Skip to main content
IR Glossary
institutional research
- Academic Year (AY)
- The period of time generally extending from September to June, usually equated to two semesters or trimesters, three quarters, or the period covered by a 4-1-4 calendar system. Boston College operates on a two semester system. (IPEDS)
- Acceptance Rate
- Applicants who are offered admission to a degree-granting program at an institution per number of applicants to that degree program.
- Accrediting agencies
- Organizations (or bodies) that establish operating standards for educational or professional institutions and programs, determine the extent to which the standards are met, and publicly announce their findings. The accrediting agency for Boston College is the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). (IPEDS)
- Admitted Student
- Applicant who is offered admission to a degree-granting program at an institution. (Common Data Set)
- Auxiliary Enterprises
- Operations that exist to furnish a service to students, faculty, or staff, and that charge a fee that is directly related to the cost of the service. Examples are residence halls, food services, student health services, intercollegiate athletics, college unions, and college bookstores. (IPEDS)
- Carnegie Classification
- An institutional classification coding structure developed by the Andrew W. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Boston College’s classification is Doctoral/Research – Extensive.
- Census Date
- For institutions operating under a traditional academic year calendar (semester, trimester, quarter, 4-1-4, or other academic year), enrollment is reported as of the institution’s official fall reporting date or October 15. (IPEDS)
- Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP)
- A taxonomic coding scheme for secondary and postsecondary instructional programs. It is intended to facilitate the organization, collection, and reporting of program data using classifications that capture the majority of reportable data. The CIP is the accepted federal government statistical standard on instructional program classifications and is used in a variety of education information surveys and databases. (IPEDS)
- Cohort
- A group of people who share a common characteristic or experience within a defined time period. In institutional research, cohorts usually consist of full-time, undergraduate students who begin college during the same given year.
- College Senior Survey (CSS)
- A survey used to measure students’ growth during college as well as collect information as to their post-college plans. It can be used longitudinally with the CIRP Freshman Survey to assess how students have changed since entering college.
- Common Data Set (CDS)
- A collaborative effort between publishers and the higher education community to standardize higher education-related definitions and data items. Common Data Set items undergo a broad review by the CDS Advisory Board as well as by data providers representing secondary schools and colleges.
- Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey
- A survey used to collect demographic and attitudinal information about incoming students. It measures trends in higher education and serves as a baseline for longitudinal follow-up.
- Ethnicity
- A self-reported demographic item that does not necessarily denote scientific definitions or anthropological origins, although does typically reflect an affiliation with a group or groups based on racial or cultural ties.
- Fact Book
- A yearly Boston College publication that captures and summarizes much of the important current and historical information about the University. The Fact Book is intended to serve as a reference for information about the University’s faculty, students, alumni, personnel, facilities, and budget.
- First Professional Degree
- A degree that is required for professional licensure or entrance to a specific profession. At Boston College, students pursuing a J.D. in the Law School are first professional degree students. IPEDS counts the following degrees as first professional degrees: Chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.); Pharmacy (Pharm.D.); Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.); Podiatry (Pod.D., D.P., or D.P.M.); Medicine (M.D.); Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.); Optometry (O.D.); Law (L.L.B., J.D.); Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.); and Theology, which consists of Divinity/Ministry (B.D., M.Div.) and Rabbinical and Talmudic Studies (M.H.L., Rav.). (IPEDS)
- Fiscal Year (FY)
- A 12-month period used for calculating annual financial reports. Boston College's fiscal year runs from June 1 through the following May 31, and is designated by the calendar year in which the FY ends.
- Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Employee
- An employee’s status as full-time is determined by an individual’s institution of employment. The employee's term of contract is not considered in making the determination of full- or part-time. (IPEDS)
- Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Enrollment
- A measurement equal to one student enrolled full-time for one academic year. Total FTE enrollment includes full-time plus the calculated equivalent of the part-time enrollment. The full-time equivalent of the part-time students can be estimated using different factors depending on the type and control of institution and level of student. At Boston College, three part-time students are considered to be the equivalent of one full-time student, therefore, FTE enrollment includes all full-time students plus one-third of the total number of part-time students. (IPEDS)
- Full-Time Graduate Student
- Generally, a graduate student enrolled for nine or more semester credits or a student involved in thesis or dissertation preparation is considered full-time by the institution. Prior to fall 2010 at Boston College, full and part-time enrollment status for graduate students was based on credit hours. Starting fall 2010, full and part-time enrollment status for graduate students is based on the criteria listed under Enrollment Status in the Boston College academic catalog.
- Full-Time Undergraduate Student
- Generally, a student enrolled for 12 or more semester credits in an undergraduate program is considered a full-time student. At Boston College, the usual program for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors is five courses worth a minimum of three credits each semester and four or five courses each semester for seniors. Carroll School of Management freshmen take Introduction to Ethics, a one-credit, ten-week offering, as a sixth course during one semester of freshman year and Lynch School of Education freshmen take a one-credit Professional Development Seminar during the first semester of freshman year. University policy states that undergraduate students must be registered for at least four three credit courses per semester. Woods College of Advancing Studies students must be enrolled in 12 credits to be considered full-time.
