ACADEMIC ADVANCEMENT REPORTING SYSTEM

formerly the ATTRITION / RETENTION SYSTEM

University Planning and Analysis

December 30, 1987

Revision of May 17, 2005


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview of System . . . . . . 3

Observations and Assumptions . . . . 4

Undergraduate and Transfer Record Layout . . 5

Graduate Record Layout . . . . . 10

Processing . . . . . . . 16

Reporting . . . . . . . 19

Report Descriptions . . . . . 21

Attrition System Notes . . . . . 23

Change Log . . . . . . . 27


OVERVIEW OF SYSTEM

This system tracks entering undergraduate and graduate students through their term at NCSU. Three times a year each student's current status is stored in a record started in their entering year. The undergraduates are tracked for 7 years and the graduates are tracked for 10 years.

A student's current status is one of 4 possibilities: enrolled, withdrawn, suspended, and graduated. The suspended and graduated categories are easy to determine since students are specifically placed there by codes in the ISIS systems. Enrolled status is checked by a student's presence in the census file for the current time point. The withdrawn status is the absence of the student in any of the first three categories.

There are 3 files, one each for freshmen, undergraduate transfers, and graduate students. Each file contains one record per individual, although in certain rare cases there is more than one record when that person properly belongs in more than one cohort. Each record contains entering cohort information plus an array of semester data. In the undergraduate and transfer files the array is composed of 21 slots (7 years X 3 updates per year). In the graduate file the array is composed of 30 slots (10 years X 3 updates per year).

For the transfer and undergraduate files, each record contains a field that holds running totals: number of transfer credit hours. For the graduate file, there is another running total containing accumulated total hours passed.


OBSERVATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS

1. Cohort definition

A cohort is derived from the fall SDF (Student Data File), containing summer school and fall new freshmen, new transfers, and new graduate students. Because the cohorts come from the SDF, the count of students will agree with published enrollment totals and will not change over time.

2. Time of updates

Data is recorded on completion of Fall and Spring semesters and at mid-Fall after the budget enrollment date (census date). This data is collected from RAT (enrollment), Mouse (graduation), and PR (transcript) files.

3. Time of reporting

The time point for official reports is defined as the status 'at the beginning of year X'. This means that the fall census data is checked for enrollment and both summer school sessions are checked for suspensions and graduations before updates are made and the report is printed. It also means that the reporting period actually spans 8 years in order to track a student for 7 years.

4. SSN changes

After a cohort is created, a student's SSN may be changed on the current RAT, Permanent Records and other files. These changes, as they are reflected in the IDMS ssn-change database will also be made in the Attrition files through the update programs. The cohort count will agree with the original SDF, but individual SSNs will not agree completely.


UNDERGRADUATE AND TRANSFER RECORD LAYOUT

Dataset name: P010501.ATRITN.UNDR.XXXXXX, P010501.ATRITN.TRAN.XXXXXX where xxxxxx represents the semester and year, e.g. CENS95, FALL95, SPRG96.

Record length = 1584, Blocksize = 15840

Copylib member: P010501.UPA.COPYLIB( IRANUGTR )

