Researching an Institution:
A Data-Forward Leadership™ Worksheet

Whether you’re actively on the job market, or just keeping an eye open for opportunities, knowing how to build an institutional data profile is a key Data-Forward Leadership™ skill. Fortunately there are plenty of publicly available data sources.

Some of my favorite sources are College Navigator and IPEDS Summary Tables. College Navigator is great for diving deep into data on a single institution, while Summary Tables is designed for exploring data on multiple institutions (individually or in aggregate). In recent years, College Scorecard has expanded the data available in their tool, including earnings data for their degree completers, with the ability to drill down to specific fields of study. Finally, a valuable but often overlooked source of information is an institution’s accrediting body. Accreditor websites vary in how much they make publicly available, from publishing full peer review reports to only accreditation status and action summaries. At minimum, most will tell you whether an institution is in good standing or has faced sanctions, which can be a useful signal about institutional stability.

Unsure how to get started? Download my free step-by-step worksheet that guides you through two of these data sources: 1) College Navigator to get institutional data and 2) IPEDS Summary Tables to gather data on peer institutions for context.