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Enrollment Analyst


Analyzing the dynamics of which higher education institutions are drawing enrollment from which counties in a state or region can be challenging for many reasons, yet having an understanding of these patterns is important. Where there are multiple institutions in a state system, there is a need to understand how the institutions are drawing enrollment. from the same areas. Where is there overlap? What counties/institutions are competitive? What areas are underserved? What areas are overserved? How will these patterns change over time? What will be the impact of market infrastructure change?

Enrollment Analyst has been developed to facilitate these types of analyses. Assessing enrollment participation rates adds another dimension of complexity. Enrollment Analyst offers a way to simplify enrollment participation rate analyses. It gives the user the ability to define the population age range from which the enrollment is being drawn. Rather than examining enrollment participation rates for only the age range 18-to-24, the user can specify any other age range, such as 15-to-17 or 18-to-34. A single year of age database is used.

Enrollment Analyst (EA) is an integrated software and database tool designed to analyze enrollment and enrollment participation rates by higher education institution by county or county groups. EA is a Win32 application designed to operate on the user computer. The EA deployment described here is used with State of Georgia counties and the University System of Georgia institutions.

EA Startup. After installing EA, start EA -- c:\ea\ea.exe. The startup view appears as shown below.


click graphic for larger view

Operations
  • Operations based on Selection by County/Region
  • Operations based on Selection by Institution

Operations based on Selection by County/Region (see Operations based on Selection by Institution)
EA Navigation and Display - Selection by County

  • Counties are arrayed in the lower left listbox.
  • Dbl-click one county to refresh the display grid at right.
  • The set of counties and institutions is fixed for a given deployment.
  • The institution/enrollment grid will always display the same set of institutions.

When one county is dbl-clicked, the institution/enrollment grid re-displays.
Grid structure:
  Left column is the institution code and name.
  The next three columns are freshman enrollment for 2000, 2005 and 2007.
    (for a given institution and enrollment in a given county(s))
  The next three columns are total enrollment for 2000, 2005 and 2007.
    (for a given institution and enrollment in a given county(s))
  The final three columns show freshman to total enrollment for the specified years.
    (for a given institution and enrollment in a given county(s))

  • Counties may be multi-selected by holding down the Ctrl key and dbl-clicking last county.
  • Multi-selected counties are displayed by name in the Excel file generated automatically.
  • Counties may also be multi-selected by using the file specified in 'Select areas by file'.
  • The default file name specified is included and contains the 28 Atlanta metro counties.

Enrollment Participation Rates

The above description of the grid display structure describes how enrollment data are presented for institutions by county. By using the drop-down selection and selecting 'E/P', enrollment participation rates may also be displayed. When the edit box below the drop down shows 'Enrollment', enrollment data will be displayed. When the edit box shows 'E/P Rates', enrollment to population ratios are displayed.

EA uses a single year of age database that enables the user to specific the age cohort to be used for E/P displays. The existing population age range appears in age range edit boxes below the 'age1 age2' button. To change the age range, for example to the range 18 to 24, enter 18 in age1 edit box and 24 in age2 edit box. Next, click the 'age1 age2' button. A new base file is generated that requires a few minutes. A message appears upon completion. Any age range can be specified 0 through 85 (85 will use 85 years and over).


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Population Projection

Use the Tools>Projections to develop population projections. The population projection processing develops single year of age estimates for 2007 and annual projections to 2020. Alternative assumption may be applied. While this feature may be used in this version, the processing generates only 2007 estimates and model/assumption variations are not yet available. Generating estimates for 2007 requires 8-10 minutes; progress is shown in the status bar at the bottom of the display.

Viewing Population by Age Cohort

Population by age cohort may be viewed by selecting the Population item in the Selection dropdown box.



