Introduction to the IPEDS College Navigator

Earlier this Spring, I wrote my first blog entry about the HEIRS Data Center. 

Institutional Effectiveness (IE) also submits data to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).  We’re not alone as other departments, staffers, and administrators help IE with IPEDS submissions. 

A good place to start reviewing that information is with the IPEDS College Navigator.  Not only is a rundown of information available for NECC, but IPEDS covers data on all colleges and universities nationwide. 

The IPEDS College Navigator is available on the web site for the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). The NCES is the organization that administers IPEDS for the Federal Government.   

The intention of the Navigator is to help prospective college students find a school where they can enroll, where they can start their tertiary education.  The side panel allows the user to start searching by school name, state, or zip code.  The searcher can also differentiate between private vs public or 2-year vs 4-year. 

For example, here I chose Massachusetts as my state, and I checked public and two year.  The Navigator provides a list of all the Massachusetts Community Colleges, including Quincy college.  Springfield Technical Community college is on the second page of results.  I’ll click on Northern Essex. 

You can also search by simply typing in the name of a school.  Through my reporting, I’ve set up “NECC” as a nick name, so users can find the school with more ease. 

You may also simply type in “NECC” as Name of School, click Show Results, and Northern Essex Community College will appear as the only selection.  Just click that. 

After clicking on the Northern Essex link, you should see a panel identifying Northern Essex.  At the top there’s contact information, the link to our web page, a brief description of our school, and even a link to a map of our Haverhill Campus. 
 
Below is a list of different information topics.  Each row with a plus sign (+) is clickable, and will open a page with graphs and tables.  As of the writing of this blog, most of the data is current to Fall 2020.

For example, if I click on General Information, it shows a panel with links on where to apply or get financial aid, and it shows things like the Net Price Calculator. 

We are also able to look at other schools.  The Navigator only shows one school at a time, but I can pull together some comparisons here.  

Is our student demographic different from other schools?  

Yes, it is. I provided a comparison of NECC with Bunker Hill CC.  The student body at Northern Essex was 45% racially white, while 42% Hispanic.  Those populations are pretty much at parity at our school.  Bunker Hill has a more even distribution of race/ethnicity across all groups.  Not shown here, but Roxbury is the only community college in Massachusetts that services predominantly African Americans.  

Is a community college competitively priced compared to a 4 year?  

Yes!  This data compares tuition and fees from Northern Essex versus UMass Lowell as early as 2021-2022. Basically, tuition and fees at UMass Lowell have been about three times more expensive than NECC for the last 4 years.  That’s for both in-state and out-of-state students. 

There is much more to discover in the College Navigator.  There just isn’t enough room in this blog to search and review every college and university across the country.  I encourage you to use this web site on your own and let me know what you find.