Making informed education decisions: Indiana's Return on College calculator
For worker-learners weighing whether to invest time and money in education, the Return on College tool transforms abstract questions into concrete numbers, helping Hoosiers make decisions that align with both their career goals and financial realities.
Choosing whether to pursue postsecondary education or training is one of the most significant financial decisions anyone will make. For many Hoosiers, the question isn't just whether to go to school; it’s whether school will actually pay off.
The Return on College (ROC) tool, now available on Hoosiers by the Numbers (HBTN), helps answer this question with personalized insights. This AI-enhanced calculator, developed as a partnership between the Indiana Business Research Center, Indiana Department of Workforce Development and Vantage Point Consulting1, estimates the return on investment (ROI) for specific educational programs, while also considering your current situation, the costs of attending school and the long-term earnings potential for graduates of your chosen program.
What makes this version of ROC particularly valuable for workers and learners is its expanded scope. While the original tool, also developed by Vantage Point, focused primarily on four-year degrees, this version includes short-term certificates and associate degrees. This enhancement reflects the reality that not everyone needs a bachelor's degree to see meaningful wage gains, and many high-demand careers require credentials that can be completed sooner or while working.
The tool walks users through a straightforward process: Select a program and institution, provide basic background information (e.g., age, highest level of education, most recent job, etc.) and funding sources (e.g., student loans, out of pocket, etc.), and receive a personalized ROI report. That report breaks down the financial picture — from break-even timeline to lifetime return — in clear language. Users can even pick from a list of follow-up questions to dive into the report further. Finally, you can explore how stacking additional credentials might further boost earnings over time.
For worker-learners weighing whether to invest time and money in education, ROC transforms abstract questions into concrete numbers, helping Hoosiers make decisions that align with both their career goals and financial realities. ROC is designed for anyone considering postsecondary education, whether you're a high school student planning your next step, a worker looking to upskill or someone considering a career change. It's particularly useful if you're comparing multiple programs or trying to understand whether a specific credential will justify the investment.
Getting started with ROC
You can find the ROC calculator on Hoosiers by the Numbers, Indiana’s flagship labor market information resource. Click the link above or, on HBTN, use the navigation bar to select “Tools” > “Return on College Calculator.” From the landing page, choose a college or university, a degree level and a degree program to get started.
Depending on which college or university you choose, only the available options will populate in the two other fields. For example, if you pick Ivy Tech Community College, only certificates and associate degrees will be available in the dropdown, and only programs Ivy Tech offers will populate the auto complete in the degree name field. See Figure 1 for an example search.
Figure 1: ROC tool start page
Source: Hoosiers by the Numbers
On the next page, answer a few questions about your background, current financial situation and where you want to live after completing your chosen degree program (see Figure 2). After answering all six questions, click “Continue to College Costs.”
Figure 2: "Your Background" page on ROC tool
Source: Hoosiers by the Numbers
Now, answer a few questions about your residency, credit load (full- or part-time), family income and expected living situation so the calculator can estimate how much college might cost you (see Figure 3). The tool sources its information on college costs from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education. This is the “investment” part of the return on investment calculation: How much of your own resources — time and money — do you have to invest to earn the desired credential? Click “Continue to College Funding” to move on to the next page.
Figure 3: "Your College Costs" page on ROC tool
Source: Hoosiers by the Numbers
Here, you can refine how you’re going to pay for college. The calculator defaults to your total cost of attendance being paid out of pocket, but if you’re expecting military benefits or other financial support, you can adjust those sliders. For example, if you’re expecting to receive a $3,000 Pell Grant, adjust the “Other Financial Support” slider to that amount and watch as your out-of-pocket expense decreases. If your out-of-pocket expense is still too high for you, lower that slider and the federal loan amount will increase automatically (see Figure 4).
If you end up taking out student loans, future payments on those loans will be factored into the ROI report. Click “Continue to Your College ROI Report” to move on to the main event.
Figure 4: "Your College Funding" page on ROC tool
Source: Hoosiers by the Numbers
Your personalized return on college
Finally, the tool will give you the full ROI report (an example of which is presented below in Figure 5), complete with its recommendations about whether the program is worth it given its earnings potential. It estimates this earnings potential based on a combination of outcomes data from the NCES and, for Indiana public colleges, data on earnings from individuals who have completed the degree sourced from administrative wage and education records.
Augmenting the tool’s recommendation and your personalized income projection are these reports:
- Your ROI: break-even point, 10-year and lifetime ROI.
- Cost-benefit analysis: total program cost, estimated monthly expenses over the course of earning the degree — these will be low if you indicate you’re living off-campus with family, because it assumes you aren’t paying anything for living expenses — lifetime and monthly income boost after earning the degree, and your student loan payment.
- Credential stacking opportunities: If you continue your education even further, how much more could you earn?
Figure 5: "Your College ROI Report" page on ROC tool
Source: Hoosiers by the Numbers
You can export your report if you’re finished, or you can ask some follow-up questions to the AI Advisor, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: ROC AI Advisor on ROC tool
Source: Hoosiers by the Numbers
Conclusion
ROC provides access to important data about college costs and benefits in an easy-to-use interface that contextualizes it and makes it actionable for anyone considering furthering their education. Like any data product, it comes with caveats you should consider:
- Limited expense modeling: The tool estimates some basic living expenses while you’re in school and loan payments after, but doesn't begin to capture the full complexity of individual financial situations.
- Data limitations: Earnings projections are based on historical outcomes and may not perfectly predict future wage trends, especially in rapidly evolving industries.
- Individual variation: Your actual ROI will depend on factors the calculator can't measure — like how well you network, your career choices and whether you complete the program on schedule.
While ROC can help you understand the dollars-and-cents return, higher education isn’t a math equation. People pursue education for unmeasurable reasons: mastering new skills, gaining confidence or simply the desire to learn (the “love of the game,” so to speak). For working adults, especially, the financial payoff of higher education matters, but so does finding work that feels meaningful, stable or aligned with their interests.
The ROC calculator is just one tool in the toolbox. Use it to understand the financial picture, then factor in everything else that matters to you. The numbers are important, but they’re not the whole story.
Notes
- The Return on College tool was developed as a partnership between the IBRC, Indiana Department of Workforce Development and Vantage Point Consulting using funding from the Coleridge Initiative’s Democratizing our Data Challenge (DDC). We thank all of our partners for the many hours spent on data governance, research, analysis and development for this project to come to fruition. We also thank the Coleridge Initiative for their invaluable project support and the funders of the DDC for the financial support.