Data Documentation


College Scorecard provides data at the institution-level and data by field of study. The technical data documents provide in-depth information about these data. The data dictionary includes separate worksheets with institution-level and field of study dictionaries as well as cohort maps describing the timing aspects of each data element.

Looking for help? Visit StackExchange or email the help desk at scorecarddata@rti.org. For inquiries by members of the press, please contact press@ed.gov.

API Documentation


The College Scorecard API is a GET API that lives at http://api.data.gov/ed/collegescorecard/. The endpoint for querying all data is /v1/schools. Developers may register for an API key at https://api.data.gov/signup or by completing the form below.

Structure

The basic structure of an API call is year.dev-category.dev-friendly-variable-name.

  • The year may be any year of data available (example: 2012), or use the word latest to get the most recent data available from the API. Using the "latest" key will allow your application to access the new data as soon as it is released.
  • The school category has no year.
  • id, ope6_id, ope8_id and location have no category or year.

All variables are listed in the Data Dictionary.

Download the Data Dictionary (.xlsx, 703 KB)

Register for an API key

To use the College Scorecard API you must have an API key. An API key is a unique identifier that is used to authenticate data requests associated with your project.

First, please complete the security challenge below.

Second, use the form below to complete the registration process and receive your API key.

For guidance on querying the API and extracting results, see the HTTP API documentation.