Changelog | College Scorecard

On May 21, 2019, the Department updated the College Scorecard website with the first installment of its annual refresh that includes newer, updated data for metrics derived from IPEDS and FSA data sources, such as cohort default rates. Changes to both the data files/API and the Scorecard website were made. Future installments of the 2019 refresh will include metrics derived from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and data from the Department of the Treasury on earnings after attending college.

In addition to updating existing metrics, key data changes include:

Institutions with limited Title IV participation (deferment-only institutions) were added to the API and downloadable data file for 2017_18. In addition, a variable indicating the Title IV eligibility status was added to identify these institutions.
Additional pooled, suppressed metrics derived from the IPEDS Outcome Measures component (percentages of students who completed an award at the institution, who were still enrolled at the institution, who transferred to another institution, and whose status was unknown) were added to the API and downloadable data files. These new metrics are aggregations of data already available in Scorecard, correspond to cohorts of all entering students, all full-time entering students, all part-time entering students, all first-time entering students, and all non-first-time entering students.
Information about the six largest programs of study at institutions following a program-based or continuous enrollment calendar system were added to the API and downloadable data files. These data identify the programs via CIP code and corresponding test description, indicate how long it typically takes (in months) to complete the full program, and provide program costs (tuition, fees, books, and other supplies).

In addition to incorporating the refreshed data, key consumer tool website changes include:

Expanding the universe of institutions to include 1) non-degree granting institutions and 2) institutions with limited Title IV participation (deferment-only institutions).
A table that details the cost and length of the largest programs offered for institutions following a program-based or continuous enrollment calendar display.
The Graduation & Retention section of the school profile now includes 8-year outcome measure data.

The data section provides a data file with preliminary cumulative loan debt data for college graduates by field of study.

Consumer Website: In September 2017, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) updated the College Scorecard consumer website with an annual refresh that includes newer, updated data for virtually all elements. In addition, the Department made some changes to how data are presented on the consumer website. Key changes include:

School Comparison feature. The consumer website has been updated with a new page for comparing user-selected schools. Users of the website can select schools by clicking on the “Add to Compare” star-icon and then visiting the new page.
Replaced “National Average” text with “National Median”. The College Scorecard consumer website has been displaying the National Median values for various metrics to show how schools measure up to other schools. This “average” label, however, was misleading as it was actually the median value. The consumer website now adequately labels these values appropriately.

Downloadable Data Files and API: In addition to providing newer, updated data in the College Scorecard downloadable data files and API, the Department updated and replaced all previously published NSLDS metrics with values calculated with a newer NSLDS data extract. These metrics include repayment rates, student loan cumulative debt percentiles, and NSLDS completion rates.

In addition, the Department made minor changes in the methodology of how data values were calculated for a small subset of variables. In some cases, the Department recalculated data values and replaced previously published data values. Key changes include:

The method of calculating the Predominant Award and Highest Award classifications has been changed to count institutions that award only graduate certificates as graduate institutions rather than certificate institutions. In addition, some institutions that previously did not have values of Predominant Award assigned could be classified as certificate institutions using a value of the IPEDS Institutional Category variable (not included in the Scorecard data) that was not used in prior Scorecard releases.
The source data for the average faculty salary metrics for the 2001-02 and prior Scorecard data files was updated and as a result, some average faculty salary values have changed in these data files.
Whenever institution identifying information from IPEDS (e.g., name) is available in a later data file, the most recent value is used in all Scorecard data files. For example, if an institution changed their name in 2015-16, the new name will be carried through to all Scorecard data files.
Updates to IPEDS data due to revisions by institutions have been applied to the 2013-14 and 2014-15 Scorecard data files (2012-13 and prior Scorecard files released in September 2016 already used final IPEDS data).
The method for calculating the share of entering undergraduate students who are first-time, full-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students (PFTFTUG1_EF) changed to exclude non-degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students from the denominator. All institutions had their data replaced for this metric.
Some Scorecard data elements are available in the September 2017 data release that were not previously made available in Scorecard data files and API:
- Open admissions policy indicator
- Denominator of the percentage of undergraduates that were awarded a Pell grant or federal student loan
- Number of undergraduate non-degree-seeking students enrolled in the fall of the academic year
- Number of graduate students enrolled in the fall of the academic year
- Number of students in the adjusted cohort for the 150% completion rate calculations by race
- PEPS code corresponding to the accrediting agency provided in the Scorecard data file
- Earliest date of initial Title IV approval for any location associated with each IPEDS UNITID
One Treasury Department-produced data element (COUNT_ED) describing earnings cohorts is no longer available and has been assigned all NULL values.

