If your institution did not collect sex but did collect gender, report using 0 for Male and 1 for Female, and leave the field blank for all other values. If no valid value is available for any other reason, leave the field blank.

Please make all reasonable efforts to work across offices and information systems in order to provide the data as specified. If data cannot be provided as requested, a detailed explanation should be provided, as described above in the FAQs related to missing/unknown data.

Because the majority of the data elements needed to complete the ACTS survey component are also necessary to complete other IPEDS surveys (e.g., Admissions, Cost, Completions, Fall Enrollment, Graduation Rates), NCES expects missing data quality to be high. All reasonable efforts should be made to verify the accuracy of the data. If the data are known to contain significant inaccuracies, please indicate that you do not have the data to report (either by indicating the section is unavailable for an entire cohort year or by using the “-1” unknown code for individual data elements, in the applicable sections) and provide a detailed explanation in the student-level data collection file. These explanations will also be retained with the file you submit to IPEDS. Once the aggregate data are moved to the IPEDS Data Collection System, there will be additional edits performed that check for consistency with other IPEDS survey components and collection cycles, as is normally the case with IPEDS submissions.

Because the majority of the data elements needed to complete the ACTS survey component are also necessary to complete other IPEDS surveys (e.g., Admissions, Cost, Completions, Fall Enrollment, Graduation Rates), NCES expects missing data rates to be low. In the case of individual data elements, a value of “-1” should be entered to indicate “unknown.” If there are large portions of missing data, (e.g., if your institution does not retain secondary school GPA data for undergraduate students who apply but are not admitted), there is space within the student-level data collection file to enter additional explanations. Please be as specific as possible. These explanations will also be retained with the file you submit to IPEDS. Once the aggregate data are moved to the IPEDS Data Collection System, there will be additional edits performed that check for consistency with other IPEDS survey components and collection cycles, as is normally the case with IPEDS submissions.

Because the majority of the data elements needed to complete the ACTS survey component are also necessary to complete other IPEDS surveys (e.g., Admissions, Cost, Completions, Fall Enrollment, Graduation Rates), NCES expects missing data rates to be low. However, if you are missing data for an entire academic year/entire cohort of students, please do the following: On the instructions tab of the template file for that academic year, use the dropdown to change the "able to provide" column to "No." Entering a "No" for any section will also require an explanation for the missing data. These explanations will be retained and will accompany the aggregate data file when submitted to NCES.

On the instructions tab of the template file for that academic year, leave the table with the "Able to provide" column as "Yes," since the tab will not be completely blank. Then, in the large comment box below, please include an explanation for why some groups of students will be missing. Then, fill out the remaining tabs as normal, using the -1 where needed and adding additional explanation to the comment box as needed to account for missing data. These explanations will be retained and will accompany the aggregate data file when submitted to NCES.

Once you log into the DCS and click on the 'Go to ACTS Aggregator Tool' link, an email will automatically be sent to your DCS email address from no-reply@acts.rti.org containing a 6-digit code. If you did not receive this email:

• Make sure you are using your own email and password to log into the DCS.

• Check your Spam folder for an email with the subject line: "ACTS One Time Code". The email will come from no-reply@acts.rti.org

• Add no-reply@acts.rti.org to your list of approved senders

• You may also need to check with your IT department to ensure emails are not going into a quarantined folder

• You will be timed out on the ACTS site after ~10 minutes of inactivity, so you may have to go back to the DCS and launch the site again (this will send a new code via email)

Please note that the aggregation will occur on a secure, RTI-hosted cloud-based web platform. Unit level data will never leave the platform and will be deleted once the data collection is completed. Only aggregated data files will be transferred to the IPEDS data collection system, hosted on Department of Education servers. Most users will find the web application easiest to use—it's ready to go, requires no installation, and securely processes data in a FIPS 199 Moderate environment. However, if there is need to discuss alternative means of submitting the ACTS data, please contact the IPEDS Help Desk.

Access is restricted to the authorized user who uploads the data. System administrators do not have access to user-submitted data unless required for troubleshooting under approved and logged support procedures.

Yes. All system activities—including logins, uploads, downloads, and administrative actions—are logged for auditing and compliance purposes. Audit records are protected from modification and retained in accordance with records management policies.

Yes, temporarily. For auditing and debugging purposes, submitted data is stored in a secure location on the contractor's network. The data is automatically deleted at the end of the data submission period. If files are submitted that require deletion prior to the end of the submission period, please contact the IPEDS Help Desk at ipedshelp@rti.org.

