Data Dictionary
| Data Term | Definition | Definition Source |
|---|---|---|
| 12-month period | A 12-month period defined by an institution for reporting a full year of activity (July 1 through June 30). | IPEDS |
| 25th percentile | The score at or below which 25 percent of students submitting test scores to an institution scored (SAT, ACT) | IPEDS |
| 75th percentile | The 75th percentile is the score at which 25 percent of students submitting test scores to an institution scored at or above (SAT, ACT). | IPEDS |
| Abroad | Any geographic location not in the aggregate United States, which includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the other areas. | IPEDS |
| Academic program | An instructional program leading toward a bachelor's degree or resulting in credits that can be applied to one of these degrees. | IPEDS |
| Academic Rank | A status designated by the institution according to the institution's policies. The IPEDS HR survey includes the ranks of Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Instructor, and Lecturer. | IPEDS |
| Academic Standing | A level of academic performance measured by grade point average per term. | IPEDS |
| Academic support | A functional expense category that includes expenses of activities and services that support the institution's primary missions of instruction, research, and public service. It includes the retention, preservation, and display of educational materials (for example, libraries, museums, and galleries); organized activities that provide support services to the academic functions of the institution; media such as audiovisual services; academic administration (including academic deans but not department chairpersons); and formally organized and separately budgeted academic personnel development and course and curriculum development expenses. Also included are information technology expenses related to academic support activities; if an institution does not separately budget and expense information technology resources, the costs associated with the three primary programs will be applied to this function and the remainder to institutional support. Institutions include actual or allocated costs for operation and maintenance of plant, interest, and depreciation. | IPEDS |
| Academic year | The period of time generally extending from September to June equated to 2 semesters. | IPEDS |
| Accelerated programs | Completion of a college program of study in fewer than the usual number of years, most often by attending summer sessions and carrying extra courses during the regular academic term. | IPEDS |
| Accrediting agencies | Organizations (or bodies) that establish operating standards for educational or professional institutions and programs, determine the extent to which the standards are met, and publicly announce their findings. | IPEDS |
| ACT | ACT, previously known as the American College Testing program,measures educational development and readiness to pursue college-level coursework in English, mathematics, natural science, and social studies. Student performance does not reflect innate ability and is influenced by a student's educational preparedness. | IPEDS |
| Adjunct instructional staff | Non-tenure track, instructional staff serving in a temporary or auxiliary capacity to teach specific courses on a course-by-course basis. Includes both instructional staff who are hired to teach an academic degree-credit course and those hired to teach a remedial, developmental, or ESL course; whether the latter three categories earn college credit is immaterial. Excludes regular part-time instructional staff (who, unlike adjuncts are not paid on a course-by-course basis), graduate assistants, full-time professional staff of the institution who may teach individual courses (such as a dean or academic advisor), and appointees who teach non-credit courses exclusively. | IPEDS |
| Adjusted cohort | The result of removing any allowable exclusions, (death or total and permanent disability; service in the armed forces (including those called to active duty); service with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; or service on official church missions. from a cohort (or subcohort), for the Fall Enrollment component, it is the cohort for calculating retention rate; for the Graduation Rates component, this is the cohort from which graduation and transfer-out rates are calculated; and for the Outcome Measures component, these are the four cohorts (first-time, full-time; first-time, part-time; non-first-time, full-time; or non-first-time, part-time) for which outcomes rates are calculated at 4,6, and 8 years. | IPEDS |
| Admit Term | IPEDS | |
| Admit Year | IPEDS | |
| Admitted students | Applicants who meet the admissions requirements and are accepted to the college | IPEDS |
| Advanced placement (AP) courses | College-level courses taught in high school. Students may take an examination at the completion of the course; acceptable scores allow students to earn college credit toward a degree,certificate,or other recognized postsecondary credential. | IPEDS |
| Aid received | For the purposes of the IPEDS Student Financial Aid (SFA) component, aid received refers to financial aid that was awarded to, and accepted by, a student. This amount may differ from the aid amount that is disbursed to a student. For example, a student may accept aid that was awarded by the institution but then leave the institution prior to the aid being disbursed. In this case, because the student accepted the aid, the aid would be reported to IPEDS, even though it was NOT actually disbursed to the student. | IPEDS |
| Allowances | That part of a scholarship or fellowship that is used to pay institutional charges such as tuition and fees or room and board charges. | IPEDS |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community attachment. | IPEDS |
| Applicant | An individual who has fulfilled the institution's requirements to be considered for admission (including payment or waiving of the application fee,if any) and who has been notified of one of the following actions: admission, nonadmission, placement on waiting list, or application withdrawn by applicant or institution. | IPEDS |
| Application fee | That amount of money that an institution charges for processing a student's application for admittance to the institution. | IPEDS |
| Asian | A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam. | IPEDS |