* The Department updated all downloadable data files on October 2, making additional values available from NSLDS-derived data (e.g. the 2012-2013 data file)

In January 2017, the Department updated three data elements that appear on the consumer website and/or the downloadable data files/API with more recent data values:

Currently Operating Status Flag
Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 Flag
Accrediting Agency

The Department also made corrections to three elements, improving data quality:

The OPEID of two institutions now correctly identifies the institution as the main campus (as opposed to a branch campus)
The flag indicating that an institution is a main campus was removed for five institutions across eight years of data, correctly identifying them as branch campuses
Repayment rates were recalculated for all institutions across all years of data.

After identifying an error in the code that generates repayment rates, the Department fixed the error and recalculated all repayment rates and replaced the previously published repayment rate data values with revised values. The error was a technical one in the coding that caused undercounting of some borrowers who had not reduced their balances, and therefore inflated repayment rates for almost all schools. This revision includes all repayment rate data values in all of the merged data files and all versions of repayment rates including repayment rates for each repayment rate cohort, the 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-year repayment rates, and all repayment rates disaggregated by demographic category (e.g. first-generation status, gender, etc.). The relative difference—that is, whether schools fall above, about, or below average— is modest; over 90 percent of institutions on the College Scorecard tool do not change categories from the previously published to the new rates. However, in some cases, the nominal differences are significant.

The Department also updated the data dictionary to resolve an issue that prevented the repayment rate data elements and one additional data element, describing the share of students with family incomes between $48,001-$75,000, from being accessible from the API. In prior releases, these elements were only available in the downloadable data files. In addition, the Department resolved a data dictionary labeling issue on the description for low income students by independent/dependent status.

Consumer Website: In September 2016, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) updated the College Scorecard consumer website with an annual refresh that includes newer, updated data for virtually all elements. Please note that the Department made a minor change to the methodology for calculating the median debt presented on the website. See the description for median loan debt below for more details. In addition, the Department made some changes to how data are presented on the consumer website. Key changes include:

Presenting completion rates as graduating within 150% of time for all institutions regardless of institutional characteristics. In contrast, the previous consumer website version presented completion rates of either 150% or 200% depending on whether the institution was a four-year institution or a two-year institution, respectively.
Identifying minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in the specialized mission category based on the institution’s eligibility to apply for Department MSI grants. In contrast, the previous consumer website version presented only recent grant recipients as MSIs.

Downloadable Data Files and API: In addition to providing newer, updated data in the College Scorecard downloadable data files and API, the Department made minor changes in the methodology of how data values were calculated. In some cases, the Department recalculated data values and replaced previously published data values. Key changes include:

