Vantage Point has been awarded a $900K grant by the U.S. Department of Education to finalize and bring to market public- and private-facing ROI tools. Return on College (ROC) combines powerful individual, college, and labor market data to improve learners’ decisions about where to go to college and what to study given their financial context, future income expectations, and career goals.
In 2019 the Vantage Point higher education research and product design teams were awarded a $200K Phase I ED/SBIR grant to fund research, development and testing of its innovative product concept to help high school students and their families make better informed decisions about investments in post-secondary education. Our team worked with high school counselors and students to identify how families navigate difficult choices about attending and paying for college in a time when the cost of college is high and the return on a college investment is less certain.
Families shared that they need more accurate information about the cost of college, how they will pay for college, how much student loan debt is too much for a chosen program of study, and whether the careers waiting on the other side of a college degree are worth the investment. To respond to this need, we prototyped Return on College, or ROC. ROC uses labor market data from the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, and proprietary data sources that ingest millions of job posting and resume data records weekly to model the US job market.
These data were combined with Department of Education post-secondary education data to create a new decision support application designed to help students and families model different education choices. For the first time, students can get personalized information on what college will cost, average salaries of graduates by degree program, and impact of debt on monthly budgets -- all in one dynamic modeling tool. After viewing our ROC prototype, one sample high school student noted:
“I think I'd use ROC to show them {my parents} that there's ways of paying off loans. Because I think that's what they worry the most, is they don't want me to be in debt and if I kind of give them an idea - because if I explained to them it's like they probably think I'm lying, but if they see it then they'll believe it and then kind of support me on what I want to do.”
With the ED/SBIR Phase II grant award Vantage Point will continue to build, test, and refine ROC in partnership with partner universities and with the Pennsylvania College Advising Corps. One version of ROC is planned for high school advisors and second, customizable version of ROC will be marketed to colleges as a Software as a Service (SasS) for prospective students exploring programs of study as they visit an institution’s website.
We are currently inviting early adopter high schools and universities to help us bring ROC to students. Check out the ROC demo at https://youtu.be/td5_H_9fqEA. If your high school district or university is interested in being involved with early pilots of ROC during our Phase II work or receiving monthly newsletter updates on our progress, let us know by sending an email to letsroc@vantagepoint-inc.com.
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