| Attempted credit hours | The number of credit hours that a student attempted to complete. | IPEDS |
| Attendance Status - 12 month Enrollment | The attendance level of students is determined on the first full term (i.e., semester or quarter) at entry. For example, if a transfer-in (non-first-time entering) undergraduate student entered an institution in the Spring term of the July 1 – June 30 reporting period as part-time, this student should be reported as a part-time, transfer-in (non-first-time entering) undergraduate student Or, if degree/certificate seeking undergraduate student who took a summer session preceding the start of the July 1 – June 30 reporting period enrolled in following fall term as a full-time students should be reported as a full-time, first-time degree/certificate seeking undergraduate student. Note: Even if the student’s attendance status changes (i.e., full-time to part-time, or vice versa) of if the student drops out, transfers out, or transfers back into the institution during the 12-month period, the student’s attendance status is reported as of entry to the institution for the first full term. | IPEDS |
| Audit/auditing (a class) | Term used when a student elects to take a course, but does not wish to receive credit for the course toward a degree or other recognized postsecondary credential. | IPEDS |
| Baccalaureate Colleges - Liberal Arts (Carnegie) | An institutional classification developed by the Andrew W. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Baccalaureate Colleges - Liberal Arts are primarily undergraduate colleges with major emphasis on baccalaureate programs. During the period studied, they awarded at least half of their baccalaureate degrees in liberal arts fields. | IPEDS |
| Bachelor's degree | An award (baccalaureate or equivalent degree, as determined by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education) that normally requires at least 4 but not more than 5 years of full-time equivalent college-level work. | IPEDS |
| Bachelor's or equivalent degree-seeking sub | In the Graduation component of IPEDS, a cohort of students who were seeking a bachelor's or equivalent degree upon entry. | IPEDS |
| Black or African American | A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. | IPEDS |
| Board charges | Charges assessed students for an academic year for meals. | Hope |
| Board plan | The method for providing meals to students during an academic year. Plans may include a specific charge for a specified number of meals per week (21/wk at Hope). | |
| Calculation of FTE students (using fall student headcounts) | The number of FTE students is calculated based on fall student headcounts as reported
by the institution on the IPEDS Enrollment Component (Part A). The full-time equivalent
(headcount) of the institution's part-time enrollment is estimated by multiplying
the factors noted below times the part-time headcount. These are then added to the
full-time enrollment headcounts to obtain an FTE for all students enrolled in the
fall. This formula is used to produce an FTE that is used annually in the Digest of
Education Statistics. Part-time undergraduate enrollment: *Private (not-for-profit and for-profit) 4-year (.392857) |
IPEDS |
| Calculation of FTE students (using instructional activity) | The number of FTE students is calculated based on the credit and/or clock hours reported
by the institution on the IPEDS 12-month enrollment (E12) component and the institution's
calendar system, as reported on the IC Header component. The following table indicates
the level of instructional activity used to convert the credit and/or clock hours
reported to an indicator of full-time equivalents (FTE students): Semester calendar system *Enrollment level (One FTE over 12-month period) *Undergraduate 30 credit hours |
IPEDS |
| Census Day | See "Official Fall Reporting Date" | |
| Chief Administrator | The principal administrative official, or chief executive officer, responsible for the direction of all affairs and operations of a postsecondary education institution, or that component of an organization that conducts postsecondary education, but who may report to a governing board. | IPEDS |
| CIP Code | See "Classification of Instructional Programs" | |
| Class Section | A sub-section of a course within a term as offered by a campus for enrollment purposes. | IPEDS |
| Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) | A six-digit taxonomic coding scheme (xx.xxxx) for secondary and postsecondary instructional programs. It is intended to facilitate the organization, collection, and reporting of program data using classifications that capture the majority of reportable data. The CIP is the accepted federal government statistical standard on instructional program classifications and is used in a variety of education information surveys and databases. | IPEDS |
| Clock hour | A period of time consisting of (1) A 50- to 60-minute class, lecture, or recitation in a 60-minute period; (2) A 50- to 60-minute faculty-supervised laboratory, shop training, or internship in a 60-minute period; or (3) Sixty minutes of preparation in a correspondence course. Hope only uses this for faculty load calculation. | IPEDS |
| Cohort | A specific group of students established for tracking purposes. | IPEDS |
| Cohort entry type | Student type at beginning of cohort term: First-time student, Focus, Transfer | Hope |
| Cohort term | First term the student entered Hope as a degree-seeking student. The cohort is designated after Add/Drop date so the incoming class will not have a cohort until this date. | Hope |
| Comparison group | The group of peer institutions used for comparison purposes within the IPEDS Peer Analysis System (PAS). Comparison groups may be identified by the analyst by name or UnitID,they may be built by using characteristics (variables) from the IPEDS data, or they may be automatically generated by the system. Also referred to as a peer group. | IPEDS |
| Completed credit hours | Completed credits means credits from a course that students earned an official grade between A and D- or a CR | IPEDS |
| Completer | A student who receives a degree or other recognized postsecondary credential. In order to be considered a completer, the degree/award must actually be conferred. | IPEDS |
| Completers within 150% of normal time | Students who completed their program within 150% of the normal (or expected) time for completion. | IPEDS |
| Confidential | IPEDS | |
