On the heels of a new study released by The Equality of Opportunity project which examined tax return records for over 30 million college students between 1999 and 2013, the New York Times “The Upshot” section has recently published a few very interesting articles and interactive tools, found below.

One article, titled “Some Colleges Have More Students From the Top 1 Percent Than the Bottom 60. Find Yours.” by Gregor Aisch, Larry Buchanan, Amanda Cox and Kevin Quealy uses the data to compare and contrast colleges on a number of different indicators including: college enrollment versus parent income, economic outcomes for students versus parent income at different colleges, social mobility rates at different colleges and much more.

Another article, titled “America’s Great Working-Class Colleges” by David Leonhardt uses the data to identify colleges that push students into the middle class and beyond, while examining changes in state funding and the role different colleges play in helping students achieve “the American Dream.”

Finally, and most interesting to me, the Upshot published a tool that closely examines economic diversity and student outcomes at any college, and compares that college to its peer institutions on a number of indicators. I looked up the statistics for the schools I attended, George Washington University and Baruch College, and their rankings on many of the scales differ greatly.

All of this data and comparing and contrasting left me with many questions (but not very many answers); What role should colleges play in boosting economic mobility? Should that role differ by the type of institution? Is economic diversity at college something college applicants value? Should it be a factor in their decisions on where to apply or attend? Should it be something parents are considering as they gently suggest colleges for their child to check out? How do economic outcomes sway college choice decisions? Of all the qualities applicants seek to evaluate when choosing a college, how important is the economic success of that school’s graduates? How does it compare with, say, curriculum style, size, or location?

I encourage you to use this tool and check out the data for colleges which you have a connection to.