4.8 Institutional Research
Access to cognos is critical in order to retrieve files for the Institutional Research section of the LSDS.
Adam Shick has created a series of cognos reports that allow the data scientist to pull the information after the census date passes each term19
All necessary files are available in the following path
>Student `>` Institutional Research `>` Delivered Reports `>` dewitt_mikeFrom within the directory structure within cognos you can run a series of reports that will described below.
Adam has also created additional reports that hold information on student demographics and email addresses that might be interesting should you need to match this information using these fields (e.g. someone provides data with only email addresses).
4.8.1 First Year Cohort Tag
Each year on the Census date, students of the entering first-time, full-time cohort received a cohort tag. For Federal reporting purposes this tag identifies the cohort, or group of students. This First Year Cohort tag is applied only during the Fall census date.
If a student enrolls and starts at Wake Forest, but drops out prior to the Census Date, the are not counted towards any of the metrics (e.g. retention, graduation rate, etc).
| First Year Cohort ETL | |
|---|---|
| param | response |
| Description | First year cohort |
| Contact | Adam Shick |
| Contact Office | Institutional Research |
| Input File Type | Excel File |
| Method of Retrieval | Run "*Cohorts from Snapshot FTFT" Cognos Report |
| Frequency of Update | Term |
| Record Type | student |
| ETL File Name | Building FR cohort file_4_FR_Cohort.sas |
| Output Data Set Name | XFR_COHORT |
| QA Program (if Applicable) | NA |
4.8.2 Census Enrollment
Again, on each census date students are tagged as being “present” in the system. This data set is used to measure those students who retention to Wake Forest.
| Census Enrollment Status ETL | |
|---|---|
| param | response |
| Description | Enrollment on census date |
| Contact | Adam Shick |
| Contact Office | Institutional Research |
| Input File Type | Excel File |
| Method of Retrieval | Run " *Cohorts from Snapshot UG" Cognos Report |
| Frequency of Update | Term |
| Record Type | term |
| ETL File Name | Building FR cohort file_4_Census_Enrollment.sas |
| Output Data Set Name | XCENSUS |
| QA Program (if Applicable) | NA |
4.8.3 GRE Scores
The Educational Testing Service (ETS), the provider of the Graduation Record Exam (GRE), allow test-takers the option to submit their scores to their home institution (e.g. if I am a Wake Forest alumna and I take the GRE I can elect to send my scores back to Wake Forest even if I am not applying to Wake Forest). This is an external data source that can provide interesting data. It is currently not connected to the LSDS, but it is available in the appropriate format. Additionally, the date that a former student takes the GRE is variable (e.g. some students take the GRE while they are enrolled while others may take the GRE years after they have graduated). The link to retrieve the new data is available at https://www.ets.org/institution-portal.
| GRE Scores ETL | |
|---|---|
| param | response |
| Description | GRE Score Information |
| Contact | ETS |
| Contact Office | ETS |
| Input File Type | Excel File |
| Method of Retrieval | NA |
| Frequency of Update | Term |
| Record Type | student |
| ETL File Name | Building FR cohort_file_4_gre_scores |
| Output Data Set Name | xgre |
| QA Program (if Applicable) | NA |
Census date is defined as the Monday of the 5th week of classes. If in doubt, confirm with Adam or another person in the Office of Institutional Research.↩