By the Numbers: Focus on the Facts

  • Fickle & capricious students? Exploring Student Major Change Patterns (February 2007)
    Editor's Note: I can’t tell you how often I hear stories of how frequently students change their majors. To hear some tell it, students change their majors as often as they change their clothes! This issue debunks the myth that students are whimsical and inconstant in choosing their major field of study. Data from two UW-L new freshman cohorts for whom graduation rates can be calculated is also provided to show the possible impact of major changes on graduation outcomes.
  • Selectivity & Yield: Measuring How Difficult It Is to Get In (December 2006)
    Editor's Note: Recent decisions by some of the nations more prestigious colleges and universities to eliminate early acceptance practices because they may provide undue advantage to students from higher income levels have spawned a furor of discussion about just how difficult it is to gain admittance to colleges and universities. Fanned further by controversies over affirmative action and the practice of considering student race and ethnicity in admissions, universities re under increasing scrutiny about who and how they admit to their hallowed halls.
  • Persistence & Degree Attainment for Students who Transfer (November 2006)
    Editor's Note: Over the summer, I was granted one of about 50 national fellowships to attend the Association for Institutional Research/National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Summery Data Policy Institute. The Institute is designed to familiarize higher education professionals with the
    various large databases maintained by NCES and the National Science Foundation. During the Institute, each participant completes a short presentation using data from at least one of the national databases; this issue of By the Numbers is based on my findings.
  • Where Can I Find...? A Review of UW System Publications and Reports (October 2006)
    Editor's Note: The Office of Policy Analysis & research (OPAR) is essentially the Office of Institutional Research for the entire UW System. Like the campus IR office, OPAR is responsible for routine internal and external reporting as well as ad hoc reporting at the request of the Board of Regents. The staff at OPAR often work as intermediaries to connect campuses with similar issues or interests. For instance, David Blough, a Senior Policy & Planning Analyst at OPAR, has been instrumental in keeping the IR offices at Equity Scorecard campuses in touch with each other.
  • Does it Mean Anything? How U.S. News Ranks Universities (September 2006)
    Editor's Note: This issue focuses on the U.S. News and World Report ranking of colleges and universities, which is arguably the most well known of the various publisher released rankings. It is not, however, the only ranking of schools. The Princeton Review conducts several annual surveys used to rate and rank colleges and programs—including their annual “Party School” rankings—and Thompson Peterson’s annual survey provides data for the College Search feature on Yahoo.com.

Equity Scorecard (EqS) Editions
The below are a series of issues on the Equity Scorecard Pilot project.