Common Data Set

Common Data Overview

The Common Data Set Initiative is an effort to create a standard record of information that is frequently requested from schools, allowing schools to release a simple template that publishers such as Ididio can use.

Methodology and content

A database of common data set responses is not publicly available, and each institution chooses whether to make their responses to the common data set queries public. Each year between April and August, the template is updated with feedback from both the schools and data publishers who organize the data set, and institutions are encouraged to update their public release on their website.

Information included in the CDS includes enrollment and graduation rates, academic offerings, student body diversity, housing, Greek life, and more. Because it is just a template, many of the less concrete categories such as Greek life suffer from inconsistent reporting across schools.

Finding the data

Unfortunately, there is not a central repository for this data. The major publishers who negotiate the CDS content and format receive the data directly from the institutions. Ididio currently collects CDS data by visiting school websites and downloading their CDS report if it has been publicly shared. The current CDS data that we share was collected in November 2019 and generally for the 2018-2019 academic year, although some institutions share slightly older data. We only publish this data from institutions that share their data in pdf, Word, or Excel using the original Excel formatting. We encourage institutions to contact us at info@ididio.com if they do not find their common data on our site.