IPEDS Data

What is IPEDS?

IPEDS is the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. It is a system of interrelated surveys conducted annually by the U.S. Department’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). IPEDS gathers information from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, requires that institutions that participate in federal student aid programs report data on enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, finances, institutional prices, and student financial aid. These data are made available to students and parents through the College Navigator college search Web site and to researchers and others through the IPEDS Data Center.

IPEDS Data

The reports contained in this section use IPEDS reporting conventions. IPEDS reporting differs from local reporting in the following ways:

  1. IPEDS includes 2nd baccalaureates in undergraduate student enrollment, whereas the campus includes 2nd baccalaureates in postbaccalaureate (graduate) student enrollment.
  2. IPEDS includes freshmen entering with greater than 29 college units earned in high school as first-time, whereas the campus excludes students entering with greater than 29 units earned in high school from first-time freshmen counts.
  3. IPEDS calculates ethnic percentages using all ethnic groups in the base, whereas the campus calculates ethnic percentages using only reported ethnicities, which excludes "race/ethnicity unknown" and "nonresident alien" categories.

IPEDS Reporting Methodology

Only first-time freshmen who enrolled full-time (>=12 units) in their first semester as a matriculated student are counted in the cohorts, regardless of their unit loads in subsequent semesters. Those matriculated and enrolled full-time in the summer prior to the fall cohort are counted in the fall cohort. First-time college matriculants who came in with enough college units earned while in high school to start as sophomores or juniors in their first term are defined as first-time freshmen and included in the cohorts. Official degrees conferred files that were submitted to the Chancellor's Office's on specific dates were used, in which degrees that were not posted at the time the files were submitted were reported as being earned in subsequent terms.

First Time Freshmen Graduation Rates Retention