All data transmitted through the web application is encrypted in transit and at rest. The environment meets FIPS 199 Moderate security standards and adheres to NIST SP 800-53 controls for confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

• Check that your input data follows the required formats described in the student-level data collection file:
• Ensure that the file you are uploading matches the academic year selected;
• Ensure that all of the correct columns are present in the file, and you have not removed any columns;
• Ensure that you have not changed any of the column names present in row 4 of the student-level data collection file;
• Ensure that the values included in each column are of the proper type (e.g., integer, float) and fall within the allowable range for values in that column according to the codebook tab; and
• Ensure you do not have any empty cells. Missing or not applicable data should be coded as -1 for unknown or -3 for not applicable according to the directions in the codebook tab.
• If the issue persists, contact the contact the IPEDS Help Desk at ipedshelp@rti.org or (877) 225-2568 with your error log and description of the issue.

The ACTS Aggregator Tool supports the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on both Windows and macOS platforms.

The application expects Excel (XLSX) templates as input. These templates can be downloaded from the ACTS Data Aggregator Tool. Output formats include comma separated values (CSV) files and Excel (XLSX) files.

This web application allows users to securely process student-level data into aggregate datasets required for ACTS submission. Each tab in the student-level data collection file contains the student-level variables needed to perform the necessary calculations to create the aggregations required by ACTS, and the ACTS Aggregator Tool will perform these calculations. It supports consistency, accuracy, and efficiency in data handling while reducing the need for manual processing.

By need-based aid, we are referring to institutional grant aid based on the financial need of the student, as determined by the institution’s financial aid office. Non-need based aid includes any institutional grant aid that is not based on the financial need of the student.

If you provide only non-need-based aid to students, please select "Both need-based and non-need-based" even if you do not actually provide need-based aid. For the purposes of determining ACTS eligibility, any institution that awards non-need-based aid is eligible (for the applicable academic year).

Please note the following answer should be evaluated for each academic year requested in ACTS separately.

If your institution did not admit any first-time undergraduate students in the Fall term of the relevant academic year, you will not be required to submit data for the UG Admissions or UG Completers sections of the ACTS survey for that academic year. In order to complete the screening questions, please answer question 1a) disregarding the words "first-time" (i.e., just tell us if you had open admissions or if 100% of your undergraduate applicants were admitted in general). If the screening questions indicate that you are required to complete the Undergraduate data, please download the ACTS templates and go to the Instructions tab. There is a table there (see below) where you can indicate that you won't be submitting UG Admissions or UG Completers data, and document that you do not admit first-time students at your institution. These responses will read in when you upload your template files to the ACTS Aggregator website. You may leave the UGAdm and UGComp tabs blank.

You will repeat this same process for graduate students (Questions 2, 2a and 2b). If you have graduate students that meet the criteria for ACTS reporting, you will be required to submit applicable GR Admissions and GR Completers data.

Institutional eligibility for the ACTS component was informed by President Donald J. Trump's Presidential Memorandum on August 7, 2025 entitled “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions,” available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/ensuring-transparency-in-higher-education-admissions/ as well as Secretary Linda McMahon's subsequent directive to NCES to initiate a series of changes to IPEDS during the 2025-26 school year.

On December 18th, institutions eligible for ACTS received an email, which stated the following:

This component is applicable to all 4-year degree-granting public, private for-profit, and private not-for-profit institutions that primarily award bachelor’s degrees or above (inclusive of institutions that award graduate level degrees only), including your institution. Eligible institutions may be exempted from completing ACTS in a survey year if they (1) were open admission or admitted 100 percent of applicants in that year and (2) did not award non-need-based aid that year.

This screening question asks about an open admission policy "for all or most entering" students to align with the Admissions (ADM) survey component. You should respond to the ACTS screening question the same way you responded to the IPEDS Admissions screening question in that academic year; that is, if you responded 'yes', your institution had open admissions for all or most students in one of the prior academic years, you should also response 'yes' to the first screening question for ACTS for that academic year.

For the screening questions, please only include grant aid offered by your institution including scholarships, fellowships, tuition waivers, and employee exemptions, as you would report under "institutional grant or scholarship aid" on the Student Financial Aid survey component. For the screening questions, please do not include loans, federal, state, or local aid; scholarships offered by outside organizations that are not your institution; or Veterans or DOD benefits.

Guidelines for this situation are as follows:

• If GPA was reported at the student level (i.e., just one GPA was recorded for all awards), report the cumulative GPA.

• If two GPAs were given (i.e., one for each award), report the GPA for the higher of the two awards (i.e., bachelor’s over certificate).

