Mount Saint Mary's University - IPEDS Completion Is 75% Faster with Automated Data Preparation and File Formatting

About: Mount Saint Mary’s University (MSMU) is a private college with 3,000 students, a 72% retention rate, and a 63% six-year graduation rate.

• Challenge: Like every American university that receives federal financial aid funding, MSMU is required to submit a large amount of data to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)’s Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS). MSMU’s existing process for gathering,
  organizing, and submitting data consumed 40 tedious hours of staff time across multiple research analysts. It required manual data input and a time-consuming verification process to ensure accuracy prior to submission.
• Solution: MSMU used Rapid Insight to develop workflows for the IPEDS Completions Survey, one of three major reporting periods each year. The workflows gather data from all relevant sources and compile a clean, accurate file for automated upload to the NCES. The saved, repeatable workflows can be reused each IPEDS cycle with minimal updates to match new IPEDS submission guidelines.
• Impact: Rapid Insight reduced the time required to finish the Completions Survey by 75%, from 40 hours to 10. This freed up two staff members to work on other institutional priorities. MSMU currently uses Rapid Insight for the IPEDS Completions Survey and plans to develop workflows for the remaining IPEDS surveys.

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