NSLDS derived data elements:
- To improve data quality and to better protect individual privacy, many NSLDS-derived data elements, including those describing earning cohorts, have been subject to statistical imputation and minor data improvement recalculations. Many NSLDS-generated data values previously published in the previous data files have been replaced with recalculated data values.
- In addition, the Department recalculated and replaced earnings cohort data previously calculated by the Treasury Department. These recalculated data elements include:
  - The share of female students (FEMALE), students over 23 at entry (AGEGE24), married students (MARRIED), dependent students (DEPENDENT), veteran students (VETERAN); and first-generation students (FIRST_GEN ¹ ).
  - The average and median family income of students (FAMINC and MD_FAMINC) and separately of independent students (FAMINC_IND) ² ;
MSIs:
- In the previous version of Scorecard, MSIs were designated as recent MSI grantees. In contrast, MSI indicators in the September 2016 data release (except HBCU) replace the earlier measures and instead are derived from the Eligibility Matrix ³ constructed by the Department. The Matrix classifies eligibility on 19 distinct grant programs. The below bullets indicate the correspondence between the Scorecard indicators and the columns of the Matrix:
  - AANAPII: AANAPISI Elig or AANAPISI-F Elig
  - ANNHI: ANNH Elig or ANNH-F Elig
  - HSI: HSI Elig or HSI Stem Elig
  - NANTI: NASNTI Elig or NASNTI-F Elig
  - PBI: PBI Comp or PBI Mand
  - TRIBAL: TCCU Elig
Median Loan Debt:
- In the previous version of Scorecard, the median undergraduate loan debt (DEBT_MDN) was calculated for those who separated (i.e., either graduated or withdrew) in a given fiscal year , measured at the time of calculation (October 2014). These values were recalculated and replaced, by calculating median debt for those who separate in a given fiscal year, measured at the time of separation. ⁴
Carnegie Classification:
- Carnegie Classification data are now based on the 2015 Carnegie Classification scheme. Previously published data from the previous version of Scorecard (using the previous Carnegie Classification scheme) are no longer available in the data files.
New Data Elements:
- Scorecard data elements available in the September 2016 data release that were not previously made available in Scorecard data files and API:
  - Institution name aliases
  - Level of institution
  - Total share of enrollment of undergraduate degree-seeking students who are men
  - Total share of enrollment of undergraduate degree-seeking students who are women
  - Completion rate for first-time, full-time students at four-year institutions (100% of expected time to completion/6 years)
  - Completion rate for first-time, full-time students at less-than-four-year institutions (100% of expected time to completion)
  - Adjusted cohort count for completion rate at four-year institutions (denominator of 100% completion rate)
  - Adjusted cohort count for completion rate at less-than-four-year institutions (denominator of100% completion rate)
  - Transfer rate for first-time, full-time students at four-year institutions (within 150% of expected time to completion/6 years)
  - Transfer rate for first-time, full-time students at less-than-four-year institutions (150% of expected time to completion)
  - Adjusted cohort count for transfer rate at less-than-four-year institutions (denominator of 150% transfer rate)
  - Adjusted cohort count for transfer rate at four-year institutions (denominator of 150% transfer rate)
  - Number of students in the cohort for the three-year cohort default rate
  - Number of students in the cohort for the two-year cohort default rate
Data Elements No Longer Available:
- Several Treasury Department-produced data elements describing earnings cohorts are no longer available (assigned NULL values). These include age of entry squared (AGE_ENTRY_SQ), log of family income (LNFAMINC) log of family income (LNFAMINC_IND), and the share of students who submitted FAFSA® Forms to only one institution or multiple institutions ⁵ (FSEND_* for 1-5).

¹ This data element is redundant with PAR_ED_1STGEN.

² NSLDS calculations of the percentage of students in each income groups are based on nominal dollar values (not adjusted for inflation). This methodology differs from the way the Treasury Department identified income groups (with inflation adjustments) for disaggregated earnings calculations.

³ The Eligibility Matrix is available at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/idues/em2016.xls . For the purpose of the indicators included in Scorecard, some of these programs were combined (and others were not relevant). Values of 5, 6, or ‘E’ in the Matrix yielded a corresponding flag value of 1 (Yes). All other values were mapped to a corresponding flag value of 0 (No). If multiple values were considered for a flag (either across grant programs or across branches of the institution), the Scorecard indicator was set to 1 when any one of the values indicated eligibility.

⁴ In the previous version of Scorecard, if a student separated and then went back and got further undergraduate loans at the same institution after separation and prior to October 2014 (time of measurement), then those additional loans would be included in the total.

⁵ This information recalculated by the Department of Education is available under the data elements APPL_SCH_PCT_GE*.

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