The Common Data Set is standardized collection of data points used by colleges to report institutional information. A majority of colleges (but not all) make this published data available every year and it can give you a lot of valuable insight into some of the schools your child may be considering.
What Data Is on the Common Data Set?
Here are the standard sections you’ll find on the CDS .pdfs:
Section A: General information about the school
Section B: Enrollment and persistence rates
Section C: First-time, first-year admissions
Section D: Transfer admissions
Section E: Academic offerings and policies
Section F: Student life
Section G: Annual expenses and cost of attendance
Section H: Financial aid statistics
Section I: Instructional faculty and class sizes
Section J: Degrees conferred
There is a lot of information that you can obtain from a college’s CDS, but what I tend to look at the most is the Admissions and Financial Aid sections. For example, if I want to find out how my child’s SAT or ACT score stacks up against students that were admitted to Fairfield University for the 2025-2026 school year I would look at the chart below that is found in Section C of the CDS.
What do the percentiles tell you?
If your child’s score is above the 75th percentile: It means their test score is higher than the majority of enrolled students at that school.
If your child’s score is near the 50th percentile (median): Their score sits right in the middle of those admitted.
If your child’s score is below the 25th percentile: Their score is lower than most students that were admitted. If your student has a strong GPA and AP course load you may want to consider applying test optional if the college allows that.
Another area to look at in Section C is where they outline areas that are of most importance when they evaluate a student for admissions. For example, by looking at the chart below you can see that demonstrated interest (campus visits, etc.) is a very important factor in their admissions process.
Where Can I Find the Common Data Sets?
Most colleges have the CDS squirreled away somewhere on their website, but what I typically do is just google “XXXXX college Common Data Set 2025-2026” and usually am able to easily find a link to the data.
So, pull up some CDS files for some of the colleges on your student’s list and do some research. I think you’ll be surprised at some of the insight it can give you for your college search.