Institutional Characteristics for 4-year academic year tuition reporters

Owned by Kevin Meleedy
Last updated: Nov 02, 2023 by Kevin Meleedy
4 min read

Welcome to the Institutional Characteristics (IC) component. This component collects important information about your institution's mission, student services, and student charges.

Much of the data reported on IC appear on College Navigator, which is updated once after IC data have been reviewed. Thus, errors may stay on College Navigator for a full year.

Additionally, the cost of attendance data are used to calculate the net price of attendance in the Student Financial Aid component. This has important implications for what students see about your institution, and also for the College Affordability and Transparency Center's lists. Revisions or changes to costs can ONLY be made in the Student Financial Aid component and not in the prior year revision system.

Remember, it is the responsibility of the keyholder to submit accurate data about the institution. Please contact the IPEDS Help Desk for clarifications to make sure that you are reporting correctly.

Institutional Characteristics Workflow
  1. Survey cycle opens and Student Success Research & Analysis (SSRA) downloads survey documentation from IPEDS for the current year Box folder. 
  2. SSRA Data Coordinator brings in data from BOG Submissions files for Tuition & Required Fees data calculation.
  3. SSRA Data Coordinator calculates Tuition and Required Fees for Undergraduate , Graduate and Professional programs for the respective academic year.
  4. Collect data from Office of Financial Aid (OFA) for Room and Board charges for the Academic Year cycle.
  5. Send email and collect data from Ana Hernandez AVP of , Housing and Residential Education for Part C Housing Capacity for the current academic year.
  6. SSRA Data Coordinator inputs data to IPEDS portal.
  7. SSRA runs the edit report.
  8. SSRA Data Coordinator runs checks and balances on edit report and survey data.
  9. Validate survey data from Office of Financial  Aid  (Billie Jo Hamilton).
  10. SSRA reviews Office of Financial  Aid data with USF IPEDS Key-holder (Dr. Valeria Garcia) on changes and updates to the survey.
  11. SSRA Data Coordinator updates the source documents used to complete the survey to Box 
  12. First lock by USF IPEDS Key-holder
  13. Save and share a copy of the submitted survey to BOX and USF ODS website.
Reporting Documentation

Submission YearReporting CriteriaCommentsType

2023-24

Changes to the IPEDS Data Collection: 2023-24.
The dual enrollment checkbox has been removed for Part B Question 1.

Part B - Student Services - Special Learning Opportunities
1. Does your institution accept any of the following? [Check all that apply]

Credit for life experiences

Advanced placement (AP) credits

None of the above 


Change 

2022-23

The following changes were implemented for the 2022-23 data collection period:

The Mission Statement has been moved to the IC Header component and the Parts have been reorganized due to that move.

There are new options for special learning opportunities.

Removed remedial services option from Question B4, since it is now asked in IC Header Questions 1 and 5.

A new option (Promise Plan) has been added in Part B (question 6b).

In Part C, Question 2, academic institutions can select which of the tuition options are charged by their institution.

Context boxes have new scripted options for Cost of Attendance from which you can choose, or you can provide your own context.

There are other minor wording changes for clarification only.


Change 

2022-23Report data to accurately reflect the time period corresponding with the IPEDS survey component, even if such reporting is seemingly inconsistent with priory year reporting
Reminder 

2022-23Quality control reviews of past IC data indicate frequently made errors. Please review the common errors below to ensure accurate reporting. Part C, question 8 should only be marked 'YES' if your institution is EXCLUSIVELY distance education. Do not mark 'YES' if your courses/programs are also available in person. Do not try to outsmart fatal errors; this is falsifying data. Contact the Help Desk to override, or fix, the data. Make sure you understand ALL definitions before responding to questions. For example, make sure that you are reporting for an 'ACADEMIC YEAR' or 'PROGRAM' as defined by IPEDS.
Common Errors

2021-22There are no changes to this survey component 
Change

2021-22Report data to accurately reflect the time period corresponding with the IPEDS survey component, even if such reporting is seemingly inconsistent with prior- year reporting. For example, if a summer term began later than usual due to Coronavirus Pandemic postponements, continue to report using the timeframes as defined in the IPEDS instructions. NCES expects that some data reported during the 2020-21 data collection year will vary from established prior trends due to the impacts of Coronavirus Pandemic. If an error edit is triggered even when submitting accurate data, please indicate in the corresponding context box or verbally to the Help Desk that the seemingly inconsistent data are accurate and reflect the effects of Coronavirus Pandemic.
Reminder 

2020-21

The term ‘dual credit’ has been replaced with the term ‘dual enrollment’


Change

2020-21

Report data to accurately reflect the time period corresponding with the IPEDS survey component, even if such reporting is seemingly inconsistent with prior-year reporting. For example, if a summer term began later than usual due to to Coronavirus Pandemic postponements, continue to report using the timeframes as defined in the IPEDS instructions. NCES expects that some data reported during the 2020-21 data collection year will vary from established prior trends due to the impacts of Coronavirus Pandemic. If an error edit is triggered even when submitting accurate data, please indicate in the corresponding context box or verbally to the Help Desk that the seemingly inconsistent data are accurate and reflect the effects of Coronavirus Pandemic.


Reminder

2020-21

Quality control reviews of past IC data indicate frequently made errors. Please review the common errors below to ensure accurate reporting.

  • Part C, question 8 should only be marked 'YES' if your institution is EXCLUSIVELY distance education. Do not mark 'YES' if your courses/programs are also available in person.
  • Do not try to outsmart fatal errors; this is falsifying data. Contact the Help Desk to override, or fix, the data.
  • Make sure you understand ALL definitions before responding to questions. For example, make sure that you are reporting for an 'ACADEMIC YEAR' or 'PROGRAM' as defined by IPEDS.

Common Errors


Resources

Box Folders 

IPEDS Survey Materials 

Reference


Jira Issues

ODSPA-11451 - Getting issue details... STATUS

ODSPA-13754 - Getting issue details... STATUS