Confirm data are available and reliable for variables selected
Note that the type of analysis we use to form a peer group requires each institution included in the initial population of consideration contain non-null values for each variable selected. In other words, data needs to exist for every variable and every institution. Sometimes data is missing for institutions that would otherwise be excluded from consideration (private institutions, two-year schools). Thus, it’s important to review why data might be missing before excluding the variable from consideration. If missing data are widespread, it may limit the initial population based on the data available.
Be aware that easily accessible data for higher education institutions is limited. PAIR will use data collected by IPEDS, an initiative of the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, due to the wide range of information collected from colleges and universities annually. This data is also imported annually in PAIR’s data warehouse environment allowing it to be queried for analysis. It is by far the most comprehensive source for readily available comparison data of higher education institutions. PAIR hosts a webpage with links to other possible data sources. Not all of the sources listed there have downloadable data sets.
While these sources offer data for a wide breadth of institutions, it is not guaranteed that any of them will have data for all institutions for specific variables of interest. If you would like to use data from a source that PAIR does not have access to, you are responsible for collecting the data and adding it to a template provided by PAIR. This template will help the PAIR office incorporate this data more efficiently into the full dataset used in analysis. PAIR will, unless otherwise instructed, use data from the most recent IPEDS collection year available.
Download Data Template (.xslx)
Action Item: Consult with PAIR to review available data for your selected variables.