rodney

ok I'm a moron....where is the Adobe icon in the upper right hand corner? Should I go on internet explorer rather than AOL?

tokenadult

I wonder how this company scrapes its data. I find it hard to believe that this is collected individually and independently, and now that I've looked at more college profiles, I'm not sure how accurate or current it is either.

Here's my FAQ on the currency of Common Data Set data:

CURRENCY OF COMMON DATA SET INFORMATION

Each school year the colleges officially count their new freshman class AFTER the school year begins. (One college admission officer told me near the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year that his college counts on the tenth day of class in the new school year, which I think is industry-standard practice. Whatever the date, usually each college does this on the same date each year.) Sometime around the turn of the calendar year (that is, in January during the school year) a college's figures for that freshman class begin to be posted on the College Board website, and possibly on the college's own website in the form of a Common Data Set filing. So what you see early in the school year on the College Board descriptions of colleges is mostly information about the entering freshman class that entered in fall of the PREVIOUS school year (for example, information about new enrolled college students from high school class of 2008 is available to applicants in fall of 2009). That is the MOST RECENT information you have to go on as you apply for colleges yourself in fall of 2009, as a member of high school class of 2009. It is always like this--there is always a built-in lag between the year you can look up and the year you are living in as a student. Sometimes colleges post press releases right after they admit a new class in the spring, but those press releases are not comparable from college to college in the way that Common Data Set information is.

BassDad

rodney,

make sure you are on the right page first. After searching for the college, did you click on the name of the college to get to the page that then lets you click on the Adobe icon? It took me a moment to realize that I had to go one screen farther than I initially thought to get to that point.

richs73cas

Gettysburg College - Common Data Set
Gettysburg College

Dad'o'2

I dug a little bit through their FAQs:


What type of information is available about individual colleges?

A tremendous amount of information is available about each of the 1,900 colleges in the CollegeData database, including detailed information about admissions, financial aid, costs, academics, and campus life. All colleges in our database are U.S. institutions that offer baccalaureate programs (such as B.A., B.S., B.F.A., etc.). Two-year institutions and institutions outside of the U.S. are not included.

We license most of the college information from third-party data vendors. The vendors obtain the data directly from the individual colleges. (emphasis mine)

The results of the College Chances and College Net Cost Calculator tools are calculated by CollegeData using information reported by the colleges. These results are not provided by the colleges.



How often is the information on CollegeData updated?

All information included on the CollegeData site is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

Articles are reviewed and updated, as needed, throughout the year.
CollegeData updates all college information annually at the beginning of the academic year. Additional updates may be made during the year. The statistics currently displayed are reported by the colleges about the previous academic year. For example, in October 2008 the admissions statistics available on CollegeData reflect admission for the 2007-2008 academic year. The college information is used in several features, including the College Match search engine, College Profiles, College Chances, and College Net Cost Calculator.
CollegeData updates the Scholarship Finder database at least once a year prior to the beginning of the academic year. Additional updates may be made during the year.
CollegeData updates the EFC Estimator calculation formula and instructions annually at the beginning of the year.

discourse

Emory Data Set:

http://www.emory.edu/PROVOST/IPR/doc..._2008_2009.pdf

richs73cas

Trinity College Hartford CT Trinity College: Reports and Statistics

richs73cas

Link to Common Data Sets Trinity University:

BobbyCT

Okay, this is a real stupid question but I am having brain lock on this. The students that were accepted into the class of 2013 at a particular college, the ones going to school this fall, will they be listed under the 2008-2009 data? I just want to get the most current data. Thanks!

jym626

IIRC, from reading this thread and elsewhere, the class of 2013's data will not be firmed up until about a week after school starts, and the school websites are usually updated by the beginning of the second semester with that information.

xiggi

No, the Common Data Set 2008-09 includes data about degree-seeking, first-time, first-year students who applied, were admitted, and enrolled (full- or part-time) in the fall of 2008. That means the Class of 2012. This is the same data that will be used by U.S. News in its 2010 edition of America's Best Colleges.

The America's Best Colleges 2009 edition rankings went live on August 22, 2008 and covered the Class of 2011.

For the Class of 2013, you will need the Common Data Set 2009-10 and the US News' America's Best Colleges 2011 edition to be published in the summer of 2010.

Confused enough?

BobbyCT

xiggi, thanks for the info. I am curious how early the 2009-2010 might be made available by individual colleges. My daughter will be a senior so it would be great to see the admissons information for the most recently admitted class of an individual college. I know the guidebooks generally lag but I was hoping that the information would be available sooner by a specific school.

xiggi

The earliest would be September-October. Between November and February, there are many additions.

Of course, there are still colleges and universities that think the public should be on a need to know basis.

Papa Chicken

hats off to Williams for setting a new bar on transparency. Just stumbled across a Williams web site that contains all of their "guidebook" submissions, including US News. Much of the info is already contained in the CDS, but there appears to be more....for instance, in my quick perusal, info on faculty expenditures, stats on alumni giving, and much more. Have at it:
Williams College - College Guidebook Submissions

[note: I found this site while googling, but it does not appear to be visible on Williams' IR page, so perhaps they do not mean this to be public (yet)?]

xiggi

PC, I feel so guilty not having sent you that link when it was first posted. I believe this a case of a broken link at the IR office because it used to be visible. Since I had it bookmarked, I did not realize the link had vanished.

One of the great benefits of the Information Sharing Center is that it did show the entire USNews survey (except for the much maligned PA Survey.)

To my knowledge, this is the only school that has done this to such extent.