U.S. Census Outcomes Portal

Overview

Iowa State University, as a part of a Board of Regents, State of Iowa effort, is participating in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Explorer online dashboard.

The Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes Explorer (PSEO) is an experimental data product from the U.S. Census Bureau that contains earnings outcomes (how much graduates earn one, five, and 10 years after graduation), employment flows (where graduates are physically located), and sectors of employment (what industries are graduates working in) for a set of partner colleges and universities, including Iowa’s Regents institutions.

The statistics are generated by matching university transcript data with a national database of jobs. Only graduates who earn at least the annual equivalent of full-time work at the prevailing federal minimum wage and work three or more quarters in a calendar year are included.

Iowa State college-based Career Services offices continue to capture outcomes/salary information from graduates, within six months of graduation. While the Census site provides a more holistic look at salary, geographic, and industry sector information at one, five and 10 years post-graduation, Iowa State’s internal data includes information not currently available on the Census site (e.g. employer names, job positions/titles).

Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Codes

The data in the Census platform groups graduates based on the standard Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) codes assigned to Iowa State degree programs. Two levels of CIP codes are used to group programs – the first two digit codes (general program specificity on the site) and first four digits on the CIP codes (detailed program specificity). The detailed level is not available for masters and doctoral degree graduates (except for DVM). For many CIP codes, the related Iowa State degree program are clearly aligned. For example, the CIP code grouping that is two-digit “Engineering” and detailed four-digit code “Mechanical Engineering” represent students graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. For other programs, the CIP names do not align as closely to Iowa State degree program names. Tables have been created to allow users to understand which current ISU degree programs are included under the specific CIP code groupings on the Census Bureau site.

Undergraduate Degrees, by Major (PDF) | Undergraduate Degrees, by Category (PDF)
Graduate Degrees, by Major (PDF) | Graduate Degrees, by Category (PDF)

Limitations of the Data

As with any large dataset, there are certain limitations to what data are available. It is important to keep these limitations in mind, especially when comparing programs and/or institutions. Please click the "Data Limitations" button on the right to view a list of limitations.

If you have any questions about the data, please contact Institutional Research by using the "Contact" button at the top of the page.