Financial Aid and Degree offered by US Higher Education Institutions (2020 - 2024)

This dataset provides a normalized, relational structure for analyzing U.S. higher education institutions. It integrates institutional profiles, geographic data, instructional program classifications (CIP), yearly degree conferrals, financial aid metrics, and institutional rankings. Furthermore, it aims to provide details regarding institutions offering Artificial Intelligence, and Data Science programs.

The data has been cleaned and normalized to 3rd Normal Form (3NF) to reduce redundancy and ensure referential integrity.

*Database Schema
The dataset is organized into a relational structure with the following entities and relationships:

Institutions: Master list of schools.
Locations: Shared geographic data (linked to Institutions).
Programs: Master list of instructional programs (CIP codes).
Award_Conferred: Transactional records of degrees granted per year/program.
Institution_Ranking: Yearly institutional rankings.
Financial_Aid: Yearly financial metrics (grants and loans).
Institution_Status: Yearly activity status of institutions.

*File Descriptions & Data Dictionary

1. INSTITUTIONS.csv
`ID` (Primary Key): Unique IPEDS/UNITID identifier for the institution.
`Name`: Official name of the institution.
`ADDR`: Street address.
`LOCATIONID` (Surrogate Foreign Key): Link to the `LOCATIONS` table.

2. LOCATIONS.csv
`LOCATIONID` (Primary Key): Unique identifier for a city/state/zip combination.
`CITY`: City name.
`STATE`: Two-letter state abbreviation.
`ZIP`: Zip code (preserved as text to maintain leading zeros).

3. PROGRAMS.csv
`CIPCODE` (Primary Key): Classification of Instructional Programs code.
`CIPTITLE`: The name of the instructional program.

4. AWARD_CONFERRED.csv
`YEAR`, `ID`, `CIPCODE` (Composite Primary Key).
`CTOTALT`: Total awards conferred.
`CTOTALM`: Total awards conferred to men.
`CTOTALW`: Total awards conferred to women.
Foreign Keys: `ID` -> `Institutions(ID)`, `CIPCODE` -> `Programs(CIPCODE)`.

5. FINANCIAL_AID.csv
`YEAR`, `ID` (Composite Primary Key).
`SCFY2`: Total number of undergraduates - full-year cohort
`SCFY1N`: Number of students in full-year cohort
`UAGRNTN`: Number of undergrads receiving grant aid.
`UAGRNTT`: Total amount of grant aid awarded to undergrads.
`UAGRNTA`: Average amount of grant aid awarded to undergrads.
`UFLOANN`: Number of undergrads receiving federal loans.
`UFLOANT`: Total amount of federal loans awarded to undergrads.
`UFLOANA`: Average amount of federal loans awarded to undergrads.
Foreign Keys: `ID` -> `Institutions(ID)`

6. INSTITUTION_RANKING.csv
`YEAR`, `ID` (Composite Primary Key).
`RANKING_VALUE`: Yearly ranking (Numeric or NULL for unranked).
Foreign Keys: `ID` -> `Institutions(ID)`

7. INSTITUTION_STATUS.csv
`YEAR`, `ID` (Composite Primary Key).
`CYACTIVE`: Yearly status.
Foreign Keys: `ID` -> `Institutions(ID)`