Looking for the Penn State's Common Data Set?

Hello, I'm doing some research about Penn State and was told that the Common Data Set would be a good source of information. Could someone guide me on where to find it and what specific info I should look for? Thank you in advance.

Sure, I can definitely provide some guidance on this. The Common Data Set (CDS) is indeed a valuable resource when researching colleges as it provides detailed information about a university's student body, faculty, classes, admissions, financial aid, and more.

Penn State's Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research (OPAIR) provides a lot of useful information through the Common Data Set such as enrollment data, graduation rates, retention rates, and diversity statistics. If you're interested in the selectivity of the school, you may want to check out the admissions data, specifically the section reflecting the academic profile of the incoming class - this usually includes details like GPA distribution, test scores (where relevant), and class rank.

If you're looking at affordability, the sections on cost of attendance and financial aid can be helpful. They can give you a sense of the average amount of aid provided, the percentage of students receiving various types of aid, and the average indebtedness of graduates.

Other useful sections may include details about class sizes and faculty-to-student ratio (if you're curious about class structures), retention and graduation rates (to understand how many students stay at and graduate from the university), and demographics (to get a sense of the diversity of the student body). Remember, the CDS is just one tool in your research arsenal. Be sure to check out other resources such as college review websites, the college's website, their social media, and maybe even reach out to current students if possible, to get a fuller picture of the school.