Choose the program on the record, not the brochure.

The first cost is the price of attendance: tuition, fees, books and, for a program away from home, the cost of living there. The figure that matters is the net price after grants, not the published price, and most colleges in the United States are required to publish a net price calculator for exactly this reason. Grants are kept; loans are repaid with interest, and federal student loans are difficult to discharge in bankruptcy.

The second cost is quieter and often larger: the pay given up while studying full time, and the years of experience that would have come with it. A program that looks affordable on tuition alone can be the most expensive option once the earnings it replaces are counted.

A school's statement that its graduates earn a certain salary is a claim about other people. Ask who was counted, how many answered the survey, which years it covers and which field. In the United States, the Department of Education's College Scorecard publishes median earnings and typical debt by school and field of study, measured the same way for every school.

A ranking is not an outcome. It describes a school, not what the program will do for one person in one field, at one stage of a career.

The choice is rarely one program or nothing. The same goal can often be reached part time while working, through a shorter certificate, through study an employer pays for, or at a less expensive school with similar outcomes in the field that matters. Not enrolling this year is an option too, and it deserves an honest case.

Each program, and the path of not enrolling, gets a Champion. The Challenger presses on the pay rise the case depends on. Inspector marks a school's placement figure as the school's claim until an independent record confirms it. Grandfather weighs debt that is hard to undo, and Aslan weighs who else carries the choice: a parent who co-signs, or a partner whose income covers the household while you study.

The engine works the cost and the payback exactly from your figures. The Verdict names the leading choice and what would change it, and the Human Decision stays yours.

A full-time master's costs $64,000 in tuition over two years, and leaving a $68,000 job gives up $136,000 in pay, so the degree costs $200,000. The school reports that graduates earn $17,000 a year more. At that rise, before tax, the full-time degree pays back in about 11 years and 9 months. The same degree part time over three years costs $72,000 in tuition with no pay given up, and pays back in about 4 years and 3 months after it ends. The Challenger presses on the $17,000: it is the school's survey of all its graduates, not of this field. Inspector marks it as the school's claim. At a $10,000 rise, the full-time payback stretches to 20 years. The Verdict favors part-time study if the employer allows the schedule, and names what would change it: a written offer that requires the full-time degree, or an employer that pays the tuition.

Can the room tell me whether I will be admitted?

No. Admission is the school's decision. The room weighs the choice in front of you; it does not predict an admissions committee or apply on your behalf.

Can it compare two financial aid offers?

Yes, from the figures on the award letters. It separates grants, which you keep, from loans, which you repay with interest, and works the net cost of each exactly.

Can a parent use it to choose a school for a child?

Yes. The room weighs the schools, the cost and the practical trade-offs, and the parent makes the Human Decision.