The same county selection procedures apply as for viewing enrollment and enrollment participation rates. Just like for enrollment and enrollment participation rates, the grid display is automatically written to the designated Excel file (upper left edit box). The next graphic shows the population by age cohort for Gwinnett County.


click graphic for larger view

Operations based on Selection by Institution (see Operations based on Selection by County/Region)
EA Navigation and Display - Selection by Institution

Invoke Selection by Institution by using Tools>Select by Institution as shown in the following graphic. Click and uncheck this option to switch to Selection by County/Region.



  • Institutions are arrayed in the lower left listbox.
  • Dbl-click one institution to refresh the display grid at right.
  • The set of counties and institutions is fixed for a given deployment.
  • The county/enrollment grid will always use the same master set of counties. An inclusion threshold can be set.

When one institution is dbl-clicked, the county/enrollment grid re-displays.
Grid structure:
  Left column is the institution code and name.
  The next six columns are freshman enrollment for 2000, 2005 and 2007.
    (enrollment in specified area for a given set of selected institution(s))
  The next six columns are total enrollment for 2000, 2005 and 2007.
    (enrollment in spefied area for a given set of selected institution(s))

  • Institutions be multi-selected by holding down the Ctrl key and dbl-clicking last institution.
  • Multi-selected institutions are displayed by name in the Excel file generated automatically.
  • Institutions may also be multi-selected by using the file specified in 'Select areas by file'.
  • A sample institutions selection file is included named instlist1.txt.

The following view illustrates use of Selection by Institution. Aggregate values for two selected institutions are displayed by county in the grid. Only selected counties are displayed in this example as an inclusion threshold (see description below) was applied.


click graphic for larger view

Setting County Inclusion Threshold

The default display for selection by institution is all counties. Set the inclusion threshold, the minimum size of the 2007 total enrollment for the county being displayed, by using the Tools>Inclusion Threshold which then provides a form to set the value:



In this example, only counties would be displayed where the value of the 2007 total enrollment is greater than or equal to 3,000. The default value of zero is set when EA starts, Changing the setting applies until the setting is changed again in the same EA session or when exiting EA.

Analysis and Interpretation

...

Population Single Year of Age File
(c:\ea\areg_v2008a_13.dbf)

Field# Field NameDescription
1 VINTAGE 2008a
2 ST FIPS State Code (2)
3 CTY FIPS County Code (3)
4 AGE (0, 1, 2,…, 85 years and over) (2)
5 RACEGENDER Race-sex (1)
    1=White male
    2=White female
    3=Black or African American male
    4=Black or African American female
    5=American Indian or Alaska Native male
    6=American Indian or Alaska Native female
    7=Asian or Pacific Islander male
    8=Asian or Pacific Islander female
6 HISPANIC Hispanic Origin (1)
    1=not Hispanic or Latino
    2=Hispanic or Latino
7 POP00 Population July 1, 2000
8 POP01 Population July 1, 2001
9 POP02 Population July 1, 2002
10 POP03 Population July 1, 2003
11 POP04 Population July 1, 2004
12 POP05 Population July 1, 2005
13 POP06 Population July 1, 2006
14 POP07 Population July 1, 2007
15 POP08 Population July 1, 2008
16 POP09 Population July 1, 2009
17 POP10 Population July 1, 2010
18 POP11 Population July 1, 2011
19 POP12 Population July 1, 2012
20 POP13 Population July 1, 2013
21 POP14 Population July 1, 2014
22 POP15 Population July 1, 2015
23 POP16 Population July 1, 2016
24 POP17 Population July 1, 2017
25 POP18 Population July 1, 2018
26 POP19 Population July 1, 2019
27 POP20 Population July 1, 2020

Initialization File

[Options]
//master enrollment data file
optfile1=c:\ea\SRPT405x_FALL2000_05_07_ALL.dbf
//master single year of age file
optfile2=c:\ea\areg_v2008a_13.dbf
//age cohort summary file
optfile3=c:\ea\areg_v2008a_13_sum.dbf
//xls output file
optfile4=c:\ea\eatrends.xls
//county selections file
optfile5=c:\ea\ealist1.txt


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