| Continuing/Returning student (undergraduate) | A student who is not new to the institution in the fall, but instead is continuing his or her studies at the institution (i.e., not first-time and not transfer-in). | IPEDS |
| Cost of attendance | The amount of tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, and other expenses that a full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking student can expect to pay to go to college for an academic year. Costs reported by the institutions are those amounts used by the financial aid office to determine a student's financial need. | IPEDS |
| Course | A discipline accompanied by a 3 digit number to identify a unique class with specified outcomes, taught by one or more instructors, for which a student earns credit. Examples of courses are MATH 115, COMM 101, etc. | Hope |
| Course Fee | A fee to cover addition/unique costs specifically related to a particular course . Such fees may include, but are not limited to laboratory fees,tests, etc. | Hope |
| Course Reference Number (CRN) | A unique 5 digit number assigned to a course in the course catalog. | Hope |
| Course withdrawal date | The last date to withdraw from a course | Hope |
| Credit | Recognition of attendance or performance in an instructional activity (course or program) that can be applied by a recipient toward the requirements for a postsecondary degree, diploma, certificate, or other recognized postsecondary credential, irrespective of the activity's unit of measurement. | IPEDS |
| Credit course | A course that, if successfully completed, can be applied toward the number of courses required for achieving a postsecondary degree or other recognized postsecondary credential, irrespective of the activity's unit of measurement. | IPEDS |
| Credit hour | A unit of measure representing the equivalent of an hour (50 minutes) of instruction per week over the entire term. It is applied toward the total number of credit hours needed for completing the requirements of a degree or other recognized postsecondary credential. | IPEDS |
| Credit hour activity | The provision of coursework to students which can be measured in terms of credit hours. | Hope |
| Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number | The Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number is a 9-digit number assigned by the Dun & Bradstreet Information Corporation to any entity providing products, goods, or services. | |
| Degree | An award conferred by a college, university, or other postsecondary education institution as official recognition for the successful completion of a program of studies. | IPEDS |
| Degree seeking students | Students enrolled in courses for credit who are seeking a degree, certificate, or other recognized postsecondary credential. This includes students who: received any type of federal financial aid, regardless of what courses they took at any time; received any state or locally based financial aid with an eligibility requirement that the student be enrolled in a degree-seeking program; or obtained a student visa to study at a U.S. postsecondary institution. High school students also enrolled in postsecondary courses for credit are not considered degree/certificate-seeking. | IPEDS |
| Deposit | Payments to confirm a student's intent to enroll. | Hope |
| Disability services | Programs designed to provide reasonable academic accommodations and support services to empower students who have disabilities to competitively pursue postsecondary education.May also include assistance to campus departments in providing access to services and programs in the most integrated setting possible. | IPEDS |
| Distance education course | A course in which the instructional content is delivered exclusively via distance education. Requirements for coming to campus for orientation, testing, or academic support services do not exclude a course from being classified as distance education. | IPEDS |
| Dual credit | A program through which high school students are enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, taught at their high school, that fulfill high school graduation requirements and may earn the student college credits . | IPEDS |
| Dual enrollment | A program through which high school students may enroll in college courses while still enrolled in high school. Students are not required to apply for admission to the college in order to participate. | IPEDS |
| Early action | An admission plan that allows students to apply and be notified of an admission decision well in advance of the regular notification dates. If admitted, the candidate is not committed to enroll (unlike early decision). Students may reply to the offer under the college's regular reply policy. | IPEDS |
| Early admission | A policy under which students who have not completed high school are admitted to and enrolled full-time in college, usually after completion of their junior year. | IPEDS |
| Early decision | A plan that allows students to apply and be notified of an admission decision (and financial aid offer, if applicable) well in advance of the regular notification date. Applicants agree to accept an offer of admission and, if admitted, to withdraw their applications from other colleges. There are three possible decisions in response to such an application: admitted, denied, or not admitted but forwarded for consideration with the regular applicant pool, without prejudice. | IPEDS |
| Educational offerings | Educational programs offered by postsecondary institutions that are occupational, academic, or continuing professional that qualify as postsecondary education programs OR recreational or a vocational, adult basic, remedial instruction,high school equivalency, or high school programs that are not deemed postsecondary. | IPEDS |
| Entering students | Students at the undergraduate level, both full-time and part-time, coming into the institution for the first time in the fall term (or the prior summer term who returned again in the fall). This includes all first-time undergraduate students, students transferring into the institution at the undergraduate level for the first time, and non-degree/non-certificate-seeking undergraduates entering in the fall. | IPEDS |
