About SLC
Common Data Set
The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and publishers as represented by the College Board, Peterson’s, and U.S. News & World Report. The combined goal of this collaboration is to improve the quality and accuracy of information provided to all involved in a student’s transition into higher education, as well as to reduce the reporting burden on data providers.
The CDS is a set of standards and definitions of data items rather than a survey instrument or set of data represented in a database. Each of the higher education surveys conducted by the participating publishers incorporates items from the CDS as well as unique items proprietary to each publisher. Consequently, the publishers’ surveys differ in that they utilize varying numbers of items from the CDS.
Table of Contents
The table of contents below links to specific sections of the 2024-25 Common Data Set. You can view the complete 2024-25 Common Data Set by downloading the full PDF.