• If two GPAs were given (i.e. one for each award) and the awards are at the same level (i.e., double bachelor’s degree), select a primary degree program to report.

Guidelines for this situation are as follows:

• If a student simultaneously applied to two programs at different levels, report the higher level degree (e.g., a PhD over a masters; a bachelor’s over an undergraduate certificate), unless a student was only admitted to the lower level degree program (e.g., admitted to the master's program and rejected from the PhD program). In this case, please report the master's program, since the majority of this student's data (e.g., financial aid) will come from their master's program.

• If a student applied for two programs at the same level, report the one to which they were ultimately admitted and/or enrolled in.

•If a student applied to two programs at the same level simultaneously but was admitted to neither, select a primary degree program to report.

• If a student was admitted to and enrolled in two programs at the same level simultaneously, select a primary degree program to report.

Students who are enrolled but have not gone through the admissions process (e.g., non-matriculated, non-credit, and/or auditing) should not be reported.

Please report only applicants for fall admission. This aligns with the instructions on the Admissions survey component. Students who apply for spring admission should be excluded from ACTS. If you have specific programs that only have spring term starts, please exclude those students as well.

Yes, please include students who were admitted and enrolled in the summer prior to the fall term, as long as they remained enrolled into the fall. This aligns with the instructions on the Admissions survey component.

If a student applied for the fall of 2019 and was admitted, this student would get a 1 in the adm_stat column (Column D). However, if they did not enroll in fall of 2019 because they deferred enrollment to the 2020-21 academic year, they would get a 0 in the enr_stat column (Column E). Note that this same student will NOT appear on the 2020-21 academic year template because they were not in the applicant pool for the 2020-21 academic year. We recognize that this does mean some students will be missed when looking across all academic years.

Students should be reported for each admissions cohort of which they were a part. For example, if a student applied for a bachelor’s degree in 2019 and a master’s degree in 2024, they should be reported on both the 2019-20 undergraduate admissions tab and the 2024-25 graduate admissions tab. There is no need to make sure the student IDs for that student are the same in both templates, as student data are not linked across academic years.

Yes, this student would be a member of both the undergraduate completion cohort and the graduate admission cohort in the same file. This is ok! There is no need to make sure that the student ID for this student is the same on both tabs. Student data are not tracked across cohorts; each cohort is considered separately for analytical purposes.

Yes, you should report all students who were conferred a recognized undergraduate postsecondary degree or certificate, including associate's degrees, undergraduate certificates (i.e. subbaccalaureate certificates), and bachelor's degrees. This is consistent with how award levels are reported on the Institutional Characteristics and Completions survey components.

Please use whichever score(s) your institution used to make the admissions decision. If your institution used the self-reported SAT/ACT scores from the students application, then it is acceptable to use those.

IPEDS does not endorse a specific method of conversion. Please convert the GPAs to a 4.0 scale and explain the method you used for conversion in the large text box on the Instructions tab of each template.

Please use whichever score(s) your institution used to make the admissions decision. For example, if your institution averages the scores, report the average score. If your institution takes the highest score, report the highest score. You may need to consult your Admissions office to determine the method used at your particular institution.

If your school is test optional (i.e. ACT/SAT test scores are not required for admission, but are considered if submitted), please enter the test scores from the students who submitted them IF those scores were used in the admissions decision-making. For all students who did not submit them, please enter a -1 (negative 1). In the large comment box on the instructions tab, please include a note explaining that your institution is test optional and that is why so many students have negative 1 in these columns.

If your school is test blind (i.e., ACT/SAT test scores are not considered for admission, even if submitted) please enter a -1 (negative 1) for all students. In the large comment box on the instructions tab, please include a note explaining that your institution is test blind and does not use ACT/SAT test scores in the admissions decision.

Because your institution does not use this data element (i.e., unweighted secondary school GPAs) in your admissions decisions, please enter -1s in the secondary GPA column for all students. Please also write in the large comment box on the instructions tab that your institution does not use unweighted secondary school GPAs in the admission decision, only weighted secondary school GPAs.

Guidelines for this situation are as follows:

• For any applicants for whom you know the GPA is unweighted, use that GPA.

• For any applicants for whom you know the GPA is weighted, convert the GPA to a 4.0 scale, if possible, and explain your methodology for doing so in the comment box on the instructions tab.

• If you cannot determine whether an applicant’s GPA is weighted or unweighted, use a -1 for those students and explain in the comment box that a -1 indicates that whether the student’s GPA was weighted or unweighted is unknown.