| Ethnicity | According to IPEDS, When institutions collect race and ethnicity data from students and staff, they are required to use a 2-question format. The first question asks about ethnicity (is the individual Hispanic or Latino, yes or no) and the second question asks about race. Ethniciites are: Hispanic/Latino or White, if an individual is Hispanic/Latino, all must answer both, however only report Hispanic for Ethnicity not race. | IPEDS |
| Exclusions | Those students who may be removed (deleted) from a cohort (or subcohort). For the Graduation Rates, Outcome Measures, and Fall Enrollment retention rate reporting, students may be removed from a cohort if they left the institution for one of the following reasons: death or total and permanent disability; service in the armed forces (including those called to active duty); service with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; or service on official church missions. | IPEDS |
| Faculty | Persons identified by the institution as such and typically those whose initial assignments are made for the purpose of conducting instruction, research or public service as a principal activity (or activities). They may hold academic rank titles of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, lecturer or the equivalent of any of those academic ranks. Faculty may also include the chancellor/president, provost, vice provosts, deans, directors or the equivalent, as well as associate deans, assistant deans and executive officers of academic departments (chairpersons, heads or the equivalent) if their principal activity is instruction combined with research and/or public service. The designation as 'faculty' is separate from the activities to which they may be currently assigned. For example, a newly appointed president of an institution may also be appointed as a faculty member. | IPEDS |
| Faculty Status | A status designated by the institution according to the institution's policies. 'Faculty' may include staff with academic appointments (instruction, research, public service) and other staff members who are appointed as faculty members. The designation 'faculty' is separate from the activities to which the staff members are currently assigned. For example, a president, provost, or librarian may also be appointed as a faculty member. | IPEDS |
| Fall cohort | The group of students entering in the fall term established for tracking purposes. For the Graduation Rates component, this includes all students who enter an institution as full-time, first-time degree or certificate-seeking undergraduate students during the fall term of a given year. | IPEDS |
| Fall term | The part of the academic year that begins between late August and November 1. | IPEDS |
| Financial aid | Federal Work Study, grants, loans to students (government and/or private), assistantships, scholarships, fellowships, tuition waivers, tuition discounts;employer aid (tuition reimbursement) and other monies (other than from relatives/friends) provided to students to meet expenses. This excludes loans to parents. | IPEDS |
| First generation student | Parents do not have a four year degree or higher. | IPEDS |
| First-time student | A student who has no prior postsecondary experience (except as noted below) attending any institution for the first time at the undergraduate level. This includes students enrolled in academic or occupational programs. It also includes students enrolled in the fall term who attended college for the first time in the prior summer term, and students who entered with advanced standing (college credits or recognized postsecondary credential, earned before graduation from high school). | IPEDS |
| First-year student | A student who has completed less than the equivalent of 1 full year of undergraduate work; that is, less than 30 semester hours (in a 120-hour degree program) . | IPEDS |
| Freshman | A first-year undergraduate student. | IPEDS |
| FTE student | The number of FTE students is calculated based on fall student headcounts as reported
by the institution on the IPEDS Enrollment Component (Part A). The full-time equivalent
(headcount) of the institution's part-time enrollment is estimated by multiplying
the factors noted below times the part-time headcount. These are then added to the
full-time enrollment headcounts to obtain an FTE for all students enrolled in the
fall. This formula is used to produce an FTE that is used annually in the Digest of
Education Statistics. Full-time headcount + 1/3 Part-time headcount |
IPEDS |
| Full aid year | For the purposes of the IPEDS Student Financial Aid (SFA) component, full aid year refers to either the academic year. | IPEDS |
| Full-time equivalency (FTE) of students | The full-time equivalent (FTE) of students is a single value providing a meaningful combination of full-time and part-time students.Calculated by taking the total credit hours/15. | Hope College |
| Full-time equivalency (FTE) staff | The full-time-equivalent (FTE) of staff is calculated by summing the total number of full-time staff from the Employees by Assigned Position (EAP) component and adding one-third of the total number of part-time staff. | IPEDS |
| Full-time staff (employees) | As defined by the institution. The type of appointment at the snapshot date determines whether an employee is full-time or part-time. The employee's term of contract is not considered in making the determination of full- or part-time. | IPEDS |
| Full-time student | Undergraduate: A student enrolled for 12 or more semester credits in each term. | IPEDS |
| Full-year cohort | This is a group of students entering at any time during the 12-month period for tracking and reporting. For Graduation Rate (GR), a full-year cohort is from September 1 through August 31 and is used primarily by institutions that offer occupational programs of varying lengths. Students must be full-time and first-time to be considered in the cohort. For Outcome Measures (OM) component, all degree-granting institutions report on a full-year cohort from July 1 through June 30. Students are reported once in one of the four OM cohorts: first-time, full-time; first-time, part-time: non-first-time, full-time; or non-first-time, part-time. | IPEDS |
| GED (General Educational Development) | This term normally refers to the tests of General Educational Development (GED), which provide an opportunity to earn a high school credential. The GED program,sponsored by the American Council on Education, enables individuals to demonstrate that they have acquired a level of learning comparable to that of high school graduates. | IPEDS |
| GPA - Overall/Cumulative | IPEDS | |
| GPA - Subject | IPEDS | |
