`search_schools`

Pack: college-scorecard · Endpoint: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/college-scorecard/mcp

No MCP client? Call it directly: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_schools for the schema, then POST the same URL with its arguments for the data.

Search US colleges and universities by name. Returns school name, location, tuition, admission rate, student size, median earnings, and completion rate. Example: search_schools(“MIT”, “MA”).

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`_apiKey`	string	yes	api.data.gov API key
`query`	string	yes	School name to search for (e.g., “Stanford”, “community college”)
`state`	string	no	Two-letter state code to filter (e.g., “CA”, “NY”)
`limit`	number	no	Number of results to return (default: 10, max: 100)

Example call

Arguments

{
  "query": "Stanford University",
  "state": "CA",
  "_apiKey": "your-college-scorecard-api-key"
}

curl

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/college-scorecard/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_schools","arguments":{"query":"Stanford University","state":"CA","_apiKey":"your-college-scorecard-api-key"}}}'

TypeScript (@pipeworx/sdk)

import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const pipeworx = new Pipeworx();

const result = await pipeworx.call('search_schools', {
  "query": "Stanford University",
  "state": "CA",
  "_apiKey": "your-college-scorecard-api-key"
});

More examples

{
  "query": "MIT",
  "state": "MA",
  "limit": 5,
  "_apiKey": "your-college-scorecard-api-key"
}

Response shape

Always returns: query, state, total, returned, schools

Field	Type	Description
`query`	string	Search query string provided
`state`	string \| null	State filter (uppercase) or null
`total`	number	Total matching schools in database
`returned`	number	Number of schools in this response
`schools`	array	List of matching schools

Full JSON Schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "query": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Search query string provided"
    },
    "state": {
      "type": [
        "string",
        "null"
      ],
      "description": "State filter (uppercase) or null"
    },
    "total": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Total matching schools in database"
    },
    "returned": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Number of schools in this response"
    },
    "schools": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "List of matching schools",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
          "id": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "College Scorecard ID"
          },
          "name": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "School name"
          },
          "city": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "City location"
          },
          "state": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "State code"
          },
          "zip": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "ZIP code"
          },
          "url": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "School website URL"
          },
          "ownership": {
            "type": [
              "string",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Public, Private nonprofit, or Private for-profit"
          },
          "student_size": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Total enrolled students"
          },
          "admission_rate": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Admission rate (0-1)"
          },
          "tuition_in_state": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "In-state tuition cost"
          },
          "tuition_out_of_state": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Out-of-state tuition cost"
          },
          "median_earnings_10yr": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Median earnings 10 years after entry"
          },
          "completion_rate": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Completion rate (0-1)"
          },
          "median_debt": {
            "type": [
              "number",
              "null"
            ],
            "description": "Median debt for completers"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "query",
    "state",
    "total",
    "returned",
    "schools"
  ]
}

Connect

Add this to your MCP client config, or use one-click install buttons:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "college-scorecard": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/college-scorecard/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See Getting Started for client-specific install steps.

search_schools