FAQ

Institutional Research and Data Analytics FAQ

What are census reporting dates?

Many of the reports on this site feature "census" data. Each year, the IR office creates a series of frozen data files that are date-specific based on directives from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS. Census dates are:

  1. ​​​​​October 15: Fall semester student enrollment snapshot and demographics, retention, and graduation rates.
  2. November 1: Employee (faculty and professional staff) snapshot.
  3. February 15: Spring semester student enrollment snapshot, fall to spring (first-term) retention rates.
  4. July 1–June 30: 12-month (academic year) enrollment headcount, 12-month credit hour production, 12-month degrees awarded count.
Why is the 12-month headcount larger than the fall or spring semester snapshot enrollment headcount?

SWAGÊÓƵ enrolls a large number of students in post-baccalaureate, non-degree, online, science pre-requisite courses over a 12-month period. These courses start and stop throughout the year. While the 12-month, academic year headcount includes all students who took at least one course at SWAGÊÓƵ over the July 1–June 30 time period, the semester snapshots include students enrolled in courses only on the census dates (October 15 for fall or February 15 for spring.) As the science pre-requisite students come and go frequently, the census snapshots only capture a small number of them. Degree-seeking enrollment numbers, however,​are more consistent between the 12-month and semester headcounts.

This is also relevant to the November employee snapshot data and reports created by IR. Because this snapshot report is based on employees on payroll as of November 1 each year, there are adjunct faculty who may not be counted, especially if they only work during a spring or summer semester.

Why does the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) list SWAGÊÓƵ's undergraduate enrollment at over 4,000 students when SWAGÊÓƵ reports undergraduate enrollment at over 2,000 students?

When SWAGÊÓƵ submits enrollment data to the federal government, they require that we include any student taking undergraduate level courses in our undergraduate enrollment counts as of the fall census date. Therefore, we include the students taking the non-degree, online, science prerequisite courses in the undergrad totals as they are taking undergraduate level courses. On internal reports, IR refers to these students as Post-Baccalaureate level students to differentiate them from our undergraduate population.

What does Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) mean?

FTE is a way of calculating enrollment or employment figures that reduces the impact of part-timers. There is a headcount method and credit hour method for calculating FTE. Individual reports that reference FTE will note the method used to calculate it.