| GPA - Term | IPEDS | |
| Graduation rate | The rate required for disclosure and/or reporting purposes under Student Right-to-Know Act. This rate is calculated as the total number of completerswithin 150% of normal time divided by the revised adjusted cohort. | IPEDS |
| Graduation Rates (GR) | This annual component of IPEDS was added in 1997 to help institutions satisfy the requirements of the Student Right-to-Know legislation. Data are collected on the number of students entering the institution as full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students in a particular year (cohort), by race/ethnicity and gender; the number completing their program within 150 percent of normal time to completion; the number that transfer to other institutions if transfer is part of the institution's mission. GR automatically generates worksheets that calculate rates, including average rates over 4 years. | IPEDS |
| High school diploma or recognized equivalent | A document certifying the successful completion of a prescribed secondary school program of studies, or any of the following: recognized attainment of satisfactory scores on the GED or another state-authorized examination, recognized completion of homeschooling at the secondary level as defined by state law, completion of secondary school education in a homeschool setting which qualifies for an exemption from compulsory attendance requirements under state law, if state law does not require a homeschooled student to receive credential for their education. | IPEDS |
| High school student | A student enrolled in secondary school or pursuing a high school diploma or recognized equivalent . Includes students who have not received but are pursuing a high school diploma or recognized equivalent and taking college coursework concurrently. | IPEDS |
| Hispanic/Latino | A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. | IPEDS |
| Housing capacity | The maximum number of students for which an institution can provide residential facilities, whether on or off campus. | IPEDS |
| Imputation | A method of estimating data for an entity that did not respond to a data item or survey. | IPEDS |
| Initial cohort | A specific group of individuals established for tracking purposes. For the Graduation Rates (GR) and Outcome Measures (OM) components of IPEDS, the initial cohort is defined as the enrollment count before removing revisions and exclusions of all degree/certificate-seeking students who enter in either (1) the fall term of a given academic year, or (2) between September 1st and August 31st of the following year. For the GR component of IPEDS, the initial cohort is only for full-time, first-time students. For OM, all undergraduates are placed in one of four initial cohorts: full-time, first-time; part-time, first-time; full-time, non-first-time; and part-time, non-first time. | IPEDS |
| In-state student | A student who is a legal resident of the state in which he/she attends school. | IPEDS |
| Institution of higher education | A term formerly used in IPEDS and HEGIS to define an institution that was accredited at the college level by an agency or association recognized by the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education. They were eligible for participation in Title IV Federal financial aid programs. | IPEDS |
| Institutional affiliation | A classification that indicates whether a private not-for-profit institution is associated with a religious group or denomination. Private not-for-profit institutions may be either independent or religiously affiliated. | IPEDS |
| Institutionally controlled housing | Any residence hall or housing facility located on- or off-campus that is owned or controlled by an institution and used by the institution in direct support of or in a manner related to, the institution's educational purposes. | IPEDS |
| Institution's staff | Term used to describe all staff employed by or employees working in a postsecondary institution. | IPEDS |
| Instructional activity | The total number of credit and clock hours all students are engaged in during the specified period. | IPEDS |
| Instructional Staff | An occupational category that is comprised of staff who are either: 1) Primarily Instruction or 2) Instruction combined with research and/or public service. The intent of the Instructional Staff category is to include all individuals whose primary occupation includes instruction at the institution. | IPEDS |
| Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) | The Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS), conducted by the NCES, began in 1986 and involves annual institution-level data collections. All Title IV postsecondary institutions are required to report data using a web-based data collection system.IPEDS currently consists of the following components:Institutional Characteristics (IC); 12-month Enrollment (E12); Completions (C); Admissions (ADM); Student Financial Aid (SFA); Human Resources (HR) composed of Employees by Assigned Position, Fall Staff, and Salaries; Fall Enrollment (EF); Graduation Rates (GR); Outcome Measures (OM); Finance (F); and Academic Libraries (AL). | IPEDS |
| Interest | The price paid (or received) for the use of money over a period of time. Interest income is one component of investment income. Interest paid by the institution is interest expense. | Hope College |
| Loans to students | Any monies that must be repaid to the lending institution for which the student is the designated borrower. Includes all Title IV subsidized and unsubsidized loans and all institutionally and privately sponsored loans. Does not include PLUS and other loans made directly to parents. | IPEDS |
| Migration (students) | Refers to the movement of students from their home state of residence to another state to attend a postsecondary institution. | IPEDS |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands. | IPEDS |
| Noncredit course | A course or activity having no credit applicable toward a degree. | IPEDS |
| Non-degree-seeking student | A student enrolled in courses for credit who is not recognized by the institution as seeking a degree. at Hope this is a "Special Student" | IPEDS |
| Non-first-time student (undergraduate) | A student who has prior postsecondary experience before attending the reporting IPEDS institution. | IPEDS |
| Nonresident alien | A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely. | IPEDS |