POSITION

LENGTH

TYPE

NAME

SOURCE

1

2

c

MCOHTYPE

SDFX

3

9

c

STUID

SDFX

12

4

n

MCOHYR

SDFX

16

2

c

MCOHSCH

SDFX

18

3

c

MCOHCURR

SDFX

21

1

c

MSEX

SDFX

22

1

c

METHNIC

SDFX

23

3

c

MRESIDE

SDFX

26

3

n

MHSRANK

SDFX

29

3

n

MHSGPA

SDFX

32

3

n

MPGPA

SDFX

35

3

n

MSATV

SDFX

38

3

n

MSATM

SDFX

41

6

c

MFICE

SDFX

47

1

c

MTRPROG

not used

48

6

n

MTRIHRS

SDFX

54

6

n

MTRCHRS

PR NOTES

60

2

c

MCOOP

PR COURSE

62

3

n

MTRQPA

ADM

ARRAY

ELEMENT

OCCURS 34

TIMES

GROUP LENGTH

= 44

66

1

c

MST1-34

PR COURSE, NOTES

67

5

n

MHP1-34

PR COURSE

72

5

n

MHF1-34

PR COURSE

77

5

n

MHS1-34

PR COURSE

82

5

n

MHU1-34

PR COURSE

87

5

n

MHC1-34

PR COURSE

92

3

n

MGP1-34

PR COURSE

95

3

n

MCG1-34

PR MASTER

98

2

c

MSC1-34

PR MASTER

100

3

c

MCR1-34

PR MASTER

103

6

n

MHT1-34

PR MASTER

109

44

ARRAY GROUP 2

153

44

ARRAY GROUP 3

197

44

ARRAY GROUP 4

1576

9

C

SSN

SDFX


DATA DESCRIPTIONS

Static Information

MCOHTYPE -- Distinguishes type of cohort

UF -- new freshman

U1 -- transferred in as freshman

U2 -- transferred in as sophomore

U3 -- transferred in as junior

U4 -- transferred in as senior

U5 -- transferred in as 5th year

UN -- unclassified transfer undergraduate

SSN -- Student id

MCOHYR -- 4-digit year of entrance to school (note: this is not academic year)

MCOHSCH -- Entering school (OUC format 11-20, 31)

MCOHCURR -- Entering curriculum

MSEX --

M = Male

F = Female


METHNIC --

1 = White

2 = Black

3 = American Native

4 = Asian

5 = Hispanic

6 = Other

MRESIDE -- 3 digit SDF residence codes

MHSRANK -- High school rank from SDF

MHSGPA -- High School GPA from SDF

MPGPA -- Predicted GPA from SDF

MSATV -- SAT verbal scores from SDF

MSATM -- SAT math scores from SDF

MFICE -- FICE/CEEB code of previous school if it exists, high school for entering freshman, previous institution for transfers

MTRPROG -- not used, would be hand-entered by department desiring the statistic

MTRIHRS -- Initial transfer hours for transfer students

MTRCHRS -- Transfer hours while regular student, accumulative, updated in Fall and Spring

MCOOP -- Flag set based on courses in PR Course file, set to ‘C' for COOP, the rule is “Once a coop, always a COOP

MTRQPA -- QPA (000-400) of transfer students.


Array Information

MST1-34 -- Student semester status, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, and at mid-Fall (Census)

E -- enrolled

S -- suspended

W -- withdrawn

G -- Graduated

Enrolled or graduated status is determined from the PR course and Notes files. If a degree note exists for the semester, then the student is graduated. Once they are graduated for a career level, they stay graduated, even if they later take additional courses at that level.

A student is considered suspended if the most recent academic message code in the PR Course file is set to S.

If no course records are found for the semester and no degree notes are present, then a student is considered withdrawn. In some cases, there may be a withdrawn date in the Course file.

MHP1-34 -- Semester hours passed, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, missing values at Mid-Fall (Census). This comes from the Semester Hours Passed field in the Course record for this semester.

MHF1-34 -- Semester hours failed, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, missing values at Mid-Fall (Census). This comes from the Semester Hours No Credit field in the Course record for this semester.

MHS1-34 -- Semester ‘S' hours, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, missing values at Mid-Fall (Census). This comes from the Semester Other Hours Passed field in the Course record for this semester.

MHU1-34 -- Semester ‘U' hours, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, missing values at Mid-Fall (Census). This comes from the Semester Other Hours No Credit field in the Course record for this semester.

MHC1-34 -- Semester hours carried, updated after Fall and Spring semesters with total hours completed, at mid-Fall (Census) the hours carried at the drop date is in this field. This is calculated from the PR Course file by summing the hours for each course listed in the record for this semester.

MGP1-34 -- Semester GPA, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, missing values at mid-Fall (Census).

MCG1-34 -- Cumulative GPA, updated after Fall and Spring semesters. At mid-Fall (Census), courses taken in summer sessions will affect this value. This value comes from the Accumulative Grade Point Average field for the current career level in the PR Master record.

MSC1-34 -- Semester school, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, and at mid-Fall (Census). This value comes from the Major OUC School field for the current career level in the PR Master record.

MCR1-34 --Semester major curriculum, updated after Fall and Spring semesters, and at mid-Fall (Census). This value comes from the Major Curriculum field for the current career level in the PR Master record.

MHT1-34 -- Accumulative total hours passed, updated after Fall and Spring semesters and at mid-Fall (Census).

Data Source Codes

ADM -- Admissions file

PR -- Permanent records file (Master, Course, or Notes)

SDFX -- in-house version of GA Student Data File