Higher Ed Data Stories

Parents, this one's for you. Things are different today, or so everyone says.  If you want to see how admit rates have changed over time at any four colleges, this is your chance.  Just follow the instructions and take a look to compare how things have changed over four years.  The view starts with four similar midwestern liberal arts colleges, but you can compare any four of your choice.  (And before you ask, 2016 is the most recent data available in IPEDS). And, a note: These changes are not all driven solely by demand.  Colleges can manipulate overall admit rates by taking a larger percentage of their class via early programs, and admit rates in those programs can be as much as 30 points higher than in regular decision.

There is a lot of talk about admission rates, especially at the most competitive colleges and universities, and even more talk, it seems, about how much of an advantage students get by applying early, via Early Decision (ED, which is binding) or Early Action (EA, which is restrictive, but non-binding). I license the Peterson's data set, and they break out admissions data by total, ED, and EA, and I did some calculations to create the visuals below. Two important caveats: Some colleges clearly have people inputting the data who do not understand our terminology, who don't run data correctly, or who make a lot of typos (a -500% admission rate is probably desirable, but not possible, for instance).  Second, not every university with an EA or ED option (or any combination of them, including the different ED flavors), breaks out their data. Start with the overall admit rate.  That's the one that gets published, and the one people think about. It's the fatter, light gra

The College Board publishes good and interesting data about college tuition, including a great table of tuition at state flagship universities. (I realized while writing this that I don't know how a university is designated a state flagship.  Maybe someone knows.) There is some interesting stuff here, but I'll leave it for you to decide what jumps out at you: If you live in North Dakota, you might wonder why South Dakota has such low tuition for non-residents.  If you live just outside Virginia or Michigan, you might wonder why it costs so much to cross the border. Anyway, using the tabs across the top, there are five views here: Maps Four maps, showing (clockwise from upper left) in-state tuition, out-of-state tuition, non-resident premium index (that is, how much extra a non-resident pays, normalized to that state's in-state tuition), and the non-resident premium in dollars.  Hover over a state for details.  You can change the year, and see the values in 2017 infl