Common Data Set
The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort between the higher education community and publishers of college guidebooks, including the College Board, Peterson's Guides, and US News and World Report. See http://www.commondataset.org/ for details. Participation in the CDS is voluntary, but is currently used by hundreds of US colleges and universities each year.
The primary goal of the CDS is to improve the quality, accuracy, and consistency of information reported by colleges and universities to guidebooks, media, and all others involved in a student's transition into higher education. This includes accuracy and consistency both among institutions in any given year, and for the data describing any given institution over time.
To this end, the CDS collects data with explicit data definitions that are to be followed by all colleges using the CDS. Most of the information reported in the CDS is based on standard data reported annually by US colleges and universities to Federal and other public and professional agencies, according to the standard definitions used for these data. For CDS data that are not based on other standard reporting, careful definitions are developed for all CDS schools to use. These definitions are found at the end of each year’s CDS.
The second goal of the CDS is to reduce the substantial burden on colleges of compiling and reporting information to multiple publishers of many college guidebooks, and other data consumers. Common Data Set items and definitions regularly undergo broad review, and may be revised slightly from time to time if/as necessary. The CDS includes most of the data used by US News to produces its annual rankings published in “America’s Best Colleges.”