Reporting Year
Reports will compare this year with the
three prior years. Since the files used are from the Fall term,
the reporting year will be for the first half of the academic year,
i.e. Fall 2007 is part of the 2007-2008 academic year.
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UNC Institutions
You may request a report for the entire UNC system, for a specific
campus, or for both (the default).
Note that selecting multi-level ranges for several
variables can generate a separate report for each UNC
institution.
Data for the North Carolina School of Science and Math is unavailable
prior to Fall 2007, when it officially became part of the UNC system.
Because it is a high school, many of the categories for special
populations do not apply; selecting inappropriate categories will
give you a blank report.
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Type of Count
Headcount counts students equally, regardless of the number of
credit hours each is enrolled for.
FTE (full-time equivalent) counts are based on the number of
credit hours a student is taking in a given semester.
Most full-time undergraduates are
expected to take 12 semester hours; most full-time graduate students
are expected to enroll for 9 credit hours each semester.
UNC institutions use a stair-step method of determining FTE, so
undergraduates taking 9, 10, or 11 hours are all considered
to be three-quarters of an FTE, rather than 0.75, 0.83, and 0.92 FTE,
respectively.
NC School of the Arts uses a different set of cut-points for determining
FTE enrollment, but still uses a stair-step method.
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Population
This option allows you to segment the population by undergraduate
class level or by degree level.
Undergraduate includes:
- Baccalaureate degree-seeking students
- Four-year diploma students (NCSA)
- Below baccalaureate students
- Post baccalaureate certificate students
- Unclassified undergraduate students
Graduate includes:
- Master's level students
- Those seeking a master's degree
- Those seeking a post master's certificate
- Unclassified graduate students, other than
unclassified first professional students.
- Doctoral students
- First professional students, including unclassified
first professionals.
- Law
- Dentistry
- Medicine
- Pharmacy
- Veterinary Medicine
High School is valid only for NCSA and NCSSM. These students
appear only when this option is selected; they are not counted in
any other totals.
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Academic Load
Most full-time undergraduates are
expected to take 12 semester hours; most full-time graduate students
are expected to enroll for 9 credit hours each semester.
At NCSA, undergraduates need 8 or more semester hours to be full-time,
while graduate students need 6 or more hours.
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New Students
New students may be either:
- First-time students who have not been enrolled previously
at this degree level or
- Transfer students who were previously enrolled at this degree
level at another institution.
Status is determined by the campus; a student who took courses at
another institution but has those courses rejected by the enrolling
institution is not a transfer student.
Summer school courses taken at the
same UNC institution do not negate the first-time status for the fall
term.
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Freshmen
Freshmen are the subjects of a number of reports and
analyses. The term is used in a number of different ways, and when
combined with other options can give you a variety of different
populations,
as seen here.
All freshmen are those coded as such by the institution;
it includes
first-time freshmen, second-semester freshmen, and freshmen of any
semester who haven't accumulated over 30 credit hours.
Recent high school graduates are those who have graduated
within 12 months of enrolling at the UNC institution.
Freshmen over 25 are the usual "non-traditional" freshmen
in many reports. They are the only first-time freshmen restricted
by this option; for the other categories here, use the "New Students"
pulldown menu to select first-time freshmen.
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Race/Ethnicity
Race / ethicity is measured by a single variable, so combinations
such as Asian-Hispanic are not distinguishable. Non-resident alien
status trumps all racial and ethnic categories, and Hispanic
trumps all racial categories. The "Missing/Other" category includes
students who did not report a race, and in later years, those who
listed more than one race.
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Gender
This option allows you to produce tables detailed by the student's
gender. It is most commonly used in conjunction with other breakout
variables.
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Residency
Residency status (in-state vs. out-of-state) is normally
determined by the institution based on the type of tuition the
student is charged.
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Age Groups
This option singles out the prime undergraduate age group
by individual years, as well as covering all other ages by
categories.
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Distance Education
Students may take either resident credit courses or distance education
courses; in an increasing number of cases, they are taking both
types of courses. When using this option, keep several points in
mind:
- This information comes from the Student Data File (SDF), not the
Student Courseload File (SCF). The SCF is used for all funding
decisions.
- The SDF is based on information as of the 10th class day of the
semester. Information on many distance education classes is often
not available at that time; this is one reason for the SCF.
- Especially in earlier years, the distance education variable
actually measured courses taught through the extension office. Some
of those courses were taught on-campus, and so this variable
may or may not measure true "distance" education.
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Pipeline Students
These are upper-division undergraduates (juniors and seniors) and
graduate students majoring in fields that have been identified as
particularly critical for North Carolina's future; they are in
the pipeline to fill those critical needs. The fields of interest
are:
- Education Majors (CIP 13.xxxx)
- Teaching Certification Students -- students who may or may not
be majoring in education, but are seeking certification as teachers.
While there is a great deal of overlap with education majors, some of
these students may be majoring in other subjects.
- Nursing Majors (CIP 51.16xx, 18.11xx (pre-1999))
- Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) --
this category includes agriculture, as well as computer
science, physical sciences, and health professions.
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