| Normal time to completion | The amount of time necessary for a student to complete all requirements for a degree according to the institution's catalog. This is typically 4 years (8 semesters or trimesters, excluding summer terms) for a bachelor's degree in a standard term-based institution. | IPEDS |
| Not on tenure track | Personnel positions that are considered non-tenure earning positions. | IPEDS |
| Off-campus (not with family) | A living arrangement in which a student does not live with the student's parents or legal guardians in any housing facility that is not owned or controlled by the educational institution. | IPEDS |
| Off-campus (with family) | A living arrangement in which a student lives with the student's parents or legal guardians in any housing facility that is not owned or controlled by the educational institution. | IPEDS |
| Off-campus housing | Any housing facility that is occupied by students but is not owned or controlled by the educational institution. | IPEDS |
| Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) ID | Identification number used by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) to identify schools that have Program Participation Agreements (PPA) so that its students are eligible to participate in Federal Student Financial Assistance programs under Title IV regulations. This is a 6-digit number followed by a 2-digit suffix used to identify branches, additional locations, and other entities that are part of the eligible institution. | IPEDS |
| Official Church Mission | An official church mission is one that is established by the church of which the individual is a member and that results in the individual being unable to attend a postsecondary institution during the period of the mission. | IPEDS |
| Official fall reporting date | The date (in the fall) on which an institution must report fall enrollment data to either the state, its board of trustees or governing board, or some other external governing body. Census day. | IPEDS |
| On-campus housing | Any residence hall or housing facility owned or controlled by an institution within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area and used by the institution in direct support of the institution's educational purposes. | IPEDS |
| Out-of-state student | A student who is not a legal resident of the state in which he/she attends school. | IPEDS |
| Part-time staff (employees) | As determined by the institution. The type of appointment at the snapshot date determines whether an employee is full-time or part-time. The employee's term of contract is not considered in making the determination of full- or part-time. | IPEDS |
| Part-time student | Undergraduate: A student enrolled for either less than 12 semestercredits. | IPEDS |
| Pell Grant program | (Higher Education Act of 1965, Title IV, Part A, Subpart I, as amended.) Provides grant assistance to eligible undergraduate postsecondary students with demonstrated financial need to help meet education expenses. | IPEDS |
| Pending Graduate | IPEDS | |
| Perkins Loan program | The Perkins Loan program provides low interest loans to eligible postsecondary students (undergraduate, graduate, or professional students) with demonstrated financial need to help meet educational expenses. | IPEDS |
| Personal Identification Number (PIDM) | Banner's personal identification number | Hope College |
| Postsecondary education | The provision of a formal instructional program whose curriculum is designed primarily for students who are beyond the compulsory age for high school. This includes programs whose purpose is academic, vocational, and continuing professional education. | IPEDS |
| Postsecondary education institution | An institution which has as its sole purpose or one of its primary missions, the provision of postsecondary education. | IPEDS |
| Primarily Instruction | An occupational category used to classify persons whose specific assignments customarily are made for the purpose of providing instruction or teaching. Regardless of title, academic rank, or tenure status, these employees formally spend the majority of their time providing instruction or teaching. | IPEDS |
| Private institution | An educational institution controlled by a private individual(s) or by a nongovernmental agency, usually supported primarily by other than public funds, and operated by other than publicly elected or appointed officials. These institutions may be either for-profit or not-for-profit. | IPEDS |
| Private not-for-profit institution | A private institution in which the individual(s) or agency in control receives no compensation, other than wages, rent, or other expenses for the assumption of risk. These include both independent not-for-profit schools and those affiliated with a religious organization. | IPEDS |
| Program | A combination of courses and related activities organized for the attainment of broad educational objectives as described by the institution. | IPEDS |
| Program category | A summary of groups of related instructional programsdesignated by the first 2 digits of its appropriate Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code. | IPEDS |
| Race | American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; White | IPEDS |
| Race and ethnicity unknown | The category used to report students or employees whose race and ethnicity are not known. | IPEDS |
| Race/ethnicity | Categories developed in 1997 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that are used to describe groups to which individuals belong, identify with, or belong in the eyes of the community. The categories do not denote scientific definitions of anthropological origins. The designations are used to categorize U.S. citizens, resident aliens, and other eligible non-citizens. Individuals are asked to first designate ethnicity as Hispanic or Latino or Not Hispanic or Latino. Second, individuals are asked to indicate all races that apply among the following: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or White | IPEDS |
| Recognized postsecondary credential | Any credential that is eligible for Title IV federal student aid or that is awarded in recognition of an individual's attainment of measurable technical or industry/occupational skills necessary to obtain employment or advance within an industry/occupation. These technical or industry/occupational skills generally are based on standards developed or endorsed by employers or industry associations. | IPEDS |
