Student Files (8.5 minutes)
Learn about the student file you upload to FTP for StudentTracker for Outreach.
Resources
Video Transcript
[Michele Gralak]: Now when it comes to that student file submission, there's a header row and a trailer row and those are very important. Those help us know the file you're sending is for a StudentTracker service. The header is very important that all of those fields of data are in there. The trailer row helps our logic know that this is indeed the last row of students and I don't have to read anymore.
And then you have in the middle of the header and the trailer row is the student information, we call it your student detail row. You have to send us your students names and dates of birth. Those are the most important pieces of information. And it's important that you put the student's full name. Like my brother's name is Steven. Growing up he was always called Steve. So when you submit students it's always best to use their proper name because we are matching them against the college records and in college because of financial aid, etc. the student's proper name is more than likely what they are going to submit to us. It is helpful to submit the student's middle initial when you put in their names. And when you submit their dates of birth I know we ask for that to be in a very specific format of year year year year mm dd like 1960723. And it's important that the date of birth is in that format. There's a search begin date. The search begin date is a field that you put in your file next to each student row. What this is telling us is this is the date I want you to start looking for enrollment or degree records. It's a way to help you narrow the data that we can return. It helps us when we're searching through our database of millions of records. It's also meant to be a little bit of an analytic tool. You may have submitted some of these students last year. And so now this year, if you're sending them in again, you only want to see what the student may have done since last year. So narrowing the search date may help you narrow the results you get back in the detail report and that make up the aggregate report of schools first attended. It's just an option; it can be very powerful depending upon the research or analysis you want to do. The requester return field. It is optional and anything that you do put in this is returned in the student level detail report. So if there is something unique about a student that you would like to be able to do analysis on after you get the detail report, maybe you want to put first in my family next to the student so that you know you're separating out those students and you can then aggregate them when we return the data to you. Maybe you want to put something in there about some students that you know went through a specific math mentoring course or maybe you want to put something in there again with with your different programs you have helped your students understand the FAFSA process. So you may choose to put FAFSA in there for those students or those students that you know completed the FAFSA. And then again when you get the detail report you can filter on that column and search for those unique pieces of data and get some unique intel for that group of students.
So Meghan, any questions?
[Meghan Godorov]: Does the search date make a difference in the match rate?
[Michele]: It's possible that the student may be matched but the search date you use is such that the student doesn't have any records past that date. Kind of tricky when it's referred to is does it help the match rate.
[Meghan]: Can there be different search dates for different students?
[Michele]: Yes you can have different search states for different students. And that depends on you and how you're doing your analysis and how your agreement is set up. Sometimes subscribers put a group of students in one file and to help you when you get the results back those are all going to be students that you put a search date of 8/15/2020 but then there's another set of students that you're looking for that maybe they've been in your program for a long time so you want a comprehensive list you may choose to use a search date of 8/15/2016. When is the best time to submit your StudentTracker file? This goes back to the colleges and their reporting. You also want to see the most current data on that student which is why we recommend not sending a file right at the very beginning of the term. You could it's entirely up to you but know that the student status may change or it's possible you may not have some data returned because one or two colleges are a little bit late getting data to us. That's why we generally say mid to late October, ideally mid-November if you can wait. In the spring, we're thinking late March mid-April, and many organizations send files in the summer. Mid to late August. These are the best times. I cannot guarantee you that you will have every college's data. Again, every college is different. This is just some of the best practices. There is a lot of good information on the student Clearinghouse website, studentclearinghouse.org. The file submission guide is out there so if you have questions about what can I submit in my data, how should I do it, what's supposed to be in that header row? You can find that. The college participation lists are out there so if you want to know is a college participating in DegreeVerify like I just mentioned because I want to get that degree data. You can go out and look to see.
Studentclearinghouse.org, under high schools, under outreach. Here's your formatting guide. Here's some sample reports. And lastly here are the email addresses. One is for customer service and file-oriented questions directly into StudentTracker. If you have questions about your contractual relationship, Brad and our other colleagues man this mailbox. They would be able to help you.
[Meghan]: Thank you Michele. We have had a couple of questions about matching and social security number. Social security number is optional and Michele if you just want to speak to that a little bit.
[Michele]: In your type of service, there is an option for you to submit a consent-based query. Not that many organizations use it, but if you do you can submit the student social security number. Now, the requirement is you have to show that you have the student's signed consent that you are allowed to be doing this type of research. And there is a form that you have to submit. As a general rule we do not use the student social security number in the StudentTracker matching algorithm unless you have gotten approval to do a consent-based search.
[Meghan]: We are just so happy that you're here with the Clearinghouse that you're part of our family.
[Michele]: We're happy to help you however we can. And you all keep doing what you're doing. You all do make a difference working with this population.
