As a high school student in the Midwest who wanted to get to New York City, my college decision came down to my in-state university and a private college in the Northeast. Ultimately, I was swayed to stay home because of the high ranking of my in-state university’s business school.

At the time, the graduate earnings of each college were not available from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard. Had they been, I would have seen that graduates from my in-state university earned much less than the private college in the Northeast. Today, I can see they earn 36% less.

Wow. Given my interest in studying business, I doubt I would have ignored such a difference. If I had instead chosen the private college in the Northeast, then in today’s dollars, I would have likely graduated with over $200,000 of student debt. Luckily, I stayed in-state, got to NYC and was able to save my earnings and eventually bootstrap my first business venture.

With GradBetter, I would have compared location-based earnings by college and found that business graduates in NYC actually make more from my in-state university. How?

Simply put, colleges that send most of their graduates to high cost of living cities, such as NYC, reflect this premium in their graduates’ earnings. Why? Because employers increase salaries to compensate for the higher cost of living in those cities. As argued in Inside Higher Ed, by the College Scorecard making “no adjustment for where those graduates live, it ends up providing misleading information about how successful the graduates of different colleges are.”

First, by comparing only business majors instead of all graduates, the earnings gap closes from 36% to 19%. Next, by indexing the cost of living where each colleges’ graduates live and adjusting earnings to remove that premium or discount, the gap actually flips. Business majors from my in-state university living in NYC earn more than those of the private college in the Northeast.

Back to the college rankings that originally swayed me to stay in-state. Graduate earnings are now a major factor in calculating these rankings. Colleges with most of their graduates in high cost of living cities should get a rankings boost. Therefore, adjusting graduate earnings by cost of living not only changes the math for families, it also levels the playing field for colleges.

This is just one story and graduate earnings is only one consideration. But given the financial impact of the college decision, we want to help students find a better way to graduate.

Gage Mersereau