360Public Makes Sense of Data from IPEDS

I love data. I love stats and analytics, whether its measuring web data or email results. It helps us drive decisions and direction as we market to the  many audiences we have to reach out to in higher ed.

One such data source that many of us in the web area might not use very much, but one that I bet many research and institutional effecitveness folks have is IPEDS, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. From the IPEDS site:

IPEDS is the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. It is a system of interrelated surveys conducted annually by the U.S. Department’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). IPEDS gathers information from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, requires that institutions that participate in federal student aid programs report data on enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, finances, institutional prices, and student financial aid. These data are made available to students and parents through the College Navigator college search Web site and to researchers and others through the IPEDS Data Center.

The tricky part for researchers and other colleges is getting the data out of IPEDS. That’s where 360Public comes in.

Chris at Public Insight reached out to me recently, mostly because they too are located in Cleveland (Hudson, technically, if you’re in the area.) I get a ton of emails and pitches every week, but this one stuck out because their product deals with real data and helps people search, organize and interpret data.

360-Public, the company’s public analytics website, has integrated IPEDS data for all U.S. colleges and universities into one, easy-to-use online platform that gives users the ability to explore admission, enrollment, graduation, financial aid and other IPEDS data in seconds. It also presents the information in easy-to-view visualizations, allowing users to compare and benchmark schools quickly and easily.

Here’s a demo of their platform:

For example, with 360-Public, anyone can easily compare SAT/ACT scores of students at various colleges and universities. With a few clicks of the mouse, users can see how many students are in the 25th percentile and how many are in the 75th percentile for test scores, for instance.

The site offers several levels of analysis, from “public” to paid subscriptions, which provide increased reporting and data analysis. There is no charge to use the public version.

In addition to higher education databases, 360-public.com combines a wide variety of information sources from various public sites, including census and statewide school performance data.

To learn more about the 360-Public website, contact Chris Lintner (phone: 330-656-9204; email: Chris.Lintner@publicinsightcorp.com ) or visit www.360-public.com.