Just ask IPEDS: from question to insight in minutes
Ask questions in plain English and get instant answers from IPEDS, the federal database for every U.S. college and university
IPEDS (the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) is the U.S. Department of Education’s core postsecondary dataset, collected annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It is free and public through the IPEDS Data Center, NCES College Navigator, and the IPEDS Trend Generator.
Data source: NCES IPEDS, 2024–25. Last reviewed July 2026.
Stop clicking and downloading. Just ask.
Ask questions like a conversation:
- • "What's our fall completion rate?"
- • "How do we calculate IPEDS net?"
- and additional research queries...
"How does our graduation rate compare to peer institutions?"
Your graduation rate is 72%.
That compares favorably to the peer group average of 68%.
What is IPEDS?
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) is the federal database containing comprehensive data on every college and university in the United States. It includes enrollment, graduation rates, financial aid, institutional characteristics, and much more.
New data is published on a fixed cadence. See the official IPEDS data release schedule for upcoming publication dates.
New to IPEDS? Read IPEDS data explained: what it covers and how to start.
IPEDS reporting cycle
Every institution that takes part in Title IV federal student aid reports to IPEDS once a year, in three collection periods. Each institution's keyholder enters and locks the data for each survey component by the period's close date. For the 2026-27 cycle:
- Fall, closes October 28, 2026: Cost I, Completions, and 12-month Enrollment.
- Winter, closes February 10, 2027: Student Financial Aid, Cost II, Graduation Rates, 200% Graduation Rates, Admissions, and Outcome Measures.
- Spring, closes April 7, 2027: Fall Enrollment, Finance, Human Resources, and the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS).
NCES then publishes provisional data in waves, from early summer to mid-fall, and institutions can revise the prior year's data during the next collection. Once your peers' numbers are out, compare against them for free in the Clema data hub, which keeps a peer-benchmarked federal profile for every U.S. institution, no account needed.
Coordinator deadlines, the full component list, and who must report are in our IPEDS deadlines reference. Source: NCES IPEDS 2026-27 data collection schedule.
Why use the IPEDS AI agent?
Traditional IPEDS access is clunky and time-consuming. IPEDS AI Agent makes it effortless.
The Old Way
- ✗Navigate complex IPEDS website interfaces
- ✗Download multiple CSV files manually
- ✗Merge and clean data in Excel
- ✗Figure out variable definitions
- ✗Hours or days to get answers
With IPEDS AI Agent
- ✓Ask questions in plain English
- ✓Get instant, accurate answers
- ✓Compare institutions automatically
- ✓Export charts and data easily
- ✓Minutes instead of hours
Questions you can ask
Just type naturally. IPEDS AI Agent understands what you need.
IPEDS data query with natural language AI
Clema turns a plain-English question into an answer drawn from official IPEDS data, with the source shown. It is the conversational alternative to clicking through the NCES IPEDS Data Center or scripting the IPEDS API, and a focused option next to general assistants like the Datatelligent IPEDS Assistant.
AI agent for pulling federal higher education data
One conversation reaches IPEDS, College Scorecard, PSEO, Pell Grant, cohort default rate, EADA, and DAPIP. Instead of downloading and merging files from each federal source, you ask once and Clema returns the answer with its citation, ready to export.
See it on a real campus
Clema institution profiles in the free data hub show IPEDS data for each school that reports it, next to its peers. Start with one of these.
- Michigan State UniversityAdmissions, graduation rates, and enrollment trends for a large public research university, with named peers.
- Miami Dade CollegeEnrollment, completions, and outcomes for a large Florida community college.
- University of FloridaAdmissions, enrollment, graduation rates, and student-faculty ratio for a flagship public university.
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Frequently
asked questions
IPEDS, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, is the U.S. Department of Education’s core postsecondary dataset, collected annually by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It covers enrollment, graduation rates, financial aid, staffing, and finance for every college that participates in federal student aid.
IPEDS is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the Institute of Education Sciences within the U.S. Department of Education. NCES sets the annual survey components and publishes the results through the IPEDS Data Center and College Navigator.
Yes. IPEDS data is free and public. Anyone can download it from the NCES IPEDS Data Center, look up a single school in College Navigator, or build trend reports in the IPEDS Trend Generator. Clema queries that same official data in plain English.
IPEDS reports FTE two ways. The 12-month FTE divides credit hours by 30 (undergraduate) and 24 (graduate) on semester calendars, or 45 and 36 on quarter calendars, plus clock hours divided by 900. The fall FTE adds full-time headcount to part-time headcount times an NCES factor, such as .403543 for part-time undergraduates at public 4-year institutions.
IPEDS is collected once a year in three periods (fall, winter, spring), and NCES releases provisional data in waves. On the 2026-27 schedule, fall components reach the IPEDS Data Center in early summer, winter components in early fall, and spring components in mid-fall. NCES calls those dates approximate.
UNITID is the unique number NCES assigns to each institution in IPEDS (also called the IPEDS ID). OPEID is the number the Office of Postsecondary Education assigns to schools with a Program Participation Agreement for Title IV aid: six digits, plus a two-digit suffix that identifies branches and additional locations.
Anything in the IPEDS surveys: enrollment trends, graduation and retention rates, tuition and net price, financial aid, admissions, faculty, and institutional finance, for any U.S. institution from 2014 to 2025. Clema returns each answer with its source shown.
Start free: 20 AI conversations a month, no credit card. For more volume, Pro and Max plans start at $99 per month, or book a demo for a custom Enterprise plan.
Instead of navigating the IPEDS Data Center’s tables and filters, you ask questions in plain English and get an immediate answer with its source, so a report that took an afternoon takes a minute.