College Scorecard

College Scorecard is the U.S. Department of Education’s public file on costs, debt, completion, and earnings for Title IV-aided students. For MBA shopping it is the federal overlay on a school’s employment report, not a ranking and not CSEA placement (Scorecard Data Home, updated June 10, 2026).

Which Scorecard number is the MBA salary?+

The field-of-study median earnings about one year after completion, at master’s credential + the program’s four-digit CIP — not the institution-wide figure that mixes undergraduates and non-completers. Even then it is federal-aid completers, not the on-campus recruiting class.

Scorecard vs CSEA employment report

	College Scorecard	CSEA employment report	Source / date
Who	Title IV-aided completers	Graduates who sought jobs	ED / CSEA
Grain	Institution + 4-digit CIP + credential	Program / class year	ED FOS docs
Earnings window	~1 year after completion (FOS)	Base salary at accept / 3 months	ED / CSEA
Debt	EVAL (this school) or ANY	Usually not	ED
Small cells	Suppressed	I/D	Both

ED aggregates debt and earnings to six-digit OPEID (main campus and branches) and repeats values across branch UNITIDs. Mixing EVAL and ANY debt, or citing 6–10 years after entry institution earnings as “MBA starting salary,” is how these pages go wrong.

Example: CIP 52.0201 master’s, Scorecard median debt (EVAL) $66,000, earnings $98,000 one year out. CSEA median base $145,000 for full-time seekers who reported salary. Both can be true. Different people, different clocks.

Common errors

• Citing undergraduate institution earnings as the MBA outcome
• Treating suppressed as zero
• Mixing EVAL and ANY debt
• Averaging Scorecard and CSEA

FAQ

Does every MBA appear?+

Only if the school participates in Title IV and the cell is large enough to publish.

Is field of study the same as STEM CIP?+

No. Scorecard uses four-digit CIP. STEM OPT uses a six-digit code on the I-20.

How fresh is the file?+

See the data page. The copy used here was updated June 10, 2026; cohorts always lag.