<p>I am researching potential colleges and using common data set data to compare institutions. Of the dozen I have researched so far, ALL colleges were willing to provide me with their CDS if it was not posted on their web site. I contacted the Lafayette admissions office and ask where I could find their cds as I could not locate it on their site. The initial response I received was: </p>
<p>WHO ARE YOU??? </p>
<p>After explaining that I was a prospective student and was currently searching colleges, I received the following reply: </p>
<p>I am assuming that you may be inquiring about Common Data Set information. If this is the case, we do not publish the full document on our web site. If there are particular data elements youre inquiring about, I can try to get this information for you. </p>
<p>I replied back and asked for cds sections: B, C, G, H, I and J. Unfortunately, I never received a response. I can only conclude that they must have something to hide. I wrote back and told them to disregard my request for Lafayette Common Data Set information and that I have removed Lafayette form my list of potential colleges I am considering for the following reasons:
1) Lack of transparancy
2) Poor responsiveness
3) Lack of Common Data Set information</p>
<p>If this how the Lafayette admissions office treats potential students, I don't think I would like being a student their!!!</p>
<p>Well, I never received my Lafayette decision this year. I think they misplaced my app or something. Contacted them a while ago and received a generic “come back later”. Whatever. So, I agree :)</p>
<p>Ask them for their common data set and see what kind of response you get. Colleges with nothing to hide make these documents available to prospective students researching institutions using common data that the college provides instead of relying on data from third party sites. Typically, colleges post their common data set on their web site.
You never know the accuracy or data of the data provided by third party sites.
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>In our experience Lafayeete has been excellent in communications to us and in any follow-up questions we have had with them. Our S will probably not attend there for other reasons, but regarding communications we found them on the whole exceptionally responsive and easy to deal with.</p>
<p>“I can only conclude that they must have something to hide.”</p>
<p>That would not be my conclusion. My first guess would be that you reached someone in the admission office who was swamped with other requests who SHOULD have followed up since he/she said he/she would, but probably forgot. My experience as the parent of a freshman is that Lafayette is very responsive to requests both before and after admission. When my son couldn’t make the accepted student day, they were really good about making other arrangements. What was really funny to me, while I was reading the original post last evening, President Weiss answered an email (within 3 hours) that my husband had sent earlier. </p>
<p>I am kind of curious: what information do you think the college is trying to hide?</p>
<p>Not all colleges provide this info to cds. If your decision about the right college for you rests on this info being provided in that format, then there you go.</p>
<p>You asked for sections BCGHIJ from a school that does not respond to the cds survey- it is not mandatory that any college respond to the survey. The number of colleges allocating staff to this survey is growing annually. That’s all.</p>
<p>It’s like asking, if this college doesn’t offer an online finaid calculator, what are they trying to hide? Maybe, nothing. Maybe they expect you to be resourceful. </p>
<p>And, maybe they just are not staffed to handle a slew of prospective students requesting specific info beyond what they already post on their web site.</p>
<p>Did you request this information right around April 1st, when acceptance letters were going out and Admissions was swamped with work?</p>
<p>Also, Lafayette provides a lot of information on the UCan network, and on other pages on their website.</p>
<p>(PS. If your email was the same as your post and you used the wrong form of there/their and spelled transparency wrong, they may not see you as someone likely to be admitted anyway.)</p>
<p>Purely speculative that they have “something to hide” as most of this information is readily available from other sources (e.g. Princeton Review, USNWR). Freshman retention rates, and 4 year graduation rates were important metrics we considered, but we didn’t have to look far to find this, or other data profiling entering classes, most popular majors, percentage of student body getting merit aid etc. President Weiss has been quite frank in communication with parents about “issues” other institutions would consider burying. To post a conclusion about an institution, after single encounter, though understandable, is a little much. A more mature approach would have been a written request for this information given it’s not commonly asked. And in your analytical approach to assemble a potential list of colleges, reevaluate your communication skills, which may be a potential barrier to what you seek.</p>
<p>Sounds like someone in Lafayette Administration got their pride hurt! </p>
<p>When my son was searching for colleges, we used the common data set (cds) data provided directly by each college to compare apples to apples. While it may be true that some of the data contained in the cds can be found from other sources, relying on data from third party sites brings into question the accuracy and freshness of the data. In addition, information such as average amount borrowed by the student (cds section H5) and average amount of non-need-based grants (cds section H2o) is NOT generally made available on college web sites or third party sites.</p>
<p>During my sons college search, only one of the dozen or so colleges he selected to research refused to provide him with their cds (similar to original post) and only provided a vague reason for not making it available. We could only conclude that the data must not have been flattering to the college and in the end, he struck this institution form the list that he was considering.</p>
<p>I have a daughter who is a junior at Lafayette. Beginning with our first, off-chance visit to Lafayette Admissions right through acceptance and to this day we have had nothing but positive experiences with the staff in any of the offices. </p>
<p>However, I have always felt Lafayette was wrong about posting the CDS. They should have done it long ago, but certainly as part of the website upgrading last year. The same issue came up on CC’s Clark University forum a month or so ago. Someone in Clark Admissions was monitoring the forum and responded with a promise to look into the matter and see if he/she could get the Clark CDS posted. Lo and behold, a week or so later that Clark University CDS showed up on the website.</p>
<p>Note to Lafayette Admissions: If you are reading this do the right thing and post your CDS online.</p>
<p>Sounds like HeidiR and co. are just bitter Lehigh alums or students…first off, the CDS is clearly on the Lafayette website as sixstringrocker just proved…second, what high school student would care about that??? please stop posing as a high school student when really you are just upset that you went to the “other” school</p>