Common Data Set
The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and college guide publishers as represented by The College Board, Peterson's - a Thomson Learning Company, U.S. News & World Report, and Wintergreen/Orchard House.
The goal is to have each institution complete the CDS once each year and make copies available to the interested publishers, who would then require only a relatively small amount of additional information . In addition to reducing cost and time by institutional researchers to respond to publishers surveys, the CDS represents a standardization of data elements and definitions across publications thus minimizing conflicting counts and other data irregularities.