Open College Data

Methodology

Open College Data combines two independent sources: the Common Data Set (CDS), a standardized survey each college fills out and publishes itself, and the federal College Scorecard. The two sources are never blended into one unlabeled number. Where they cover the same concept, both are shown, each labeled with its source.

Common Data Set filings

Each school's CDS PDF is processed by a section-scoped extraction pipeline: section headers are located first, then each section is parsed with pattern matching, with an AI vision pass used for fields that pattern matching misses or flags as low-confidence. A small set of derived figures, such as admit rate and yield, are computed from extracted counts rather than read directly, since counts are more reliable than a printed percentage.

Every CDS figure on this site links directly to the exact page of the source PDF it came from. A figure reaches the site as soon as extraction completes. Many figures are also checked by a human reviewer or by an independent AI review pass before or shortly after that point, but not every figure has completed human review at the moment it first appears. If a reviewer corrects a value, the correction is published immediately and the site reflects it on the next page load.

College Scorecard

College Scorecard is structured federal data compiled from IPEDS, NSLDS, and Treasury records, not extracted from a document, so it carries no per-field confidence score or manual review step. Each Scorecard figure on this site shows the specific reporting cohort it reflects, since a single Scorecard release blends fields from several different underlying years.

A weekly automated check watches for new Scorecard releases. When one is detected, the new data file is downloaded and re-ingested. The most recent successful ingestion completed on July 27, 2026.

Coverage

The registry covers roughly 6,300 Title IV institutions. Schools with a CDS filing on record show the full CDS detail set; every school, including those without a CDS filing, shows whatever College Scorecard data exists for it.

Reuse

Data on this site is free to view and cite. Please link back to the specific source page, for example a school's profile page, rather than reproducing figures without attribution.