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| Georgetown recently posted its Common Data Set for the first time. |
The tricky part is finding
where it’s posted. But once you
locate the Common Data Set (CDS) for a particular college or university, you’ll have
the key to unlocking a treasure trove of valuable information.
And it’s often more current and
complete than what’s posted on glitzier college search websites or printed in
the mega college guides.
For example, the
2012
College Board College Handbook was printed in June, 2011 and contains data
provided to the CDS for the 2010-11 academic year. The 2013 edition is due out next month.
But most colleges have already
posted CDS responses for 2011-12, and they are readily accessible online. So why not get a jump on the 2013 Handbook by going
directly to the source?
Also, not every website or
guide uses every morsel of information available through the CDS. Few will tell you about wait lists or
transfers. But if you know where to
look, it’s usually all there.
And not only that, you can
research trends by looking at CDS data over a series of years. Unless you’ve kept all those bulky guides or
filed away printouts over the years, no other source will so easily lend itself
to historical research on wait lists, freshman retention, or graduation rates.
Keep in mind, however, that the
CDS is a voluntary project in which participating colleges “self-report”
information with little or no oversight.
While unusual, there have been
instances of malfeasance where colleges attempt to rig information to look
better or improve their status on the
USNWR
rankings. And not every college chooses
to answer every question.
You can always double check
information on the
College Navigator website. But even then, the data is only
as good as what colleges are willing or able to provide and it sometimes lags
the most recent Common Data Set.
So for the extra motivated, here
are a few of the treasures you can unlock with creative use of the Common Data
Set:
- Graduation
Rates. For recent graduating classes,
you can compute 4-year graduation rates by dividing B7 (completions in four
years or less) by B6 (total class size).
Using this computation, Georgetown graduated 89 percent of the class
beginning in 2004 within four years. Question
B11 saves you the math and simply states the 6-year graduation rate, which for
Georgetown was 94 percent for the same class.
- Retention. Question B22 provides the freshman retention
rate as based on the date the institution calculates its “official”
enrollment—a number subject to some manipulation depending on who is counting
and on what day.
- Admit
Rate (Selectivity). Using the answers to C1, you
can get male/female as well
as overall
admit rates (selectivity) by dividing the number of admitted students by the number of
applicants. If you’re really tricky, you
can see the relative percentages of male and female admits. For example, the College of William & Mary admitted 44 percent of its male applicants for fall of 2011, but only 29
percent of the females.
- Yield. Once again using C1, the yield is computed by
dividing the total number of enrolled students by the number admitted. Note that because of the sensitivity and
importance of this number, the definitions of “admitted” and “enrolled” are
often subject to debate.
- Wait list. The answers to C2 will speak volumes
about a school’s use of the wait list and what the likelihood is of admission
from the wait list. For example, in
2011, Johns Hopkins offered 2725 students places on the wait list for a class
of 1279. Of those, 2364 (or most)
accepted spots on the list. From that
group, 19 were admitted.
- Interview. C7 suggests the relative importance of
academic and nonacademic factors in admission.
This is a good place to see if interviews are available and how
generally important they are. Georgetown
considers the interview “important,” while Johns Hopkins and William & Mary
simply “consider” the interview.
- Average
GPA. C12 provides the average high
school GPA of all enrolled freshmen.
Because it’s hard to know if the number is weighted, recomputed, and/or
representative of all grades submitted, the GPA response is left out of many college
guides. And for some of those same reasons,
it’s a question that’s frequently left blank by colleges.
- Transfer. D2 shows how many transfer applications
were received, how many students were admitted, and how many eventually
enrolled. Other basic information on the
transfer process is also made available such as the terms during which transfers
may enroll (D3), minimum credit units required for transfer (D4), the need for
an interview (D5), and a minimum college grade point average (D7).
- Residency.
Under the “Student Life” section (F1), you can see the percent (and number)
of out-of-state students (excluding international students) enrolled. Both Towson and James Madison enrolled about
18 percent of out-of-state freshmen in the fall of 2011, while Johns Hopkins
enrolled 90 percent from out-of-state.
- Financial Aid. The entire H section is
devoted to financial aid, including scholarships/grants and "self-help" awards. Interestingly,
athletic “awards” are broken down separately in H1. And H6 answers the question of whether or not institutional aid is available to "nonresident aliens."
- Percent
of Need. In H2i, you can find what
percent of need the college claims was met for students awarded any need-based
aid. For Johns Hopkins, that amount
would be 99 percent for freshmen and 99.7 percent overall, while Georgetown
meets 100% of need. Towson met 60
percent of need for full time freshmen, and American declined to answer the
question.
There’s certainly an argument
for letting the CDS gurus aggregate and message the data into more user-friendly
formats. But if you can’t wait until
mid-summer and like the idea of going directly to the source, check out the
Common Data Set.
This is the second of a two-part series.
The Arlington-based National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) maintains a vast library of documents and materials covering issues in college admissions, including a number related to veterans and veterans' educational opportunities. While many resources are freely available to
the public on the NACAC website, more specialized information is usually housed
in the members-only “Knowledge Center.”
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