• You may be able to reference the source document (e.g. the high school transcript) if it is available in your Admissions office.

Because what is considered continuing education or remedial courses differs from institution to institution, we cannot offer any more specific guidance than the definitions provided in the codebook. We recommend checking with your registrar’s office or an academic dean for what courses your institution considers continuing education or remedial courses, if any.

Please enter 0s for all students, and add a comment to the comment box on the instructions tab that your institution does not offer remedial courses/continuing education courses, so that is why all students have 0s for that column. You should not use a -3 here for "not applicable." The -3 code should be reserved only for applicants who were not admitted, admitted students who did not enroll, and enrolled students who are not full-time.

Yes, remedial or continuing education courses offered during the summer before the fall term should be counted on the ACTS survey. This is consistent with the guidance to include students who were admitted and began their studies during the summer prior to the fall term to be counted on the ACTS survey, as long as they remain enrolled into the fall.

No, you should only put a "1" if the student took a remedial course or a continuing education course during the fall term (or during the summer before the fall term, consistent with guidance to include students who were admitted and began their studies during the summer prior to the fall term) of their first year at the institution.

Only use the student's first enrolled term to determine Pell eligibility for ACTS reporting purposes.

In the student-level data collection file, indicate “yes” for parental college attainment if one or both parents completed college. This information can be found on the FAFSA, for those students who completed a FAFSA.

Please report these in the $0-$30,000 category.

For family income, we would generally ask that you use the income submitted to the FAFSA and used to determine the Student Aid Index (SAI). As we lay out in the codebook, for dependent students, this income level will be the income of the student's family. For independent students, it includes the student's income as well as the spouse (if the student is married). For students who did not complete the FAFSA, please include any comparable data on family income you have, or indicate -1 (Unknown) for those students.

Reporting data to ACTS (which is a part of IPEDS), falls under the Application, Award, and Administration of Aid, and as previously announced (https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/this-week-in-ipeds/317) the Department of Education has indicated that FTI and FAFSA data are allowed to be used for IPEDS reporting. Additionally, the Department has cited this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL, of 9/30/2025) as the most recent source of applicable guidance:

https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/dear-colleague-letters/2025-09-30/guidance-use-federal-tax-information-fti-free-application-federal-student-aid-fafsar-data-and-non-fafsa-data

Specifically, under the FTI and FAFSA Data Use Without Additional Student Consent section:

“The law also specifies research uses for FAFSA data, which will be explained further below. The Department interprets “the application, award, and administration of aid” to be the administrative and business functions necessary to deliver federal, state, and institutional financial aid efficiently and effectively to students. These functions may include but are not limited to: “…complying with mandatory reporting for participation in aid programs, such as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) reporting and net price calculator publishing under HEA sections 487 and 132 respectively”

For students who receive aid, family income should be available as it is considered when determining aid. For federally-aided students, this is part of the Federal Tax Information (FTI) which is permitted to be used for purposes of reporting to IPEDS. Your financial aid office uses family income to determine the student's Student Aid Index (SAI). For dependent students this will include the parents' adjusted gross income and the student's adjusted gross income. For independent students this will include the student's adjusted gross income. For married independent students this will include the student's adjusted gross income and their spouse's adjusted gross income. For students who did not receive aid or submit data for consideration, the family income should be reported as unknown.

Per the definition in the codebook, a student may be awarded, and accept, grant or scholarship aid at the beginning of the academic year but then leave the institution before the entire amount is disbursed. In this case, institutions should report the original amount of grant or scholarship aid that was awarded. In other words, we are not asking for the amount of aid that was actually disbursed, but the amount of aid that was originally awarded and/or received for the entire academic year.

Tuition and fees should align with financial aid. Therefore, tuition and fees should be reported for the entire year as well, as is the case with the Student Charges section of the Cost I survey component. Individualized charges for tuition and fees for each student may be found on the financial aid budget used by the financial aid office to determine student financial need for the year. If available, please report that amount that they would have been charged had they not left the institution. If not available, please report the general tuition and fees amount you report on the Cost I survey component.

Please only include all institutional grant aid offered by your institution as you would report under "institutional grant or scholarship aid" on the Student Financial Aid survey component. This includes scholarships, fellowships, tuition waivers, and employee exemptions.

No. Work study programs, graduate assistantships, etc. should not be reported unless there is a grant component to the graduate assistantship.

If your institution does not offer a certain type of aid, please enter 0 in those columns for all students. The -3 not applicable code should be reserved for applicants who were not admitted, admitted students who did not enroll, and enrolled students who were not full time. Please provide context for your data in the large comment box on the instructions tab by explaning there that your institution does not offer a certain type of aid, and that is why all students have 0s in the respective columns.

