Compare Schools
scorecard_compare_schoolsRead-only
Normalized side-by-side comparison of 2–5 schools on a named topic. Returns percentile-ranked rows and relative deltas within the result set — structured output an agent cannot reconstruct from raw profiles. Topics: costs (tuition, net price by income bracket, debt), admissions (acceptance rate, SAT/ACT, enrollment), outcomes (graduation rate, earnings, repayment), aid (Pell grants, federal loans, debt, repayment). This is different from scorecard_get_school with multiple IDs — compare_schools adds within-set normalization.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| ids | Yes | Array of 2–5 school unit IDs to compare. | |
| topic | Yes | Comparison topic: costs, admissions, outcomes, or aid. |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| rows | No | Comparison rows — one per metric, with per-school values and ranks. | |
| error | No | Present when the call failed. Absent on success. | |
| topic | No | The comparison topic used. | |
| notice | No | Warning if some requested IDs returned no record. | |
| schools | No | Schools in the comparison set, in the same order as the ids input. | |
| summary | No | Brief interpretive summary highlighting the most notable relative differences. |