| Registered student | A student who is enrolled in a credit-bearing class for a given semester including audit credits | IPEDS |
| Remedial courses | Instructional courses designed for students deficient in the general competencies necessary for a regular postsecondary curriculum and educational setting. | IPEDS |
| Required fees | Fixed sum charged to students for items not covered by tuition and required of such a large proportion of all students that the student who does not pay the charge is an exception. | IPEDS |
| Residence | A person's permanent address determined by such evidence as a driver's license or voter registration. For entering freshmen, residence may be the legal residence of a parent or guardian. | IPEDS |
| Resident alien (and other eligible non-citizens) | A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States but who has been admitted as a legal immigrant for the purpose of obtaining permanent resident alien status (and who holds either an alien registration card, a Temporary Resident Card, or an Arrival-Departure Record with a notation that conveys legal immigrant status such as Section 207 Refugee, Section 208 Asylee, Conditional Entrant Parolee or Cuban-Haitian). | IPEDS |
| Retention rate | A measure of the rate at which students persist in their educational program at an institution, expressed as a percentage. For four-year institutions, this is the percentage of first-time bachelors (or equivalent) degree-seeking undergraduatesfrom the previous fall who are again enrolled in the current fall. | IPEDS |
| Revised cohort | Initial cohort after revisions are made. Cohorts may be revised if an institution discovers that incorrect data were reported in an earlier year or if a student dies or becomes totally and permanently disabled; services in the armed forces (including those called to active duty); services with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; or services on official church missions. | IPEDS |
| Room charges | The charges for an academic year for rooming accommodations for a typical student sharing a room with one other student. | IPEDS |
| SAT | Previously known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, this is an examination administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and used to predict the facility with which an individual will progress in learning college-level academic subjects. | IPEDS |
| Scholarships | Grants-in-aid, trainee stipends, tuition and required fee waivers, prizes or other monetary awards given to undergraduate students. | IPEDS |
| Scholarships and fellowships | Outright grants-in-aid, trainee stipends, tuition and fee waivers, and prizes awarded to students by the institution, including Pell grants. Awards to undergraduate students are most commonly referred to as 'scholarships' . These awards do not require the performance of services while a student (such as teaching) or subsequently as a result of the scholarship or fellowship. The term does not include loans to students (subject to repayment), College Work-Study Program (CWS), or awards granted to a parent of a student because of the parent's faculty or staff status. Also not included are awards to students where the selection of the student recipient is not made by the institution. | IPEDS |
| Semester (calendar system) | A calendar system that consists of two sessions called semesters during the academic year with about 15 weeks for each semester of instruction. There may be an additional summer session. | IPEDS |
| Special Student | A student enrolled in courses for credit who is not recognized by the institution as seeking a degree | IPEDS |
| Standardized admissions tests | Tests prepared and administered by an agency that is independent of any postsecondary education institution. Tests provide information about prospective students and their academic qualifications relative to a national sample. Examples are the SAT and the ACT. | IPEDS |
| State and local government grants | State and local monies awarded to the institution under state and local student aid programs, including the state portion of State Student Incentives Grants (SSIG). (Used for reporting Student Financial Aid data) | IPEDS |
| State and local grants | Grant monies provided by the state such as Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships (LEAP) (formerly SSIG's); merit scholarships provided by the state; and tuition and fee waivers for which the institution was reimbursed by a state agency. Local government grants include scholarships or gift-aid awarded directly to the student. | IPEDS |
| State of residence | A person's permanent address as determined by such evidence as a driver's license or voter registration. For entering freshmen, state of residence may be the legal state of residence of a parent or guardian. | IPEDS |
| Student activities | Programs designed to support and complement the institution's academic mission and enhance the educational experience of students, individually and through student groups.Includes exposure to and participation in social, cultural, recreational, intellectual, and governance activities. | IPEDS |
| Student counts | The number of individuals for whom instruction is provided in an educational program under the jurisdiction of a school or educational institution. | IPEDS |
| Student ID number | Banner SPRIDEN ID | Hope College |
| Student level | Identifies the level a student is at based on the number of credit hours completed: freshman = 0-24; sophomore = 25-57; junior = 58-90; senior = 91+ | IPEDS |
| Student Right-to-Know Act | Also known as the 'Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act' (P.L. 101-542), which was passed by Congress November 9, 1990. Title I, Section 103, requires institutions eligible for Title IV funding to calculate completion or graduation ratesof certificate- or degree-seeking, full-time students entering that institution, and to disclose these rates to all students and prospective students. This report is to contain graduation/completion rates of all students by race/ethnicity and gender and the average completion or graduation rate for the four most recent years. | IPEDS |
| Student-to-faculty ratio | The ratio of FTE students to FTE instructional staff, i.e., students divided by staff. Each FTE value is equal to the number of full-time students/staffplus 1/3 the number of part-time students/staff. | IPEDS |
| Student-to-faculty ratio |
