Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Student Access and Earnings Classification?
The Student Access and Earnings Classification examines the extent to which peer institutions serve students using two measures:
- Access: Are institutions providing access to a student population that is representative of and reflects the locations they serve?
- Earnings: After students leave an institution, how much are they making compared to peers in their job market?
To learn more about the Student Access and Earnings Classifications’ methodology, read the technical manual.
What are you hoping to achieve with the Student Access and Earnings Classification?
The Student Access and Earnings Classification prioritizes student success. Specifically, it identifies which American colleges and universities are providing students access to higher education and paths to earning competitive wages. Through this classification, we aim to:
- Drive improvement to benefit more students nationwide;
- Learn from institutions that foster student success;
- Build on existing work by providing context based on geographic data and comparisons of similar institutions;
- Better equip states, funders, accreditors, and researchers, especially those that already use the Carnegie Classifications; and
- Help institutions learn more from their data and identify strategies for improvement.
Who is the intended audience for the Student Access and Earnings Classification?
The Student Access and Earnings Classification is a lever for institutional change and is intended to spur conversation, learning, and action focused on increasing opportunity and student success. We hope it will be used by institutions, state and federal policymakers, grantmakers, accrediting bodies, researchers, and others who want to identify institutions based on their contributions to access and earnings and/or study institutions based on the students they enroll and the economic outcomes of those students.
How does the Student Access and Earnings Classification fit into the structure of the Institutional Classifications?
The Student Access and Earnings Classification uses the multidimensional groupings of the 2025 Institutional Classification to evaluate student access and earnings between similar colleges and universities. By comparing peer campuses, the Student Access and Earnings Classification aims to encourage collaboration and incentivize institutional improvement and student success.
What does the Student Access and Earnings Classification add to the field that has been studying social and economic mobility?
We recognize there are a number of existing measures, ratings, and ranking systems that exist. Our approach differs from most by evaluating student access and earnings across similar colleges and universities (grouped by the new, multidimensional Institutional Classification), and by contextualizing access and earnings data within the unique geographies that schools serve. Unlike some other approaches, the Student Access and Earnings Classification applies to all types of institutions, takes earnings for both non-completers and graduates into account, and intentionally includes a limited number of measures to make clear how an institution’s data impacts its classification.
We hope the Student Access and Earnings Classification will add to the field of research on this topic, complement other approaches, and provide a valuable lens through which the higher education sector can be viewed.
What are Opportunity Colleges and Universities?
Opportunity Colleges and Universities are institutions within the Student Access and Earnings Classification that can serve as models for studying how campuses foster student success. They provide higher than expected levels of access to low-income and underrepresented students, and their students experience strong earnings outcomes.
How do institutions become classified?
Generally, institutions are organized into the six different Student Access and Earnings Classifications based on their access and earnings ratios.
- Opportunity Colleges and Universities (Higher Access, Higher Earnings): Institutions whose access ratio is at least 1 and whose earnings ratio is at least 1.5 (for baccalaureate and higher institutions) or 1.25 (for primarily associate colleges).
- Higher Access, Medium Earnings: Institutions whose access ratio is at least 1 and whose earnings ratio is between 1 and 1.5 (for baccalaureate and higher institutions) and 1 and 1.25 (for primarily associate colleges).
- Higher Access, Lower Earnings: Institutions whose access ratio is at least 1 and whose earnings ratio is less than 1.
- Lower access, Higher Earnings: Institutions whose access ratio is less than 1 and whose earnings ratio is at least 1.5 (for baccalaureate and higher institutions) or 1.25 (for primarily associate colleges).
- Lower Access, Medium Earnings: Institutions whose access ratio is less than 1 and whose earnings ratio is between 1 and 1.5 (for baccalaureate and higher institutions) and 1 and 1.25 (for primarily associate colleges).
- Lower Access, Lower Earnings: Institutions whose access ratio is less than 1 and whose earnings ratio is less than 1.
To learn more about the Student Access and Earnings Classifications’ methodology, read the technical manual.
What are Opportunity Colleges and Universities doing well?
We believe there are a number of different strategies that Opportunity Colleges and Universities are undertaking to support student success. We expect these approaches might look different across different Institutional Classifications and within different parts of the higher education sector. We are looking forward to studying and learning from those institutions over the next few months and elevating their best practices.
Why are some institutions not classified in the Student Access and Earnings Classification?
About 900 institutions are unable to be classified in the Student Access and Earnings Classification for various reasons, including insufficient data for students at that institution or insufficient data for the majority of institutions in the Institutional Classification. The Institutional Classifications for which we are unable to provide an SAEC includes Special Focus: Medical Schools and Centers, Special Focus: Graduate Studies, Special Focus: Law, and Special Focus: Theological Studies.
Can I appeal my classification?
Institutions who wish to appeal given an inaccuracy or error that has resulted in an incorrect Carnegie Classification may do so via this form.