IPEDS Cohort and IPEDS Matriculants

[1] IPEDS stands for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which is administered by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) in the US Department of Education.

[2] At Indiana University, the academic career of GRAD is for graduate students who are not in a professional practice program such as Medicine, Dentistry, Law, or Optometry.  The companion academic career of GRD1 is also for graduate students, and it differs only in that the GRD1 programs use a different academic calendar.  For cohort purposes, students are added to the graduate career cohort once, including those students whose programs of study are in both a GRAD and a GRD1 program.

IPEDS Cohort

IPEDS[1] Cohort refers to a group of students in the same academic derived career (combining GRAD and GRD1[2]) who started their degree-seeking studies at IU in the same academic term, as determined by their enrollment at official census (end of the first week of classes).  Students who started their degree-seeking studies in the summer and were enrolled at fall census as a degree-seeker are part of the fall cohort; there is no summer cohort.  IU also tracks spring census students in a spring cohort, and GRD1 students who enter in the winter or spring terms are both considered for the spring cohort.

There are two subsets of the IPEDS Cohort: beginners and external transfers-in.  Beginners are students who have not attended another university at this career level as a degree-seeking student before coming to IU.  External transfers-in are students who started their degree-seeking studies at a particular career level at another university, and before completing their first academic program at that career level transferred to a degree-seeking program at the same career level at IU.  A student is categorized as either a beginner or an external transfer-in for each career level.

Each student can be included in one cohort for each academic career (combining GRAD and GRD1).  Once a student is included in a cohort at IU, they are not added to any future cohorts at that career level.  Also, students who enroll after official census in their entry academic term are not included in any IPEDS Cohort for that career level.

The IPEDS Cohort is used in compliance reporting for tracking and reporting retention and graduation rates of degree-seeking undergraduates.  The cohort data for other career levels is used internally at IU.  Official reporting about students in a cohort is based on the campus where the student was enrolled at official census in their entry term.  Students who are enrolled at multiple campuses at official census are reported for each enrollment campus.

The format of the six-character IPEDS Cohort Code is as follows:

Academic Semester (F = fall, S = spring) +

Calendar Year of the Entry Academic Term (17 = 2017) +

Academic Career Abbreviation (UG = undergraduate, MD = medicine, etc.) +

Beginner or External Transfer-in Indicator (B = beginner, T = external transfer-in)

Example:  F17UGB indicates the fall 2017 undergraduate beginner cohort

Here are other examples:

The IPEDS Cohort Code is found in the field ACAD_DRVD_COHORT_CD, and sample reports where this field is found are listed below.  Note that the values in this field in IR_CEN_TRM_SNPSHT_GT have historical inaccuracies, so the field ACAD_DRVD_COHORT_RPT_CD should be used for that table (*): 

IR_COHORT_CEN_ST/GT – (This is the primary table for tracking overall cohort membership by student and career level.  The GT view shows both old and new University IDs for students whose IDs have changed over time.)

IR_COHORT_CEN_INST_ST/GT – (This is a companion to the primary table for tracking overall cohort membership, in this case by student, career level, and original census institution(s).)

IR_CEN_TRM_SNPSHT_GT (*)

IR_FALL_ENRL_SBSQ_OTCM_GT

IR_ADM_APPL_%

IR_FA_ENRL_DEGR_AWD_SUM_GT

IR_FA_CDS_ANLY_GT

IR_FA_AWD_DTL_GT

IR_FA_AWD_SUM_GT

IR_FA_IPEDS_SUM_GT

IR_STU_CMPLTN_SNPSHT_GT

IR_RETENTION_GT

IR_RETENTION_PGM_STK_GT

IR_RETN_PLAN_1ST_TRM_GT

Students are assigned to an IPEDS Cohort based on their IR admit term and admit type for their academic career and degree-seeking status at official census.  Admit type codes that begin with FY% (e.g. FYU for first-year undergraduate) correspond to beginners.  Admit type codes that begin with TR% (e.g. TRU for external transfer-in undergraduate) correspond to external transfers-in.  See the related IR Data Guide about IR admit terms and admit types for more information:  https://iuia.iu.edu/finding-data/ir-data-guides/index.html . 

Note that some academic programs have unusual lengths of study, so students who enter IU in these programs are not included in an IPEDS cohort for those career levels:

MUSA            Music Ugrd Diploma

MUSD            Music Grad Diploma

IPEDS Matriculant

Historically, an IPEDS Matriculant was a member of an IPEDS Cohort whose admit term (STU_ADMT_TERM_CD) was the same as their cohort entry term.  For example, a beginner who started their degree-seeking studies at IU in the summer would not be counted as an IPEDS matriculant, since their admit term was a summer term code, and their cohort was for the fall. 

The IPEDS Matriculant Indicator is a Y/N field: ACAD_DRVD_MATRIC_CD.  It only exists in the table IR_CEN_TRM_SNPSHT_GT.

IPEDS Matriculant status is no longer reported to IPEDS.

[1] IPEDS stands for the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which is administered by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) in the US Department of Education.

[2] At Indiana University, the academic career of GRAD is for graduate students who are not in a professional practice program such as Medicine, Dentistry, Law, or Optometry.  The companion academic career of GRD1 is also for graduate students, and it differs only in that the GRD1 programs use a different academic calendar.  For cohort purposes, students are added to the graduate career cohort once, including those students whose programs of study are in both a GRAD and a GRD1 program.