The ratio of FTE students to FTE instructional staff, i.e., students divided by staff. Each FTE value is equal to the number of full-time students/staffplus 1/3 the number of part-time students/staff. | IPEDS |
| Study abroad | Arrangement by which a student completes part of the college program studying in another country. Can be at a campus abroad or through a cooperative agreement with some other U.S. college or an institution of another country. | IPEDS |
| Subcohort | A predefined subset of the initial cohort or the revised cohort established for tracking purposes. Degree/certificate-seeking students in the bachelor's degree-seeking group in the Graduation Rates & (GR) component and Pell-Grant, non-first-time, part-time students in the Outcome Measures (OM) component are examples of subcohorts. | IPEDS |
| Summer session | A summer session is shorter than a regular session and is not considered part of the academic year. It is not the third term of an institution operating on a trimester system or the fourth term of an institution operating on a quarter calendar system. The institution may have two or more sessions occurring in the summer months. Some schools, such as vocational and beauty schools, have year-round classes with no separate summer session. | IPEDS |
| Tenure | Status of a personnel position with respect to permanence of the position. | IPEDS |
| Tenure track | Personnel positions that lead to consideration for tenure. | IPEDS |
| Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) | The standardized test designed to determine an applicant's ability to benefit from instruction in English. | IPEDS |
| Title IV aid | Title IV aid to students includes grant aid, work study aid, and loan aid. These include: Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG), National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant), Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant, Federal Work-Study, Federal Perkins Loan, Subsidized Direct or FFEL Stafford Loan, and Unsubsidized Direct or FFEL Stafford Loan. | IPEDS |
| Title IV institution | An institution that has a written agreement with the Secretary of Education that allows the institution to participate in any of the Title IV federal student financial assistance programs(other than the State Student Incentive Grant (SSIG) and the National Early Intervention Scholarship and Partnership (NEISP) programs). | IPEDS |
| Transcript | An official record of student performance showing all schoolwork completed at a given school and the final mark or other evaluation received in each portion of the instruction. Transcripts often include an explanation of the marking scale used by the school. | IPEDS |
| Transfer of credit | The policies and procedures used to determinethe extent to which educational experiences or courses undertaken by a student while attending another institution may be counted for credit at the current institution. | IPEDS |
| Transfer-in student | A student entering the reporting institution for the first time but known to have previously attended a postsecondary institution at the same level (e.g., undergraduate, graduate). This includes new students enrolled in the fall term who transferred into the reporting institution the prior summer term. The student may transfer with or without credit. For systems of coordinated institutions (multi-campus system), students are to be identified as transfer-in students upon entering an institution from another institution within the same coordinated system. | IPEDS |
| Transfer-out rate | Total number of students who are known to have transferred out of the reporting institution within 150% of normal time to completion divided by the adjusted cohort. | IPEDS |
| Transfer-out student | A student that leaves the reporting institution and enrolls at another institution. For systems of coordinated institutions (multi-campus system), students are to be identified as transfer-out students when leaving an institution to enroll into another institution within the same coordinated system. | IPEDS |
| Tuition | The amount of money charged to students for instructional services. Tuition may be charged per term, per course, or per credit. | IPEDS |
| Tuition and fees (published charges) | The amount of tuition and required fees covering a full academic year most frequently charged to students.These values represent what a typical student would be charged and may not be the same for all students at an institution.If tuition is charged on a per-credit-hour basis, the average full-time credit hour load for an entire academic year is used to estimate average tuition.Required fees include all fixed sum charges that are required of such a large proportion of all students that the student who does not pay the charges is an exception. | IPEDS |
| Tuition payment plan | A program that allows tuition to be paid in installments spread out over an agreed upon period of time, sometimes without interest or finance charges. | IPEDS |
| Undergraduate | A student enrolled in a 4- or 5-year bachelor's degree program, an associate's degree program, or a vocational or technical program below the baccalaureate. | IPEDS |
| Unduplicated count | The sum of students enrolled for credit with each student counted only once during the reporting period, regardless of when the student enrolled. | IPEDS |
| UnitID | Unique identification number assigned to postsecondary institutions surveyed through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System(IPEDS). Also referred to as UNITID or IPEDS ID. | IPEDS |
| Variable | A fundamental unit of data contained in a file which is given a unique label. | IPEDS |
| Vested retirement plan | One in which the full amount of the contribution by the institution and by the state and local government, with accumulations thereon, will be made available as a benefit in case of death while in service and with no forfeiture in case of resignation or dismissal from the institution. | IPEDS |
| Veterans Administration (VA) Education Benefits | Those benefits available to military personnel and their families for financial assistance at approved postsecondary education institutions.There can be three types of beneficiaries:Surviving spouses and children; Discharged veterans; and Active military personnel in special programs. | IPEDS |
| White | A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. | IPEDS |
Frost Center for Data and Research
workP. 616.395.7556
frostcenter@hope.edu