The Obama Administration’s College Scorecard is kind of the gift that continues to give. It gives prospective students, and their parents, the ability to compare schools without having to fully visit too many colleges.

There’s another win from the scorecard, too—and that is that, thankfully, we get an idea of how well students do financially after they have graduated.

Here’s what you need to know about how a college degree can influence your wage potential—and whether or not a college degree is still worth it in this day of high student loan debt.

1. According to an article via Hamptonroads.com, the scorecard “tracks salaries 10 years after the freshman year.” The good news? Student salaries used for the purpose of the article range from $34,000 to $56,000. The bad news? Salaries all depend on a student’s major.

But that’s not really bad news as someone with a degree in finance is likely to make more than a student who chooses a career path in journalism.

The economy also plays a major role in determining one’s salary. Some companies constrict employment, increase employee production, and fail to produce salary increases because of how tight its bottom line becomes due to the state of the economy.

2. Yet…even with those deciding factors, college graduates still make more than that of those with just high school diplomas. Most companies still prefer a college graduate compared to someone who just has a G.E.D. or high school diploma. A college degree won’t guarantee that you are wealthy, but it should help you live a more comfortable life than if you didn’t have it at all. Now if we could just get the pursuit of those college degrees to be a little more affordable in the first place, we’d really have something.

That statistic isn’t likely to change anytime soon, and students should still strive for a college education to maximize their lifetime earning potential.

Now I want to hear from you: How valuable is a college degree today? Leave your thoughts in the comments.