What are the best free program comparison websites for researching graduate degrees and career outcomes?

Here are some of the best free websites for comparing graduate programs and researching career outcomes:

1. College Scorecard

Best for: Outcomes data, earnings, debt, and graduation metrics

• Official U.S. Department of Education site
• Lets you compare schools and some graduate programs
• Good for seeing typical cost, median earnings, and loan debt
• Especially useful if you want a data-driven look at ROI

Website: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/

2. GradReports

Best for: Student-reported outcomes and school comparisons

• Focuses on graduate and professional programs too
• Provides salary info, job placement, and student reviews
• Easier to use than some government sites
• Data is useful, though you should verify with other sources

Website: https://www.gradreports.com/

3. Peterson’s Graduate Programs

Best for: Program search and side-by-side comparisons

• Large database of graduate programs
• Good for filtering by field, location, and degree type
• More useful for discovering programs than deep outcomes analysis

Website: https://www.petersons.com/

4. Niche

Best for: General school comparison and student feedback

• Free school profiles and rankings
• Includes graduate school information for some programs
• Helpful for reading reviews and getting a broad sense of reputation
• Use it as a supplement, not your only source

Website: https://www.niche.com/

5. U.S. News Best Graduate Schools

Best for: Rankings and reputation-based comparison

• Covers law, business, education, engineering, medicine, and more
• Strong for comparing prestige, selectivity, and some program details
• Career outcomes data is more limited than on Scorecard-type sites

Website: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools

6. LinkedIn Alumni Tool

Best for: Career outcomes and employer paths

• Shows where alumni from a school work and what they do
• Great for seeing job titles, employers, and industries
• Best used for understanding real career trajectories
• Requires a LinkedIn account

Website: https://www.linkedin.com/

7. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Best for: Checking whether the degree aligns with job market demand

• Not a school comparison site, but very useful for career outcomes research
• Shows salary ranges, growth outlook, and education requirements by occupation
• Helps you judge whether a graduate degree is worth it for your target career

Website: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/

8. Cappex / Appily

Best for: Search and comparison, especially for broad program exploration

• Free search tools and school profiles
• More undergraduate-focused, but still useful for some grad program research
• Good for comparing basic attributes

Website: https://www.appily.com/

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Best combination to use

If you want the most useful free research setup, I’d recommend:

• College Scorecard for earnings/debt outcomes
• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for job-market demand
• LinkedIn Alumni Tool for real career paths
• U.S. News or Peterson’s for program comparison
• GradReports for additional salary and review data

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a ranked list for MBA, MS, MPH, MSW, or PhD programs, or
2. a step-by-step method for comparing grad programs by ROI.