A Tool for Comparing CollegesThis week, I’d like to tell you about something that will help you when it comes time to compare schools against one another. It is only one piece of the college selection puzzle, and like campus visits, net cost, location, “feel”, rankings, and other factors, should provide assistance in the selection process. It is, however, something that will allow you to compare certain facts about the schools side by side, in exactly the same format.
This week, I’d like to tell you about something that will help you when it comes time to compare schools against one another. It is only one piece of the college selection puzzle, and like campus visits, net cost, location, “feel”, rankings, and other factors, should provide assistance in the selection process. It is, however, something that will allow you to compare certain facts about the schools side by side, in exactly the same format.What I’m talking about are called Common Data Sets (CDS). They’re not very flashy or ‘sexy’, but they provide a ton of very specific, useful information to anyone who knows to look for them. Several years ago, The College Board and a number of publishers like U.S. News and World Report, along with the higher education community, got together to “improve the quality and accuracy of information provided” when creating college rankings and collecting data on numerous colleges. Imagine if you worked at a college and had to answer the questionnaire required to put together U.S. News and World Report’s annual college rankings, then had to answer a different set of questions for Peterson’s, and another, and another… This standardization made the job of the colleges much easier, still provided publishers the data they need, and in the process provided parents and students another tool to help them decide on a college. Among other things, Common Data Sets tell you the following: Admissions Office contact information; application, enrollment and retention numbers for both freshmen and transfer students; student age, gender, ethnicity, and test score distribution; factors considered in admission decisions; whether the application fee can be waived for financial reasons; percentage of students who participate in the Greek system, are from out-of-state or live on campus; numbers of degrees conferred; class size and student-faculty ratios; as well as demographic information about faculty. Also included is information about tuition, fees, room/board and book costs; financial need of students; average debt load and financial aid awards. Also, at the end of the document is the best set of college terminology definitions I’ve seen. Not all schools post their Common Data Set (as far as I can tell), and it doesn’t appear that it’s required. I DID, however, find one for every large, well-known university I searched for, but not for some smaller, less well-known colleges or junior colleges. So my assumption is the larger the school, the more likely the CDS will be available. To find a school’s CDS, go to their web site and search for “common data set”, possibly in their Institutional Research Office. Back to Articles List |
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