Little Interest in Earnings Data Among Prospective Students

A new study from the Urban Institute found limited interest among prospective college students about graduates' labor market outcomes, despite the data's appeal to policy makers and researchers.

The institute created an informational website that described program-level earnings and other data points, which it then introduced to students at 25 high schools in Virginia. In addition to finding limited use of the tool by students, the study found little impact on the decisions made by those who did use it.

"The rollout of the tool had no detectable impact on students," according to the study. "Students from schools that received the treatment version of the website did not choose majors with higher average wages or institutions that had higher graduation rates or lower net prices than did students who received the control version."