Enter a College

CollegeROI Analyzer: Calculate, compare, and maximize your college investment—1-click insights into earnings, costs, and ROI for U.S. college-major combinations.

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Inspiration

As a parent helping my teen navigate college choices, I saw a gap: families lack clear, quick ways to weigh the financial impact of college-major decisions. I wanted to create a tool that cuts through the noise—no jargon, no login, just actionable ROI insights for U.S. students and parents.

What it does

CollegeROI Analyzer lets users input any U.S. college and major to instantly see 10-year earnings projections, total attendance costs, ROI percentage, and payback period. It supports side-by-side comparisons (up to 3 pairs), scholarship matching, and premium $29 reports with 20/30-year earnings and regional salary adjustments.

How we built it

We started with core financial logic: $ROI = ((10\text{-Year Cumulative Earnings} - Total Cost) / Total Cost) \times 100\%$, $Payback Period = Total Cost / Average Annual Salary$. We built the frontend with React for smooth UX, added auto-complete to the search bar, integrated Chart.js for data visuals, and used Stripe for premium report payments. Backend with Node.js/Express handled data curation and PDF report generation via PDFKit.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing speed and detail was tough—we needed instant results without sacrificing accuracy in financial calculations. Limiting comparisons to 3 items while keeping the UI intuitive also required iterative testing. Ensuring PDF reports generated reliably post-payment (even if users navigated away) added technical complexity.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a fully functional tool that delivers value without account creation—users get critical financial insights in seconds. The side-by-side comparison feature consistently receives positive feedback for making complex data easy to compare, and the premium report flow works seamlessly end-to-end.

What we learned

We deepened our understanding of financial modeling for education investments and user-centric design—teens and parents prioritize simplicity over complexity. We also learned to integrate third-party APIs (Stripe, PDFKit) in ways that feel seamless to users, not clunky.

What's next for this project

We plan to expand regional salary data to more U.S. cities, add personalized scholarship matching based on eligibility, and introduce interactive student loan repayment simulators. Long-term, we’ll explore integrating real-time labor market data to keep earnings projections current.

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