The process
Profile, compare, balance, review.
- 1
Start with the student and family
The profile records academics, intended fields or interests, college setting and size preferences, annual budget, and borrowing comfort. These family inputs are not inferred from demographic data.
- 2
Compare colleges across five dimensions
Each dimension is evaluated separately. A strong career result, for example, does not erase a financial mismatch.
- 3
Build and review the school comparison
The report presents two reaches, five targets, and two likely options. An Edarrow operator reviews the analysis before delivery.
Five dimensions of fit
What each score is designed to answer.
Admissions fit
Uses the college’s published admission rate and, when available, the student’s SAT position relative to reported score ranges. It is an estimate, not an admission probability or guarantee.
Financial fit
Compares average net price—or published price when net price is unavailable—with the family’s annual budget and stated borrowing comfort. It is not a financial-aid offer.
Academic fit
Uses published graduation and first-year retention outcomes to add institutional context beyond selectivity alone.
Campus fit
Compares the student’s preferences with the college’s setting and enrollment size. These preferences do not change the admissions estimate.
Career fit
Uses program earnings when available, or occupation wage data linked to the intended field, and considers those outcomes alongside college cost.
Published data sources
Federal data, identified by source and date.
Edarrow’s current production dataset combines the following releases. The report displays its data vintage so families can see when the underlying information was published.
IPEDS · 2023–24 final
Institutional characteristics, admissions, enrollment, pricing, completions, graduation, and retention data.
Visit NCES IPEDSCollege Scorecard · June 10, 2026
Institution- and field-level cost and outcome measures, including available net-price and earnings data.
Visit College ScorecardBLS OEWS · May 2025
Occupation wage estimates linked to fields of study through the NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk when program earnings are unavailable.
Visit BLS OEWSLimits and quality checks
A decision aid—not a prediction.
Published data is historical, may lag current college conditions, and can be missing for a school or program. Average net price is not a family-specific aid quote, admission estimates are not guarantees, and wage data cannot predict an individual graduate’s outcome.
Edarrow exposes unavailable values and report disclosures instead of presenting them as known facts. Sources, inputs, and consistency are checked, but the family remains the decision-maker.