About DegreeOutlook

DegreeOutlook analyzes 24,000+ college programs across nearly 1,900 schools using real data: graduate earnings, debt levels, tuition, and projected AI exposure for the careers each degree leads to. Every program gets a DegreeOutlook Score from 0–100 plus three projected scenarios for how AI may reshape the career landscape.

The core question we address: Given what we know about AI disruption today, is this degree still worth the investment? We don't pretend to predict the future, but we surface the data that should inform the decision.

Rather than betting on a single forecast, every program is modeled under three plausible futures:

• Optimistic — AI augments human work, creating new opportunities. Workers in AI-exposed fields see productivity gains and rising wages.
• Base Case — AI displaces some tasks while enhancing others. Mid-level disruption reshapes certain occupations. Earnings shift moderately based on field exposure.
• Pessimistic — Rapid AI adoption significantly reduces demand for highly-exposed occupations. Earnings decline in vulnerable fields. Physical/manual skills become comparatively more valuable.

The point isn't to pick one scenario as “correct” — it's to show how robust (or fragile) a given degree's value proposition is across different futures.

U.S. Department of Education — College Scorecard — Program-level graduate earnings (1-year and 5-year post-graduation), median student debt, tuition costs, and institutional data for every Title IV institution.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — Occupational employment data, projected job growth rates, total annual job openings, and median wages by occupation. Used to map each degree to its real-world labor market.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York — Underemployment rates by major (the share of graduates working in jobs that don't require a college degree). Used in our Expected Value employment model.

OpenAI GPT Exposure Research — Task-level exposure scores quantifying how much of each occupation's work could be performed or significantly assisted by large language models.

Felten et al. AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) — Independent academic measure of AI exposure, providing a complementary lens to GPT-specific exposure.

See our full methodology →

Most college guidance content is either marketing (a school promoting itself) or data with no opinion (raw earnings tables on government websites). DegreeOutlook tries to do something different: combine the data with a clear analytical framework that surfaces the trade-offs people actually face.

We have no relationship with any school, no affiliate links, and no advertising on the site. We don't tell you which degree to pick — we show you the math so you can make an informed call.

DegreeOutlook is an informational tool, not financial or career advice. The three scenarios are a thinking framework, not predictions. Individual outcomes depend on many factors no model can capture: personal aptitude, geographic location, networking, and decisions made after graduation.

We don't replace conversations with college counselors, financial aid officers, or family. We give you a starting point that's grounded in real data, and we try to be honest about what the data does and doesn't tell us.

We read every email. If you spot a data error, have a methodology question, or want to discuss a specific program in more depth, reach out. Corrections to data are prioritized.