College Admissions
Colleges publish a document every year that answers the questions applicants care about most, in plain numbers, with no marketing spin. It is called the Common Data Set, and almost nobody reads it.
The Common Data Set (CDS) is a standardized survey that colleges and universities complete each year. Because every school answers the same questions in the same order, you can compare any two colleges directly, and you can see exactly what a school's admissions office says it values.
This is not a brochure. It is the raw reporting a college submits, and it will tell you things the admissions page will not: how heavily they weigh class rank, whether applying early actually improves your odds, and how much merit aid the average student receives.
You will not usually find it linked from the admissions page. It normally lives on the institutional research section of the site. The fastest way is a single search:
Paste this into Google
common data set "COLLEGE NAME" site:.edu
Add the year if you want a specific edition, for example common data set "Princeton" 2024 site:.edu. The result is almost always a PDF. Grab the most recent one you can find.
The CDS is long, but you never read the whole thing. Jump straight to the section code that answers what you are asking.
| Section | What it tells you | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| C7 | How much weight the college gives each admission factor, including class rank, GPA, test scores, essays, recommendations, and level of applicant's interest | The single most useful section. It tells you what to emphasize. |
| C1 | Applications received, students admitted, and students enrolled | The real acceptance rate, not the marketed one. |
| C2 | Waitlist numbers, including how many were offered a spot and how many were admitted from it | Tells you whether a waitlist there is real hope or a polite no. |
| C5 | High school courses required and recommended for admission | Critical for homeschool planning. Build the transcript to match. |
| C8 to C9 | Test score ranges and the GPA profile of admitted students | Shows honestly where your student lands in the pool. |
| C21 and C22 | Early decision and early action applicants, admits, and rates | Reveals whether applying early is a genuine advantage there. |
| D2 | Transfer applicants, admits, and enrolled students | Useful if community college is part of the plan. |
| H2A | Financial aid awarded, including average merit-based scholarships | What a typical student actually receives, before you apply. |
Three sections do most of the work for a home-educated applicant.
Start with C7. It lists how much weight the college gives to class rank and to level of applicant's interest, rated from Very Important down to Not Considered. If a school rates class rank as Important, that is a school where a verified class rank can move your student ahead of applicants who cannot produce one. If it rates interest highly, campus visits and info sessions are worth your summer. We compiled C7 across 601 colleges to rank all 19 admission factors: see what colleges actually weigh in admissions.
Then C5. Required and recommended high school courses tell you exactly what a transcript needs to show. Reading this before junior year is far easier than discovering a missing lab science in the fall of senior year.
Then C8 and C9. Score ranges and GPA profiles let you sort your list into reaches, matches, and likelies using real numbers instead of reputation.
The CDS tells you what a college values. Your transcript is where you prove you have it. Once you know which schools weigh class rank and course rigor, you can build the record that answers them.
Build a college-ready transcript with automatic GPA, credits, and an optional verified class rank.
The Common Data Set is a standardized survey colleges complete each year covering admissions, enrollment, costs, and financial aid. Because every school answers the same questions, it lets you compare colleges directly and see what each admissions office actually values.
Search Google for: common data set "COLLEGE NAME" site:.edu. It usually lives on the institutional research part of the college website and is published as a PDF. Add a year to find a specific edition.
Section C7. It rates each admission factor, including class rank, GPA, test scores, essays, recommendations, and level of applicant's interest, from Very Important to Not Considered.
Most do, but not all. If a college does not publish one, check its institutional research page for an equivalent factbook, or rely on the figures it reports to federal databases.
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