For purposes of financial aid reporting, only one aid year should be included which may include a crossover term (e.g. summer term). Accelerated Pell (e.g., year-round Pell) or other grant aid awarded from a different aid year should not be included. The tuition and fees charges should align with the terms on which students' financial aid package was based.

Yes, you should include all types of aid. This field is simply a yes/no for whether a student is considered an aided student at your institution.

Yes, please include HEERF or CARES Act funds as federal aid for the years those funds were active. That is, please include them on the years you included them on the Student Financial Aid survey component, and please do not report them on the years you did not report them on the Student Financial Aid survey component.

In the tuition and fees column, please report the cost of tuition and fees before financial aid. This column is akin to what you report in the Student Charges section of the Cost I survey component.

“Awarded aid” refers to aid that was awarded to a student whereas “Received aid” refers to aid that was awarded and accepted by a student. There may be instances where students do not accept the full amount they were awarded. If it is true that a student accepted their entire grant award, please put the same number in both the awarded and received columns. If a student accepted less than they were awarded, please put the two different numbers.

Financial Need should be defined here as determined by your financial aid office. The important distinction here is the basis on which a student is offered an aid award. If the sole reason for the grant is to reduce the student's total need, it is a need-based award. If there are qualifications or criteria like academic achievement, athletic ability, etc. that are not about financial need, the award is non-need-based. A merit-based scholarship may be applied to reduce total need, but it is still a form of non-need-based aid because it was awarded for merit.

IPEDS does not endorse a specific method of conversion. Please convert the GPAs to a 4.0 scale and explain the method you used for conversion in the large text box on the Instructions tab of each template.

Please report a -1 for programs that are pass/fail. Please explain that -1 indicates pass/fail programs in the large text box on the Instructions tab of each template.

If a student withdrew before completing any courses and a GPA was unable to be calculated, please report a -1 for this item.

If a student completed the fall term and a GPA was calculated for the fall term, please report that fall term GPA for this item.

You can enter either the 2010 CIP code or the 2020 CIP code. The ACTS Aggregator Tool is programmed to recognize either and group the student appropriately.

Yes, students in post-baccalaureate certificate programs for teacher certification should not be reported on the graduate admissions tab in ACTS because IPEDS considers these undergraduate programs. These students would also not be reported on the undergraduate admissions tab because seekers of post-baccalaureate certificates for teacher certification are not first-time students, as they already have completed a bachelor's degree.

The Department of Education has specified the following fields of study for ACTS based on CIP codes:

Agriculture, Consumer Services, and Trades: 01, 03, 09, 10, 12, 19, 31, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51.24, 51.25

Arts and Humanities: 04, 05, 16, 23, 24, 30, 38, 39, 50, 54

Business: 52

Economics and Political Science: 45.06, 45.10

Education: 13

Health: 51 (except 51.24 and 51.25)

Law: 22

Other Social Sciences: 45 (except 45.06 and 45.10)

Public Service: 25, 42, 43, 44

STEM: 11, 14, 15, 26, 27, 28, 29, 40, 41

Yes, degree/certificate program information and CIP code information is required for all graduate applicants. You should report the degree/certificate program and the CIP code for the program to which the student applied. Please refer to the instructions in the codebook for how to handle students that applied to multiple programs in the same academic year.

You will be notified if your ACTS data does not match your prior year IPEDS data after you upload your aggregated data file to the IPEDS Data Collection Tool.

Please note that this functionality is not yet available and is coming soon!

Errors stemming from inconsistencies prior to the 2024-25 academic year will not be fatal edits; they will require explanations. Depending on the survey component, inconsistencies with 2024-25 collection year data or 2025-26 collection year data will trigger fatal edits.

Please report your most up-to-date data as accurately as possible on ACTS. Knowingly submitting numbers on ACTS that do not match prior year data will not prevent you from being able to upload to either the Aggregator Tool or the IPEDS Data Collection System. However, after your aggregated data file is uploaded to the IPEDS Data Collection System, checks will be performed against known values submitted to prior IPEDS surveys. At this time, you will be required to provide explanations for inconsistencies.

Yes, once the aggregate file is uploaded to the Data Collection System, quality review processes will be applied which will check against known values submitted to IPEDS in prior surveys. Therefore, it is expected that data reported are accurate and consistent. Inconsistencies with prior data (e.g. from a prior IPEDS reporting year) will require an explanation in the Edit Report.