WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NitroScore, a powerful online and no-cost tool for determining the affordability of student loans, launched today at https://score.nitrocollege.com. For the first time, students and their families can explore how picking one college or major over another may impact their ability to repay student loans.
Fueled by advanced analytics, proprietary data and individual consumer preferences, NitroScore creates personalized rankings of college and major choices – based on the predicted ability to repay student loans after graduation. NitroScore is backed by real-world college cost data and projected post-graduation salaries, allowing students and their families to compare schools, financial aid offers, and majors to identify their most affordable option.
In addition to proprietary data, NitroScore incorporates detailed information on the costs of 4,138 U.S. colleges, summarized by the National Center for Education Statistics. These costs include published tuition, room and board, books, supplies and other expenses of living on campus. Salary data are compiled by PayScale and include averages based on a survey of 1.4 million college graduates, broken down across 336 majors at four-year colleges (bachelor’s programs) and 140 two-year college majors (associate degrees).
“A college education should be an open door to success, yet many students find themselves coming out of college unnecessarily saddled with too much debt,” said Mike Brown, managing director of NitroScore. “NitroScore is designed to answer the question, ‘how much can I afford to borrow and not be unreasonably burdened by student debt?’ Students often don’t understand how their choice of major can affect whether or not they will be able to afford to pay their student loans after graduation. NitroScore helps remove this ambiguity.”
NitroScore helps students look at the potential financial consequences of their college selection. As an example, consider an in-state student looking at West Virginia University, who gets $5,000 a year in scholarship. The NitroScore results for three different majors below highlight the effect the choice of major has on the student’s ability to repay college loans. The lower the score the more challenging it will be to pay back those student loans.
- Early childhood education – a NitroScore of 390 (32 percent of a student’s post-grad income is devoted to paying back debt)
- Accounting – a NitroScore of 578 (a 21 percent debt/income ratio)
- Computer science – a NitroScore of 691 (14 percent debt/income ratio)
Using NitroScore, students and families can compare different options by selecting a college and major to get an immediate NitroScore, showing whether they are in the green, yellow, or red zone for managing their college loan repayments. They can then customize the results, adding in scholarship or grant offers from the schools, contributions from 529 plans and other savings, aid from additional sources, and even gifts from family members, which gives them a real-time look at their potential loan repayment situation.
“There are hundreds of tools that rank colleges in the aggregate, but NitroScore is unique in helping students understand the best financial choices for them based on their individual circumstances,” continued Brown. “Choosing a college is one of the most important decisions a young person will ever make. Doing so in an informed fashion where students and their parents can clearly look at the manageability of student loans is critical to their financial future.”
To try NitroScore, please visit https://score.nitrocollege.com/.
About NitroScore
NitroScore is a free, online tool that lets students and their families rank their college and major choices to determine the affordability of student loans upon graduation. Using real-world data on college costs and after-college salaries, NitroScore allows students and their families to compare schools, financial aid offers, and majors to make informed choices about college and student loans. Learn more here: www.nitrocollege.com/nitroscore/media?hs_preview=lVYslqOD-4948909874.
About Nitro
Based in Wilmington, DE, Nitro is committed to lowering the $1.2 trillion in student debt nationwide by offering students and their families a variety of resources to help them finance their higher education and minimize debt. With free, accessible information about the FAFSA, scholarships, grants, and student loans, Nitro addresses the many issues students face in funding their education and paying their debt post-graduation.
For more information, visit https://www.nitrocollege.com/.
