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FAQs

What is the PNPI Explorer?

The PNPI Explorer puts key data points directly in the hands of policymakers, thinkers, researchers, students, and others interested in postsecondary data. Users are able to examine how a given state or congressional district (geography) intersects with variables such as enrollment, race, degree conferred, and student debt; measure data against state and national averages; and see how variables have changed at the state and national level over time.

Why did we create the PNPI Explorer?

Data that allow policymakers to see how specific groups of students and borrowers experience higher education can help them better understand the complexities of the issues on which they are working. Specific and contextualized data can inform policy debates, policy decisions, and policy recommendations.

What data does the PNPI Explorer use? How timely is the data?

The PNPI Explorer integrates data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the College Scorecard, the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), and the Federal Student Aid (FSA) Data Center. Aside from federal student loan repayment and online enrollment data, which reflect pre-COVID-19 estimates (2019 data), the Explorer represents data from 2021. Trend data is presented over a ten-year span (2011-2021). To learn more about our methodology, data sources, code, and data files, consult our Data & Methodology page.

What types of reports are there?

Curated Reports allow users to access reports focused on specific types of metrics for the state or congressional district (geography) of their choosing: postsecondary enrollment and access, college cost, completion and attainment, student debt, and student loan repayment. Curated Topline Reports provide data from all five areas. Under Build Custom Reports, the Report Builder allows users to display six metrics of their choosing for their selected geography, the Comparison Tool allows users to plot metrics for a chosen geography against other states or other districts in a state, and the Trend Explorer allows users to see how a metric of their choosing has changed in their chosen geography over time.

What makes this tool distinct from other higher education data tools?

The PNPI Explorer provides immediate and direct access to data that can inform policy debates, policy decisions, and policy recommendations while building the decision-making capacity of individuals, systems, and organizations in our space. Among the tool’s most exciting features are the congressional district-level insights, the ability to view trends over time (ten years), the breadth of data sources, the near-instant display of easily consumable data, and its ease of use.

Does displayed data reflect the residents in the state or congressional district selected?

Displayed data are unlikely to reflect data only from residents within a given state or congressional district as students attend schools outside of their home state or district. Data from IPEDS, the College Scorecard, and FSA are measured at the institution level, so the data presented reflect information on students currently or formerly enrolled in those institutions whether or not they are permanent residents of a state or district or intend to remain in the state or district after graduation.

Are rates or percentages used when displaying the data? What is the difference between the two?

In some cases, we use percentages to show the breakdown of each category for a given metric. For example, the Census Educational Attainment bars total 100% because we are showing all available categories of attainment for your selected state or congressional district (from less than high school to graduate degree).

In other cases, we display rates in order to compare across different groups. For example, variables related to completion rate are unlikely to total 100% because different sectors have different percentages of students who complete (e.g., at one type of institution 74% of students may complete while at another type of institution, 47% of students may complete). We display the individual rates for each sector in one graph to allow users to easily compare student completion rates between different types of institutions.

Why might data displayed in a given graph or chart equal more than 100%?

In some cases, we have combined FSA and IPEDS data into a single metric. Due to differences in reporting requirements, some institutions report their FSA data at their main campus and their IPEDS data at each of their individual campuses. For a more detailed explanation and additional analytical information, see our Data & Methodology page.

Why might data displayed in a given graph or chart equal less than 100%?

Due to rounding, some of the percentages that we display may not add up to a full 100%.

Why might a data point be reported as "not reported" or "not available?"

In some cases, there may not be data for your selection. There are three primary instances in which you may find missing data:

Cases where data is missing for an entire geography. In this case, data may be missing because the district does not yet have corresponding higher education data from IPEDS or the College Scorecard; the district no longer exists but existed at some point between 2011-2021 and so has data in the Trend Explorer (but nowhere else); or the district currently exists but there are no institutions in the district that meet our inclusion criteria (elaborated on below and in our methodological report). For territories, data may be missing for an entire report or for a single metric due to those data not being available for the territory or the territory’s data being suppressed by the federal government due to small sample sizes.

Cases where data is missing for some metrics but not others. This may be due to the metric in question not applying to any institution in the selected district. For instance, if there are no public institutions in a district then the State Appropriations for Public Institutions metric will not have any information to display. In other cases, an institution may report some information to IPEDS but not all. This may be because of differing reporting requirements by metric (e.g., related to enrollment size or some other criteria). In this case, there would be data for some metrics but not others.

Cases where data for a given metric is missing for some types of institutions but not others (e.g., public four-year institutions, public two-year institutions, for-profit institutions). This may be due to reporting adherence and requirements. It could be that an institution or collection of institutions did not report data on certain metrics (adherence) or that an institution or institutions’ data on certain metrics were suppressed due to privacy reasons (e.g., enrollment numbers are small). In these cases, you may see reported numbers for some types of institutions and “not reported” for other types of institutions.

Why might I not see a particular university reflected in the data? Were some institutions or types of institutions excluded?

In some cases, institutions pulled from our data sources were excluded. We did so for one of the following reasons:

The institutions are listed in FSA as being a campus outside of the United States;
The institutions do not match to IPEDS geographic characteristics (they had no linking FIPS);
The institutions are outside of the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) universe;
The institutions are exclusively online (and thus do not link to a geography);
The institutions are in United States territories (American Samoa, Marshall Islands, Guam, Federated Republic of Micronesia, American Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico);
The institutions have 66% or more of their undergraduate enrollment exclusively online (in 2019, prior to the pandemic);
The institutions are not degree-granting; or
The institutions do not participate in federal Title IV programs.

Institutions were excluded primarily to ensure the accuracy and relevancy of the data.

Do student loan metrics in the PNPI Explorer include private loans?

No. Our data only includes loan information for the federal student loan programs.

Where can I learn more about your methodology?

To learn more about our methodology, data sources, code, and data files, consult our Data & Methodology page. For a guide to frequently asked questions, consult our FAQ page. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions please email us.

In what forms can I download my report(s)?

If you choose to download a report you will have the option to do so as an image, crosstab, PDF, PowerPoint, or in a Tableau Workbook. These options allow you to display the data in different ways, share it in different formats, and, in some cases, easily transfer it to your own research.