https://worthmydegree.com/guides/for-parents-run-the-numbers):
  A step-by-step walkthrough for parents. Turn a cost of attendance
  into a monthly payment, a break-even number, and a PDF you can both
  read.
- [For counselors: the money conversation, in the time you actually have](https://worthmydegree.com/guides/for-counselors-the-money-conversation):
  A free, no-login tool your students can use alone or in a meeting.
  What changed under the 2026 federal rules, and the three
  conversations it makes shorter.
- [The Parent PLUS cap nobody mentions until senior year](https://worthmydegree.com/guides/parent-plus-senior-year):
  The 2026 rules cap Parent PLUS at $20,000 a year — and $65,000 in
  total. Those two numbers don't fit together, and the gap lands in
  your final year.

## Infographics

Free single-picture charts built from the same federal data as the
calculator, indexed at https://worthmydegree.com/charts. Reusable
anywhere with attribution. One page, so each is addressed by fragment.

- [Transferring to a UC saves about $76,700](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#transfer-path):
  Two years at a California community college and two at a public
  university, against four years at the university. At a UC that is
  about $81,900 against $158,600. At a CSU it is about $45,900 against
  $86,600. Tuition and housing on both sides, at resident prices.
- [What the extra year of California community college buys](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#community-college-both-careers):
  The two credentials a California community college awards, side by
  side and to the same scale. Two years and about $2,576 for an
  associate's degree, against one year and about $1,288 for a
  certificate, measured by total pay over the first ten years of work.
- [Two years of California community college costs $2,576](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#community-college-careers):
  Careers BLS says need an associate's degree, at California wages, by
  total pay over ten years. Two years in-district is about $2,576
  against about $30,408 for four years of in-state tuition at a CSU
  campus, or $58,240 at a UC campus. Tuition and fees on both sides.
- [A year of California community college costs $1,288](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#community-college-certificate-careers):
  Careers BLS says need a certificate rather than a degree, at
  California wages, by total pay over ten years. A year in-district is
  about $1,288 against about $30,408 for four years of in-state
  tuition at a CSU campus, or $58,240 at a UC campus. Tuition and fees
  on both sides. These programmes run from a few weeks to two years,
  so the total depends on the programme.
- [The degree sets the debt, the specialty sets the pay](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#professional-debt-versus-pay):
  Every professional degree the calculator models, against 30 years of
  pay. Debt runs from $130,000 to $279,900, a spread of 2.2 times. Pay
  runs from $1.8M to $12.0M, a spread of 6.6 times.
- [Borrow the federal maximum for a bachelor's and the plan barely matters](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#borrow-the-federal-maximum):
  $31,000 is the most a dependent undergraduate can borrow federally.
  On a $61,000 salary, income-driven, Standard and 2026 RAP all clear
  it inside a decade, and the whole spread between them is $984.
- [The 20 best-paid careers that need less than four years of school](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#careers-without-a-bachelors):
  Total pay over the first ten years of work for the highest-paying
  occupations BLS says need less than a bachelor's degree. All twenty
  beat the median bachelor's-level career, and ten of them need no
  college at all.
- [Everyone says the rent eats the raise](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#rent-versus-the-raise):
  San Francisco wages against the national median for the same job,
  discounted by what it costs to live there. It is still ahead in all
  nine occupations.
- [Same degree, seven times the debt](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#same-degree-different-debt):
  Median debt at graduation for the same professional degree runs from
  $37,167 to $439,325 depending only on which school you attend.
- [The family maximum is $92,000 and $65,000 of it is your parents'](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#the-family-maximum):
  Everything the government will lend for four years of a dependent
  undergraduate is $27,000 in the student's name and $65,000 in a
  parent's. Parent PLUS sits outside every income-driven plan, so 71%
  of the debt never moves with the repayment choice.
- [The 20 careers that earn most in 30 years, and 16 are health care](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#top-earning-careers):
  Everything earned in the 30 years after a bachelor's degree, capped
  at each occupation's own published 90th percentile. Twelve of the
  twenty are physicians, and only three are reachable on a bachelor's
  degree alone. Each row also carries how many people BLS counts doing
  the job, which separates a well-paid career from a large one.
- [You asked for $20,000. You pay back $31,070](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#what-the-loan-really-costs):
  Every federal loan is billed for more than it hands over, because
  the origination fee comes off at disbursement. On Parent PLUS you
  sign for $20,883 to receive $20,000.
- [What the data says is the best major](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#best-major-by-the-data):
  The ten majors with the highest early-career pay, shown beside their
  unemployment and underemployment rates.
- [Business majors, ranked by what they actually pay](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#business-majors-tier-list):
  Every business degree tiered by early-career pay and by the share of
  graduates working in jobs that do not require the degree.
- [College majors, ranked by the job market](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#majors-tier-list):
  A tier list of college majors built from early-career pay,
  unemployment and underemployment rather than reputation.
- [The federal cap is doing the flattening](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#student-vs-parent-debt):
  Median federal debt at graduation by field, students against
  parents, showing how the Parent PLUS cap compresses what a family
  can borrow.
- [What a top university charges around the world](https://worthmydegree.com/charts#world-tuition):
  Annual tuition for domestic undergraduates at each country's
  highest-ranked university, converted to U.S. dollars.