The form every college fills in about itself, annotated
Colleges answer the same 50-page questionnaire every year and publish the result. We read the 2025-2026 template line by line and marked up the parts that change how you should read any school's answers.
The question we keep seeing
“Where does the data in college guides actually come from, and what are the schools being asked?”
The short answer
- The Common Data Set is a set of shared definitions, not a database — which is why the wording of each item matters more than it looks.
- One line defines 'applicant' tightly enough to make admit rates comparable between schools. Most marketing figures are not built that way.
- The 2025-2026 template no longer asks schools to rate racial/ethnic status as an admission factor. That row is gone.
Almost every number you have read about a college — its admit rate, its test-score range, how much of its class gets aid — traces back to one blank form. Colleges fill it in every year and post the result on their own websites, and hardly anyone outside admissions offices ever reads the form itself.
So here it is. The excerpts below are from the 2025-2026 template, published by the Common Data Set Initiative — a collaboration between the College Board, Peterson's and U.S. News & World Report.Footnote 1Source 1Common Data Set Initiative — 2025-2026 templateThe blank questionnaire colleges complete each year, published in PDF, Excel and Word by a collaboration of the College Board, Peterson's and U.S. News & World Report. Excerpts here were read from the 2025-2026 PDF template; all 50 pages are downloadable from the publisher.commondataset.org Tap any highlighted phrase to see why it matters. The whole 50-page document is downloadable from the publisher at the top of the reader.
The document
Common Data Set 2025-2026
The blank template every college fills in about itself — 50 pages, published by the Common Data Set Initiative, a collaboration of College Board, Peterson's, and U.S. News & World Report. Excerpts below are annotated; the full document is on the publisher's site.
Start here
Welcome to the 2025-2026 Common Data Set collection
The CDS is .
Those who report data for their colleges are urged to abide by the definitions and the cohorts specified when answering CDS items. They are also urged to use the answers to CDS items when responding to the numerous survey requests they receive, by , or by other effective means.
C1First-time, first-year students: applied, admitted, and enrolled in Fall 2025
Include early decision, early action, and students who began studies during summer in this cohort.
Applicants should include only those students who fulfilled the requirements for consideration for admission (i.e., who ) and who have been notified of one of the following actions: admission, non-admission, placement on waiting list, or application withdrawn.
Admitted applicants should include wait-listed students who were subsequently offered admission.
- Total first-time, first-year men / women / unknown sex who applied
- Total first-time, first-year men / women / unknown sex who were admitted
- Total first-time, first-year men / women / unknown sex who enrolled
If available, please provide for total applicants, admits, and enrolled students: in-state, out-of-state, international, unknown.
C2First-time, first-year wait-listed students
- Is your waiting list ranked?
- If yes, do you release that information to students?
- Do you release that information to school counselors?
C7Relative importance of each of the following academic and nonacademic factors in your first-time, first-year, degree-seeking general admission decisions
| Factor | Very Important | Important | Considered | Not Considered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic | ||||
| Rigor of secondary school record | ||||
| Class rank | ||||
| Academic GPA | ||||
| Standardized test scores | ||||
| Recommendation(s) | ||||
| Nonacademic | ||||
| Interview | ||||
| Extracurricular activities | ||||
| Talent/ability | ||||
| Character/personal qualities | ||||
| Geographical residence | ||||
| State residency | ||||
| Religious affiliation/commitment | ||||
| Volunteer work | ||||
| Work experience | ||||
Please provide additional information if the importance of any specific academic or nonacademic factors differ by academic program.
C8AEntrance exams
Does your institution make use of SAT or ACT scores in admission decisions for first-time, first-year, degree-seeking applicants?
If yes, place check marks in the appropriate boxes below to reflect your institution's policies for use in admission for .
| Factor | Required to be considered for admission | Required for some | Recommended | Not required, but consider if submitted | Not considered, even if submitted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAT or ACT | |||||
| ACT Only | |||||
| SAT Only |
C9Percent and number of first-time, first-year students enrolled in Fall 2025 who submitted national standardized (SAT/ACT) test scores
(e.g., mathematics scores but not critical reading for a category of students) or combine other standardized test results (such as TOEFL) in this item.
Do not convert SAT scores to ACT scores and vice versa.
C17Reply policy for admitted applicants (fill in one only)
- Must reply by (date)
- No set date
- Other
- Deadline for housing deposit
- Amount of housing deposit
- Refundable if student does not enroll?
C20Common Application
C21Early decision
Does your institution offer an early decision plan (an admission plan that permits students to apply and be notified of an admission decision well in advance of the regular notification date and that ) for first-time, first-year applicants for fall enrollment?
- Number of early decision applications received
- Number of applicants admitted under early decision plan
C22Early action
Is your early action plan a ?
G0Annual expenses
Provide academic year costs of attendance for the following categories that are applicable to your institution.
18 annotations — tap any highlight
Three things worth taking away
The definitions are the product. The CDS does not collect anything. It agrees on what words mean, so that "applicant" counts the same thing at every school that follows it. Once you have read the definition of an applicant in item C1, you can never quite take an unsourced admit rate seriously again.
One row has disappeared. For years the nonacademic half of the admission-factors table carried a line for racial/ethnic status. It is not in the 2025-2026 template. Read that narrowly — the form no longer asks schools to rate race as an admission factor, following the Supreme Court's 2023 decision. Race has not left the document: item B2 still collects enrollment by racial/ethnic category, because describing who enrolled and weighing race in a decision are separate things.
The document is not a snapshot of one year. A single 2025-2026 form asks about test policy for Fall 2027, costs for 2026-2027, students who enrolled in Fall 2025, and early decision counts for the Fall 2024 entering class. Nothing is wrong with that — each item runs on its own cycle — but quoting a figure without checking which year its item asks about is the most common way these files get misread.
The Common Data Set is not the Common Application
They are confused constantly, and the template settles it. Item C20 reads, in full: "Common Application: Question removed from CDS." The CDS used to ask whether a school accepted the Common App and dropped the question during the 2006-2007 cycle.
The Common Application is something you submit to colleges. The Common Data Set is a reporting standard colleges complete about themselves. Neither one runs the other, and only one of them will tell you whether a school cares that you opened its emails.
A fuller walkthrough of the sections worth your time is in how to read a college's Common Data Set. If you would rather see the federal version of the same admission-factors question — collected centrally, for about two thousand schools at once — that is what college matching uses.
Try it in Katalyna
College matching
What each school says it weighs, from federal data — no data entry required.
Frequently asked
A set of standard definitions agreed between the College Board, Peterson's and U.S. News, so colleges answer the same questions the same way. Each school completes its own copy and publishes it. It is a dictionary, not a database — nobody collects them centrally.
No. The Common App is an application you submit; the Common Data Set is a reporting standard colleges complete about themselves. The CDS actually dropped its question about the Common Application in the 2006-2007 cycle.
The 2025-2026 template no longer has a row for racial/ethnic status among the admission factors in section C7. Item B2 still collects enrollment by racial/ethnic category, which is a different question — reporting who enrolled rather than weighing race in a decision.
From commondataset.org, which publishes the blank template in PDF, Excel and Word. For a specific college's completed answers, search that school's name plus "Common Data Set" — each one posts its own.