Confessions of a CDS Wrangler

You haven't heard much from me lately. Here's why.

It is tempting to ask you, my readers, to indulge me in a rant about college Common Data Sets. I'm coming off three months of exclusive dedication to their updates. This set of disjointed, unevenly reported metrics is basically AI Kryptonite. With no synchronized release dates, a half-dozen formats, uneven participation and disappearing metrics--I'm talking to you, Early Action admissions stats--well, I focus instead on the market need instead of my current level of dishevelment. (Picture Amadeus Mozart as he composes the last stanzas of his own requiem. Too bad I'm not Mozart.)

Why do I endure the institutional research equivalent of herding cats? There are three reasons.

• First of all, I am determined to maintain a single place on the internet where hundreds of these reports are aggregated, analyzed, and visualized.

  
  

• Second, they include data which is simply not available anywhere else. More on that in a minute.

  
  

• Last--and perhaps this should be first--CDS financial aid data tracks two years ahead of its counterpart metrics from IPEDS (the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System). Isn't that a drop-the-mic-level rationale for keeping this information available for everyone? 125 of our colleges can be analyzed for Fall 2024 financial aid, not Fall 2022.

Which Data is Only Found on Common Data Sets?

Early Decision

Waitlist

Transfer admissions

Relative importance of admissions factors

Greek life participation

Merit scholarship prevalence and award sizes

...to name a few

How Moore College Data Makes the Most of the Information

The raw data alone is valuable. But collection efforts demand some analysis and visualization. Check out two charts which simplify some pretty complex dynamics.

I. ADMISSIONS by cohorts

The image below summarizes the admissions cycle for the high school class of 2024 for five institutions. Is this data uncomfortable? Well, yeah. That's why you have to rely on an independent provider to show it to you.

An important side note: The common convention is that only enrolled waitlist students are counted as admitted waitlist students. I've only run into a handful of schools which do not report as such.

Early Decision data dependably sparks indignation, and most families are probably unaware that waitlists are also used to meet institutional needs. But before you, dear readers, suffer an outburst of fury against the institutions listed, please consider their gift of transparency: Participation in the CDS is optional, and, even among the colleges which publish CDS data, many decline to give us the information most people seek. Of the 203 colleges I collected this year, around 40 won't provide the information necessary to be included in the chart above. I dutifully record UChicago data every year, hoping against hope that I'll see some ED or waitlist numbers.

II. Financial aid, visualized

In my opinion, the best single-view analysis of the way financial aid works at a given college is the following pie chart.

For financial aid year 2024-2025:

Most colleges have two pools of money--one designated for students who demonstrate financial need, the other designated for students who do not (merit). Awards for the need cohort sometimes include money from the merit pile, but merit recipients do not receive money from the need pile. Athletes are not included in this breakdown. Source information: Derived from WFU 2024-2025 Common Data Set.

Wake Forest's sticker price for full-time students living on campus last year was $91,202 (that's per College Navigator but is assumedly echoed on the CDS). By no means am I judging Wake Forest or its admissions professionals when I say that this, too, is uncomfortable data. Wake's market position is such that they can operate like this, and-as I've probably written a half-dozen times in this space--while admissions professionals typically love their applicants, they are accountable to their institutions.

Speaking of admissions professionals, if you hold such a position and spot any information in our products which seems to be erroneous, please reach out. Our true north is what you submit.

In short, friends, I've missed posting, blogging, and otherwise interacting with you. Here's hoping you find the information helpful.

'Til next time,

Leigh

Note for subscribers: Your spreadsheets are current and reflect the 2024-2025 Common Data Sets for the colleges listed below. Integration of the information into your Snapshot tool is coming soon.

Additionally, our site will be down while we publish the next iteration of our products, but your tools will remain accessible.

If list is not visible, click at left to expand.

Agnes Scott College

American University

Amherst College

Arizona State University Campus Immersion

Auburn University

Austin College

Babson College

Ball State University

Barnard College

Bates College

Baylor University

Bellarmine University

Bentley University

Berklee College of Music

Binghamton University

Boise State University

Boston University

Bowdoin College

Bradley University

Brandeis University

Brigham Young University

Brown University

Bryn Mawr College

Bucknell University

Butler University

California Institute of Technology

California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

California State University-Los Angeles

California State University-Sacramento

Carleton College

Carnegie Mellon University

Case Western Reserve University

Chapman University

Citadel Military College of South Carolina

Claremont McKenna College

Clemson University

Colgate University

College of Charleston

Colorado College

Colorado State University-Fort Collins

Columbia College Chicago

Columbia University in the City of New York

Connecticut College

Cornell University

Dartmouth College

Davidson College

DePaul University

DePauw University

Dickinson College

Drexel University

Earlham College

East Carolina University

Elon University

Emory University

Florida Institute of Technology

Florida State University

Fordham University

Franklin and Marshall College

Furman University

George Mason University

George Washington University

Georgetown University

Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus

Gonzaga University

Grinnell College

Hamilton College

Harvard University

Harvey Mudd College

Haverford College

Hofstra University

Howard University

Iowa State University

Johns Hopkins University

Kansas State University

Kenyon College

Lafayette College

Lake Forest College

Lehigh University

Lewis & Clark College

Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

Loyola Marymount University

Loyola University Chicago

Loyola University Maryland

Loyola University New Orleans

Macalester College

Marquette University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Michigan State University

Middlebury College

Mississippi State University

Montana State University

Mount Holyoke College

New York University

North Carolina State University at Raleigh

Northeastern University

Northwestern University

Oberlin College

Occidental College

Ohio State University-Main Campus

Ohio University-Main Campus

Oklahoma State University-Main Campus

Oregon Institute of Technology

Oregon State University

Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Pepperdine University

Pitzer College

Pomona College

Princeton University

Purdue University-Main Campus

Radford University

Reed College

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rhodes College

Rice University

Rochester Institute of Technology

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

San Diego State University

Santa Clara University

Sarah Lawrence College

Skidmore College

Smith College

Southern Methodist University

Southwestern University

Spelman College

St Olaf College

Stanford University

Stevens Institute of Technology

Stony Brook University

SUNY at Albany

Swarthmore College

Temple University

Texas A & M University-College Station

Texas Christian University

Texas Tech University

The College of Wooster

The University of Alabama

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville

The University of Texas at Austin

Trinity College

Tufts University

Tulane University of Louisiana

Union College

University of Arizona

University of Arkansas

University of California-Berkeley

University of California-Davis

University of California-Irvine

University of California-Los Angeles

University of California-Riverside

University of California-San Diego

University of California-Santa Barbara

University of California-Santa Cruz

University of Central Florida

University of Chicago

University of Cincinnati-Main Campus

University of Connecticut

University of Dayton

University of Delaware

University of Denver

University of Florida

University of Georgia

University of Houston-Downtown

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

University of Kentucky

University of Louisville

University of Maryland-College Park

University of Massachusetts-Amherst

University of Miami

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

University of Mississippi

University of Missouri-Columbia

University of New Hampshire-Main Campus

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina Wilmington

University of Notre Dame

University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus

University of Oregon

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus

University of Richmond

University of Rochester

University of San Diego

University of South Carolina-Columbia

University of South Florida

University of Vermont

University of Virginia-Main Campus

University of Washington-Seattle Campus

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Vanderbilt University

Vassar College

Villanova University

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Wake Forest University

Washington and Lee University

Washington University in St Louis

Wellesley College

Wesleyan University

William & Mary

Williams College

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Yale University

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