"[1] The stated goal is to provide accurate and timely data to students and their families while decreasing the workload of administrators.
Publishers use the standards and data items defined by the CDS to "ask the same core questions" (in addition to their own proprietary ones) when making their rankings and publications of institutions.
[3] Each year, the Common Data Set Initiative makes small changes to the surveys submitted for every contributing college and university to complete.
These individual responses can provide useful information for students applying to a particular college or university.
Further sections illustrate the typical costs and potential aid an applicant might receive based on the current freshman class statistics.