Data sources and methodology

Real sources. Clear limits. Recommendations built for the student.

College to Career combines federal education and labor-market data with a guided student interview. The government sources provide facts; College to Career is responsible for the matching, scoring, interpretation, and recommendations.

College facts

Institutions, programs, credentials, admissions, cost, aid, retention, graduation, and online-study indicators.

Career facts

Occupation definitions, typical education, national pay, projected growth, and annual openings.

Student fit

Interview evidence about interests, abilities, work preferences, values, constraints, and goals.

IPEDS and NCES

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System supplies official institution-level information reported to the National Center for Education Statistics. We use it to verify colleges, program completions and credentials, admissions measures, published costs, financial aid, student outcomes, and distance-education indicators.

Explore the official IPEDS data site and the NCES CIP resources.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS employment projections provide occupation titles, typical entry education, national median annual wages, projected employment growth, and average annual openings. Results identify the source and projection years when available. National figures describe the occupation, not a guaranteed salary or local job market.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections. BLS data are public domain and were accessed in 2026. BLS cannot vouch for College to Career's analyses after the data were retrieved.

U.S. Census Bureau degree outcomes

Census field-of-degree data let us compare median earnings among people whose highest credential is a bachelor's degree with earnings among people in the same broad undergraduate field who later earned an advanced degree. These descriptive national figures do not prove that the additional degree caused the earnings difference.

We show a major-level graduate-education note only when its log earnings premium is at least two sample standard deviations above the mean across all 34 reported fields. In the 2022 table, that threshold is a 52.7% premium; biology and chemistry cross it. An occupation's BLS entry-education requirement is shown separately whenever it applies.

Source: 2022 American Community Survey Detailed Field of Degree and Median Annual Earnings tables.

O*NET occupational data

O*NET occupational descriptors help compare interview evidence with documented career interests, work styles, abilities, skills, knowledge, work activities, and work context. These signals support a recommendation; they do not function as a diagnosis or a pass/fail personality test.

This product includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. College to Career has modified and combined some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. See the O*NET database license.

Connecting careers, majors, and colleges

We begin with the federal CIP-SOC crosswalk, which relates fields of study to occupations based on shared knowledge and skills. We supplement it with reviewed aliases and direct-path relationships, then connect those majors to programs reported or identified at individual colleges.

The official crosswalk guidance explains an important limitation: a connection is a plausible educational relationship, not proof that every graduate enters that occupation or that a degree alone satisfies every employment or licensing requirement.

How a recommendation is built

  1. The guided interview collects evidence about the student's history, interests, strengths, preferences, constraints, and goals.
  2. Structured extraction converts that conversation into reviewable profile fields while retaining supporting evidence.
  3. Deterministic matching compares the profile with occupations, labor-market evidence, education requirements, and O*NET occupational descriptors.
  4. Career directions connect to relevant majors and then to colleges that actually report or list those programs.
  5. Geography, affordability, admissions evidence, credential level, and college preferences shape the feasible shortlist.
  6. AI may help write the final explanation, but it does not invent the underlying salary, growth, program, or college facts.

Important limitations

  • College data are reported by institutions, may be provisional or delayed, and can change between reporting cycles.
  • Program names and credentials should be confirmed on the college's current catalog or admissions site.
  • Admissions, financial aid, licensure, employment, salary, and career satisfaction are never guaranteed.
  • College to Career is independent and is not endorsed by NCES, BLS, USDOL/ETA, O*NET, or any listed college.