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 aTier A: federal postsecondary institution directory.
overview
overview
5,001 institutions; ~2.8% have null county_id (ZIP not in ZCTA-county crosswalk).
current vintage — 2023
provenance
source & licensing
authority
U.S. Department of Education
dataset
College Scorecard (IPEDS)
source url
license
Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)
citation
U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard (IPEDS), 2023.
schema
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| city | string | City in which the institution's primary campus is located. |
| control | int64 | Categorical code for 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 awarded, using the same encoding as predominant_degree (0=non-degree, 1=certificate, 2=associate, 3=bachelor's, 4=graduate). Higher values indicate a higher maximum credential level. |
| institution_name | string | Official name of the postsecondary institution as reported in the College Scorecard. |
| latitude | float64 · degrees | Latitude of the institution's primary campus in decimal degrees (positive north). |
| longitude | float64 · degrees | Longitude of the institution's primary campus in decimal degrees (negative west in the US). |
| predominant_degree | int64 | Categorical code for the predominant degree awarded: 0=non-degree, 1=certificate, 2=associate, 3=bachelor's, 4=graduate. Higher values indicate a higher predominant credential level. |
| state_abbr | string | Two-letter USPS postal abbreviation for the state of the institution's primary campus. |
| state_id | string | 2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Joins dim.states on state_id. |
| unitidkey | string | IPEDS unit ID as a string; the primary key of this dimension and the foreign-key target for fact tables keyed on unitid. Preserved as a string to retain any leading zeros.Part of primary key. Joins dim.institutions on unitid. |
| zip_code | string | Five-digit ZIP code of the institution's primary campus, used to derive county_id via the ZCTA-county crosswalk.Joins dim.crosswalk_zip_county on zip_code. |
relationships
joins
primary key
unitid
common joins
not provided
usage
how to use this table
method
Loaded from College Scorecard; county_id joined via ZIP-county crosswalk.
do not use for
County aggregation of null-county institutions; campus-level detail.
last updated · Jul 7, 2026