Return on College
for High School

A powerful online advising tool for high schools and workforce advisors to communicate the net price and return on investment of different 2-year and 4-year degree program options offered by colleges to prospective students and parents. Visually communicates the return on investment of college degree programs offered in your region to tackle risk aversion to a healthy level of college debt and undermatching in your community!

https://returnon.college/welcome

ROC for High School Estimates how much you'd need to make a year to live anywhere in the country

Features

ROC enables HS teachers and/or advisors to work with high school students to:

Graphically model the lifetime salary and monthly salary for the student based on their city and state with only a high school diploma and compare earnings to the cost of living independently in their town
Work with students to model the salary impact of different career and college degree choices relative to a high school diploma
To get an accurate and personalized cost estimate for the degree(s) / college(s) that align with a future career goal
Understand the personalized, estimated college loan repayment amount needed to finance a college degree and the impact of student loans on a student’s monthly budget until paid off
Compare and share personalized college investment models with the student and his or her family

Benefits

78% of High School students using ROC had a strong sense of their future career goal after using ROC compared to 72% of non-ROC users
84% of High School students using ROC understood the investment in education they would need to achieve their career goal compared to 75% of non-ROC users
79% of High School Students using ROC understood their improvement in future earnings potential with a college degree after using ROC compared to 67% of non-ROC users
Non-ROC students significantly overestimated the net price of college compared to ROC students

*Results based on pre-and post-surveys of over 700 High School students at 12 public high schools in Pennsylvania. Six high schools were randomly selected control group high schools where ROC was not used, and 6 high schools were ROC treatment schools.

ROC for High School shows you the cost of attendance for possible degrees

Use Case

The Pennsylvania College Advising Corps embeds counselors within under-resourced high schools across the State of Pennsylvania to advise students on college enrollment options and preparations. The advisors use a variety of tools to support their advising including publicly available websites like the Department of Education's College Scorecard and the Department of Labor’s O*NET. However, advisors did not have a tool to address student and parental concerns about the cost of the college investment and college debt, which disproportionately deters low income families and people of color from applying to college and can also contribute to undermatching. Vantage Point partnered with College Advising Corps to provide counselors access to the Return on College advising tool to supplement their other advising resources. Advisors used ROC in both 1:1 advising sessions and in classroom advising sessions.

Clients

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