Skip to: Content | Footer

California Postsecondary Education Commission Home Page

Data Mining

The Data Mining system is a tool that can be used to examine the Commission's various database tables for trends over time. It can also be used to discover anomalies with the data such as large numerical differences between consecutive years reported and gaps when no data were reported.

To aid in finding the anomalies, a "tolerance" can be defined to find rows of data that contain a percentage change of 10-50% between any two consecutive years. If any two consecutive years of data in a given row meet or exceed the set tolerance percentage, the row will be colored yellow (more than 3x the tolerance), green (more than 2x) or blue (more than 1x). Also, a row will be colored gray in cases when the school has been closed. The "red flag" option can also be set to allow users to highlight individual data cells that have a large numerical difference from that of consecutive cells surrounding it. This "red flag" option can be set to 1x, 2x, or 3x of the "tolerance" selected. When this tolerance level is met, the individual cell will be red to indicate that it has been flagged.

The Commission has collected data in the following areas:

  • Enrollment
  • First-time Freshmen
  • High School Graduates
  • Transfer
  • Degrees / Completions
These data are aggregated into database tables and used to generate the various Custom Data Reports available via the web and used internally. Since these tables answer, and/or provide input to over 95% of the questions and issues surrounding higher education, the quality and reliability of these data tables is paramount. Internally, Commission staff use a system similar to this to validate data that is submitted each year by the public segments before posting the data on the website. Any anomalies found are researched with the segments and documented in the Caveats.

The year in the data on subsequent pages refers to different time frames depending on the data:

  • Unless otherwise specified, all enrollment and transfer numbers are Fall-term data.
  • For enrollment and Fall-term transfer numbers, the data is for the Fall term of the year shown. (e.g. 2000 refers to Fall 2000 data)
  • For full-year transfer numbers, the data is for the academic year ending in the year shown. (e.g. 2000 refers to Academic Year 1999-2000 data)
  • For high school graduation and degree and completion numbers, the data is for the academic year ending in the year shown. (e.g. 2000 refers to Academic Year 1999-2000 data)
If you are looking for specific data, use the Custom Data Reports system. This system provides the most flexibility for generating a data report.

For information on the dates available for each table see Custom Data Reports Dates Available.

E-Mail Data_Request@cpec.ca.gov Any comments, questions, or suggestions are welcome; send to Data_Request@cpec.ca.gov or fill out the Comments form.

Sign Up Sign up to be notified when this data is updated.

Select a table to explore:

Enrollment

View the total number of students enrolled at a public college or university aggregated by one of the options below. Select any combination of gender, ethnicity, and other table-specific options.

   Enrollment by Student Level
   Enrollment by Discipline
   Enrollment by Student Age
   Enrollment by High School Origin

Transfer and Freshmen

View the total number of transfer students or first-time freshmen enrolled at public colleges and universities in California. Again, select any combination of ethnicity, gender, and other table-specific options. (Note: Gender is not available for the Full-Year Transfer Report.)

   Enrollment of Fall-Term Transfer Students to Public Institutions
   Enrollment of Full-Year Transfer Students to Public Institutions
   Enrollment of First-Time Freshmen in Public Institutions

Degrees / Completions

View the total number of degrees awarded at a public college or university aggregated by one of the options below. Select any combination of gender, ethnicity, and other table-specific options.

   Degrees by Discipline
   Degrees by Source Institution
   Degrees by High School Origin

Source Institution Viewed from the College

View the number of source institutions that supplied students to a public college or university. Select any combination of ethnicity, gender and other table-specific options. This report is useful to see if a college or university is having issues with coding the source institution. The number of source institutions should change very little from year to year. (Notes: Gender is not available for the Full-Year Transfer Report. Community Colleges stopped reporting incoming transfers in 2002.)

   Enrollment of Fall-Term Transfer Students to Public Institutions
   Enrollment of Full-Year Transfer Students to Public Institutions
   Enrollment of First-Time Freshmen in Public Institutions
   Enrollment by High School Origin
   Degrees by Source Institution
   Degrees by High School Origin

Source Institution Viewed from the Source

View the number of transfer students or first-time freshmen enrolled or the number of degrees awarded to students who came from each source institution. Options allow you to select the total number state-wide, at a public system (UC, CSU, or CCC), or at an individual college or university. In addition, select any combination of ethnicity, gender, and other table-specific options. (Note: Gender is not available for the Full-Year Transfer Report.)

   Enrollment of Fall-Term Transfer Students to Public Institutions
   Enrollment of Full-Year Transfer Students to Public Institutions
   Enrollment of First-Time Freshmen in Public Institutions
   Enrollment by High School Origin
   Degrees by Source Institution
   Degrees by High School Origin