<p>Researching colleges, I've noticed that some colleges post their Common Data Sets while other colleges don't.</p>
<p>I can't quite understand why. Is is that they have "something to hide" about themselves?</p>
<p>I'd appreciate your insight.</p>
<p>Which college are you not able to find? I think some schools make it harder to access than others, but it’s there somewhere if you google around.</p>
<p>It’s always been my feeling that some colleges don’t believe that we can handle the truth! (said in a Jack Nicholson voice)</p>
<p>And no, not all publish their CDS.</p>
<p>The Common Data Set Taskforce chooses not to enforce their rules for those schools</p>
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<p>University of Southern California is a well known university whose common data set is not publicly visible in any obvious place (including what search engines come up with).</p>
<p>Columbia College Chicago </p>
<p>They have some of the CDS data on the website, but organized in a different way. It took quite a bit of digging to find it, and emails to the college did not manage to reach the person(s) who could help me find the CDS. Their NPC calculator was dead-on for us. No aid other than Stafford Loans. Happykid is going somewhere else.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus when I went to a USC seminar they handed out a packet including their common data set, so I don’t think they’re really trying to hide it</p>
<p>I would be very concerned about a school that didn’t make this data available…as a parent, I want to know retention rates, graduation rates…</p>
<p>The information was there, and also at the College Board website, but it took a bit of digging. Columbia College Chicago has a very specific performing arts and communications focus, and like many performing arts schools just doesn’t have much aid to spread around. Also like many performing arts schools, dropping out doesn’t necessarily mean running out of money or failing classes. It can mean that the kid got a gig that conflicted with classwork, and is now a working professional.</p>
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<p>Seriously, the whole thing and not 'SC’s fact book? If so, that would be a first since 'SC has never made its CDS available online.</p>
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<p>The CB website is frequently out of date/incorrect. Plus, it is no better than a college’s own factbook since that is all that it contains – whatever the college wants to publish and make publicly available. </p>
<p>At least the CDS has specific directions to follow for “common” reporting. (The ‘factbook’ can be any directions that a college dreams up. D1 athletes? Not counted, since they are considered special students.) Sure a few colleges mis-read the directions of the CDS (Miami, Wake are two glaring examples), but at least their numbers jump off the page so it’s easy to see which numbers that they are manipulating.</p>
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<p>Good point about specialized programs. But we’re really talking about large, rich Unis, such as USC, Boston College, Tulane and Penn, who refuse to release/publish their CSD.</p>
<p>I was also thinking about UChicago, a school that I’m quite interested in. Also, there’s the department of ed. database website that has a lot of the same info on it for every school, but that’s a pain to use.</p>