One of the subsets of the PTC major data is CIP code. CIP codes are
defined thusly:
"The Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) provides a taxonomic scheme that supports the accurate tracking and reporting of fields of study and program completions activity. CIP was originally developed by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1980, with revisions occurring in 1985, 1990, and 2000."
The following is a list of the general form of the variables:
- cip*_code_sem
- cip*_title_sem
- cip*_2dig_code_sem
- cip*_2dig_title_sem
As stated in the
major data page, these variables are measured for 21 semesters and include up to three majors. The number of the major occurs where the first asterisks is (e.g. cip1 refers to first major) and the second asterisks are the semester number (sem05 refers to the fifth semester).
As the above list shows, there are full versions of these variables and two-digit versions. The full versions are 6 characters long and have a decimal point (e.g. "24.0101" is the code for Liberal Arts). The 2-digit versions are the CIP "family." For example, the family code "11" refers to "Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services" and the more specific code "11.0803" refers to the title "Computer Graphics". The attached Excel spreadsheet contains all 2,318 codes from the 2010 CIP classification scheme and was downloaded from the
IPEDS website on 03/27/2014.
CIPCode2010.xlsx
There is a further distinction between "code" and "title". Like "desc," "title" refers to the descriptive version (such as "Computer Graphics" mentioned above).