A cohort is a group of students with shared characteristics that are tracked for reporting purposes. New, degree seeking students are assigned a cohort when they enter the University. They are placed in a cohort based on data in the census enrollment snapshot. There are eight cohorts students are placed in:
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, Freshman
- Full-time, Bachelors degree seeking, Transfer
- Part-time, Bachelors degree seeking, Freshman
- Part-time, Bachelors degree seeking, Transfer
- Full-time, Associates degree seeking, Freshman
- Full-time, Associates degree seeking, Transfer
- Part-time, Associates degree seeking, Freshman
- Part-time, Associates degree seeking, Transfer
The fields used to drive the cohorts are:
- Full-time part-time code - based on enrolled credits at census
- Primary degree id - based on the degree level of the students declared program at census
- Student Type - based the student type at census
Cohort Creation
A student is placed in a cohort only once, on the term when they have a student type of Freshman (F) or Transfer (T); these student types are undergraduate degree seeking students.
- Graduate students are not placed in cohorts. Only undergraduate students are placed in a cohort.
- Non-degree seeking students are not placed in cohorts. Only degree seeking undergraduate students are placed in a cohort.
- A student is not ever removed from or taken out of the cohort. A
student could be excluded based on the exclusions flag.
- Exclusion: Students who died or were totally and permanently disabled; students who left school to serve in the armed forces (or have been called up to active duty); those who left to serve with a foreign aid service of the federal government, such as the Peace Corps; and those who left to serve on official church missions.
- If a student is readmitted, they do not get placed in a cohort again, they still have their original cohort.
- There are students who never get placed in a cohort.
- Graduate students are not placed in a cohort. They could have a cohort if they attended while pursing a undergraduate degree but there are no cohorts for graduate students, only undergraduate students.
- Non-Degree Seeking students are not placed in a cohort.
- When a student with the student type of High School (H) attends after they graduate from high school they get a student type of Freshman (F) or Transfer (T) and would be placed in a cohort at that time.
- When a student with a student type of Personal Interest, Non-Degree (P) moves into a degree seeking program, they do not get placed in a cohort. They move from a student type of Personal Interest, Non-Degree (P) to Continuing Registration (C) and because they never have a student type of Freshman (F) or Transfer (T) they are never placed in a cohort.
- Cohorts prior to 2009 are not in Edify. If a student was placed in a cohort before 2009, they are non-cohorted or null.
- There are some students who never get a student type of Freshman (F) or Transfer (T) because they had an incorrect student type at Census, these students never get placed in a cohort.
- There are a few students who had conflicts between their program and their student type at census. If the student has a student type of F or T then they are placed in a cohort even if their program shows they are a high school student.