- Graduate and First Professional Enrollment
- At Boston College, this is a total of all students taking courses for credit in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Carroll Graduate School of Management, Connell Graduate School of Nursing, Lynch Graduate School of Education, Graduate School of Social Work, the Law School, or the Woods College of Advancing Studies.
- Graduation Rate
- The percentage of students in a given cohort graduating within a specified period of time (six years is the typical standard for measuring a first-time, full-time cohort’s graduation rate). The number of students in the cohort is the denominator of the rate; the number of students graduating is the numerator of the rate.
- Graduate Student
- A student who holds a bachelor's or first-professional degree, or its equivalent, and is enrolled in courses at the post-baccalaureate level. (IPEDS)
- Gross Area (Gross Square Feet - GSF)
- The sum of all areas on all floors of a building included within the outside faces of its exterior walls, including all vertical penetration areas, for circulation and shaft areas that connect one floor to another.
- Headcount (unduplicated)
- The sum of students enrolled for credit with each student counted only once during the reporting period, regardless of when the student enrolled. (IPEDS)
- High School Class Rank
- The relative numerical position of a student in his or her high school graduating class calculated by the high school on the basis of grade-point average, whether weighted or unweighted. (Common Data Set)
- IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System)
- The core postsecondary education data collection program for NCES—a system of surveys designed to collect data from all primary providers of postsecondary education. IPEDS is a single, comprehensive system designed to encompass all institutions and educational organizations whose primary purpose is to provide postsecondary education. The IPEDS system is built around a series of interrelated surveys to collect institution-level data in such areas as enrollments, program completions, faculty, staff, and finances.
- Metric
- A measurement or evaluative strategy used to measure performance over time.
- Nonresident alien
- A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who is in this country on a visa or temporary basis and does not have the right to remain indefinitely.
- Peer Institution
- An institution similar in role, scope, or mission to Boston College that is used to compare data relating to admissions, enrollments, finances, etc.
- Recentered SAT Scores
- Recentering of SAT I scores, as performed by the Educational Testing Service, refers to a statistical procedure that re-established the average SAT I verbal and math scores near the midpoint of the 200-800 scale. The recentered scale applies to all SAT Program test scores for tests taken on or after April 1, 1995. Prior to recentering, SAT I scores were based on norms derived from a 1941 sample of test-takers that had a significantly different demographic composition than the current population. The recentering effort involved, first, a re-estimation of the SAT I verbal and math distributions based on a 1990 national sample of test takers and, second, the derivation of new scoring procedures that generated more comparable scores nationwide. The resulting adjustments tended to increase and equalize the mean verbal and math scores and make their distributions more symmetric. In particular, verbal scores were differentially increased relative to math scores, and are now more directly comparable to the math scores: A verbal score of 500 and a math score of 570 earned prior to recentering, for example, are both equivalent to recentered scores of 580 and these scores represent approximately the same relative level of performance in each of these two major areas. In general, SAT I test scores must now differ by around 60 points in order to indicate a statistically significant difference in performance.
- Resident alien or other eligible non-citizen
- A person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who has been admitted as a legal immigrant for the purpose of obtaining permanent resident alien status.
- Retention Rate
- Student retention is the re-enrollment of (typically) undergraduate students from college matriculation through the completion of a college degree. Student retention cohorts may be defined in various ways, e.g., first-time full-time, first-time part-time, etc.; likewise the retention rate may be calculated in different ways, for example, from the freshman to sophomore year or from the first fall enrollment through the expected graduation date.
- SAT Composite Score
- The composite SAT Reasoning Test is the sum of the test-taker’s scores on the three sections of the exam: the writing section, the critical reading section, and the mathematics section and is reported by Boston College as the "composite score".
- Student/Faculty Ratio
- The ratio of full-time equivalent students (full-time plus 1/3 part-time) to full-time equivalent instructional faculty (full-time plus 1/3 part-time). Ratio calculations typically (for example, for the purposes of reporting data to the Common Data Set and US News & World Report) exclude both faculty and students in stand-alone graduate or professional programs such as medicine, law, veterinary, dentistry, social work, business, or public health in which faculty teach virtually only graduate level students; in addition, undergraduate or graduate student teaching assistants are typically not counted as faculty. (Common Data Set)
- SWOT
- A type of analysis used to evaluate an organization and its environment. As the first stage of planning, it assists individuals/organizations to focus on key issues. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats where strengths and weaknesses are considered internal factors and opportunities and threats are categorized as external factors.
- Yield Rate
- The percentage of admitted students who accept an institution’s offer of enrollment
- Your First College Year Survey (YFCYS)
- A survey designed to provide higher education practitioners and researchers with comprehensive information on the academic and personal development of first-year college students. YFCY collects information on a wide range of cognitive and affective measures, providing comprehensive institutional and comparative data for analyses of persistence, adjustment, and other first-year outcomes. YFCY was designed as a follow-up survey to the annual Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey and allows for longitudinal research on the first year of college; YFCY also may be used as a stand-alone instrument.
