institutions
Canonical postsecondary institution dimension sourced from the College Scorecard. Primary key is unitid (IPEDS unit ID). One row per institution. About 2.8% of institutions have null county_id where ZIP is not in the ZCTA-county crosswalk.
tier aadmin_record
overview
overview
~6,500 postsecondary institutions. ~2.8% have null county_id where ZIP is not in the ZCTA-county crosswalk.
current vintage — Most-recent cohort as of latest ingestion
history — Scorecard provides multi-year cohort data; this table reflects the most recent year per institution
provenance
source & licensing
authority
U.S. Department of Education
dataset
College Scorecard Institution-Level Data
source url
license
Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)
citation
U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, most-recent-cohort institution-level data.
schema
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| city | string | City in which the institution's primary campus is located. |
| control | int64 | Categorical code indicating institutional control: 1 = public, 2 = private nonprofit, 3 = private for-profit. |
| country_id | string | ISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables). |
| county_id | string | 5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Joins dim.counties on county_id. |
| highest_degree | int64 | Categorical code for the highest degree the institution is authorized to award, using the same encoding as predominant_degree (0–4). |
| institution_name | string | Official name of the institution as reported to IPEDS. |
| latitude | float64 · decimal degrees | Latitude of the institution's primary campus in WGS 84 decimal degrees. Positive values indicate locations north of the equator. |
| longitude | float64 · decimal degrees | Longitude of the institution's primary campus in WGS 84 decimal degrees. Negative values indicate locations west of the Prime Meridian. |
| predominant_degree | int64 | Categorical code for the degree type most commonly awarded by the institution: 0 = non-degree, 1 = certificate, 2 = associate, 3 = bachelor's, 4 = graduate. |
| state_abbr | string | Two-letter USPS postal abbreviation for the state in which the institution is located. |
| state_id | string | 2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Joins dim.states on state_id. |
| unitidkey | string | IPEDS unit ID string uniquely identifying the institution. Serves as the primary key and the foreign key target for fact tables referencing this dimension.Joins dim.institutions on unitid. |
| zip_code | string | Five-digit ZIP code of the institution's primary campus.Joins dim.crosswalk_zip_county on zip_code. |
relationships
joins
primary key
unitid
common joins
us_education fact tables with unitid
dim.counties on county_id
dim.states on state_id
usage
how to use this table
do not use for
Branch campuses (unitid identifies the main campus; branches may have separate IDs)
last updated · May 5, 2026