Where our numbers come from
Every figure in FuturePath traces to a public dataset. This page lists each one, what it powers, and how fresh it is right now — including the ones that are currently unavailable.
Powering what you see(7)
- Wage percentiles (p10/p25/median/p75/p90)
- Conservative lower-end wage estimate
- Affordability verdict
If it is unavailable: Bundled OEWS reference data, labelled seed.
- Local cost-of-living inputs
- Required-income estimate
If it is unavailable: Seed location stats, labelled seed.
- Institution search (name, state, city, ZIP, type, program length, HBCU, HSI, online)
- Net price, tuition, median debt, completion rate, admission rate, enrollment
- Median earnings 6 and 10 years after entry
- Side-by-side institution comparison
If it is unavailable: None by design. When unconfigured or upstream fails the feature returns 503 and the page says data is unavailable — it never substitutes sample institutions.
- Transportation line item in the required-income breakdown
If it is unavailable: Seed fuel price, labelled seed.
- Life-stage salary projections restated in current dollars
- Education-cost and debt trajectory restated in current dollars
- The vintage-and-CPI basis line shown under the Future Timeline
If it is unavailable: Projections stay in their source-year dollars and no restatement basis is claimed. getCpiAdjustment returns null rather than a neutral 1.0 factor, because a silent 1.0 is indistinguishable from asserting there has been no inflation.
- Housing line item in the required-income breakdown
If it is unavailable: Seed rent figures, labelled seed.
- Task statements — what a typical day involves
- Top skills the occupation leans on
- Interest profile the occupation suits
If it is unavailable: Each of the three fields falls back independently to bundled occupation text, and the card only renders the fields that came back live. Seed content is never shown under an O*NET label.
Connected, but not behind any number
These are wired up but no figure you see is calculated from them. They are listed because a source that refreshes successfully can otherwise look like evidence it is not providing.
BasketIndex cost-of-living
No BASKETINDEX_API_URL is set, so this always returns modelled sample values.
FuturePath never invents a figure to fill a gap. When a source cannot be reached we either fall back to a clearly-labelled bundled copy or show nothing at all — which is why some fields read “Not available” rather than carrying an estimate. How the recommendations are calculated.