/ipeds/institutions/search

POST /api/ipeds/institutions/search

Price: 20 credits

Search the IPEDS directory of US colleges and universities by state, county, metro area, region, sector, ownership, level, enrolment band and OPE id, and get the full directory record for each match — address, coordinates, Carnegie classifications, Title IV participation and federal identifiers

How to use it

Browse the IPEDS institution census by structure and geography. There is no name search here — IPEDS accepts no name, city or ZIP filter at all, so to find an institution by name use collegescorecard/schools/search and feed the `id` it returns to ipeds/institutions, which is the same UNITID. `state` takes a postal code; `county_fips` and `cbsa_code` are the finer geography axes. `sector` already combines ownership with level, so pass it instead of `ownership` plus `level` when you want one of the ten standard IPEDS sectors. `year` reads the directory as it stood in that survey year, which is how closed institutions are found: they are present in the years they operated and absent afterwards. Rows arrive in ascending UNITID, so a request cut short by `count` returns the lowest UNITIDs of the match rather than a sample of it, and UNITIDs were assigned by state and era — narrow with the filters instead of treating a capped result as representative.

Parameters

• access-token string required

Request body

• timeout integer — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
• count integer required — Max number of institutions to return (min: 1; max: 3000)
• year integer — Survey year the directory is read for (default: 2024; min: 1980; max: 2100)
• state string nullable — Two-letter US state, DC or territory postal code the campus sits in (examples: "MA", "CA", "PR")
• county_fips string nullable — Five-digit county FIPS code the campus sits in (examples: "25017")
• cbsa_code string nullable — Core Based Statistical Area code the campus sits in (examples: "14460")
• region string nullable — US Bureau of Economic Analysis region the campus sits in (one of: "us_service_schools", "new_england", "mid_east", "great_lakes", "plains", "southeast", "southwest", "rocky_mountains", "far_west", "outlying_areas")
• sector string nullable — Ownership and level combined, as IPEDS defines a sector (one of: "administrative_unit", "public_four_year", "private_nonprofit_four_year", "private_for_profit_four_year", "public_two_year", "private_nonprofit_two_year", "private_for_profit_two_year", "public_less_than_two_year", "private_nonprofit_less_than_two_year", "private_for_profit_less_than_two_year")
• ownership string nullable — Who controls the institution (one of: "public", "private_nonprofit", "private_for_profit")
• level string nullable — Length of the longest programme offered (one of: "less_than_two_year", "two_year", "four_year_or_above")
• size_category string nullable — Total enrolment band the institution falls in (one of: "under_1000", "from_1000_to_4999", "from_5000_to_9999", "from_10000_to_19999", "from_20000")
• opeid string nullable — Office of Postsecondary Education id, the identifier that links to federal aid records (examples: "00217800")
• degree_granting_only boolean — Only institutions that award degrees rather than certificates alone (default: false)
• hbcu_only boolean — Only historically Black colleges and universities (default: false)
• tribal_college_only boolean — Only tribal colleges and universities (default: false)
• land_grant_only boolean — Only land-grant institutions (default: false)

Response

• @type string (default: "IpedsInstitution")
• id string required
• year integer nullable
• name string nullable
• alternative_names array (default: [])
• address string nullable
• city string nullable
• state string nullable
• zip_code string nullable
• county string nullable
• county_fips string nullable
• state_fips string nullable
• latitude number nullable
• longitude number nullable
• region string nullable
• locale string nullable
• cbsa_code string nullable
• cbsa_type string nullable
• csa_code string nullable
• necta_code string nullable
• congress_district_code string nullable
• phone string nullable
• web_url string nullable
• application_url string nullable
• financial_aid_url string nullable
• net_price_calculator_url string nullable
• veterans_services_url string nullable
• disability_services_url string nullable
• athletics_url string nullable
• chief_administrator string nullable
• chief_administrator_title string nullable
• sector string nullable
• ownership string nullable
• level string nullable
• category string nullable
• size_category string nullable
• highest_degree string nullable
• highest_award_level string nullable
• is_degree_granting boolean nullable
• is_hbcu boolean nullable
• is_tribal_college boolean nullable
• is_land_grant boolean nullable
• has_hospital boolean nullable
• grants_medical_degree boolean nullable
• offers_undergraduate boolean nullable
• offers_graduate boolean nullable
• is_primarily_postsecondary boolean nullable
• is_open_to_public boolean nullable
• is_currently_active boolean nullable
• status string nullable
• title_iv_status string nullable
• postsecondary_status string nullable
• postsecondary_title_iv_status string nullable
• reporting_method string nullable
• is_part_of_system boolean nullable
• system_name string nullable
• comparison_group_code string nullable
• has_custom_comparison_group boolean nullable
• closed_date string nullable
• deleted_year integer nullable
• successor_id string nullable
• opeid string nullable
• ein string nullable
• duns string nullable
• uei string nullable
• carnegie object nullable
  • @type string (default: "IpedsCarnegieClassification")
  • basic_2000 string nullable
  • basic_2010 string nullable
  • basic_2015 string nullable
  • basic_2018 string nullable
  • basic_2021 string nullable
  • basic_2025 string nullable
  • undergraduate_profile_2010 string nullable
  • undergraduate_profile_2015 string nullable
  • undergraduate_profile_2018 string nullable
  • undergraduate_profile_2021 string nullable
  • undergraduate_profile_2025 string nullable
  • undergraduate_instructional_program_2010 string nullable
  • undergraduate_instructional_program_2015 string nullable
  • undergraduate_instructional_program_2018 string nullable
  • undergraduate_instructional_program_2021 string nullable
  • graduate_instructional_program_2010 string nullable
  • graduate_instructional_program_2015 string nullable
  • graduate_instructional_program_2018 string nullable
  • graduate_instructional_program_2021 string nullable
  • graduate_instructional_program_2025 string nullable
  • enrollment_profile_2010 string nullable
  • enrollment_profile_2015 string nullable
  • enrollment_profile_2018 string nullable
  • enrollment_profile_2021 string nullable
  • size_and_setting_2010 string nullable
  • size_and_setting_2015 string nullable
  • size_and_setting_2018 string nullable
  • size_and_setting_2021 string nullable
  • institution_size_2025 string nullable
  • award_level_focus_2025 string nullable
  • research_activity_2025 string nullable
  • student_access_and_earnings_2025 string nullable

Errors

• 422 — The request body did not validate Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.
• 408 — The request ran past its time limit Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.
• 412 — The entity was not found, or a precondition failed Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.
• 429 — Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.
• 500 — Something broke on our side Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.
• 529 — Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

Response headers

• X-Error — Error message text (present only on error)
• X-Request-ID — Unique request identifier
• X-Execution-Time — Execution time in seconds
• X-Result-Count — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
• X-Total-Available-Results — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
• X-Warning — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
• X-Retry-After — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.