Why We Show Sample Sizes
A median built on a handful of graduates can swing by thousands of dollars because of one person's job.
A median built on a handful of graduates can swing by thousands of dollars because of one person's job. So College Receipt prints the sample size beside every program figure, and it follows a simple rule: a college's own earnings or debt figure appears only when at least 30 graduates sit behind it. Figures on 30 to 99 graduates carry a small-program flag and are never ranked against larger programs. When a program is smaller than that, or its figure is not published at all, we show the national median for that major - badged as the national median, with the national sample size beside it. Earnings and debt are judged separately, because a program can clear the bar for one and not the other.