FSA Data Source Reference

Federal Student Aid (FSA) — institutional-level Title IV aid data for ~5,500 postsecondary institutions, covering Pell Grants, Direct and PLUS loans, campus-based aid (FWS, FSEOG, Perkins), financial responsibility composite scores, and 90/10 revenue metrics (1999-2021, varies by dataset). Use when analyzing Pell Grant distribution by institution type, student loan volume, campus-based aid allocation, or for-profit financial health and 90/10 compliance. Identified by IPEDS unitid.

Reference guide for FSA data available through the Urban Institute Education Data Portal. FSA data provides institutional-level information on Title IV federal student aid programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

CRITICAL: Value Encoding

The Education Data Portal converts categorical variables to integers. This differs from original FSA documentation which may use string codes. All categorical columns in the Portal parquet files are integer-typed.

Variable	Example Value	Meaning
grant_type	1	Federal Pell Grant
loan_type	1	Subsidized Direct Loan - Undergraduate
award_type	1	Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants
fips	6	California
allocation_flag	1	Yes

Missing data codes (

-1

,

-2

,

-3

) apply to

numeric

format variables, not categorical codes.

See

./references/variable-definitions.md

for complete encoding tables.

Truth Hierarchy

When interpreting FSA data values and resolving discrepancies between this skill documentation and observed data, apply this priority:

• When this skill contradicts observed data: trust the data, flag the discrepancy
• When codebook contradicts observed data: trust the data, but investigate
• When this skill contradicts codebook: trust the codebook, update this skill

Codebook Access: Use

get_codebook_url()

fetch-patterns.md

datasets-reference.md

# Example: Get codebook for FSA grants
url = get_codebook_url("fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_grants")

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_grants

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_loans

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_campus_based_volume

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_financial_responsibility

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_90-10_revenue_percentages

FSA naming note: The Financial Responsibility dataset uses

composite_scores

in its data path but

financial_responsibility

in its codebook path. The 90/10 Revenue dataset uses underscores (

90_10

) in the data path but hyphens (

90-10

) in the codebook path. Always use the exact paths shown above.

What is Federal Student Aid?

Federal Student Aid (FSA) is the office within the U.S. Department of Education that administers Title IV aid programs:

• Title IV Programs: Federal financial aid authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA)
• Institutional Coverage: All Title IV-eligible postsecondary institutions (approximately 5,500+ schools)
• Data Types: Aid disbursements, recipient counts, loan/grant volumes, financial responsibility metrics
• Primary Identifier:

  unitid

  (6-digit IPEDS institution ID)
• Years Available: 1999-2021 depending on dataset

Reference File Structure

title-iv-programs.md

financial-responsibility.md

90-10-rule.md

variable-definitions.md

data-quality.md

Decision Trees

What FSA topic am I researching?

FSA research topic?
├─ Grant programs
│   ├─ Federal Pell Grants → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   ├─ FSEOG (campus-based) → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   └─ Grant amounts/recipients → ./references/variable-definitions.md
├─ Loan programs
│   ├─ Direct Subsidized/Unsubsidized → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   ├─ Parent PLUS loans → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   ├─ Graduate PLUS loans → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   ├─ Perkins Loans (legacy) → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   └─ Loan volumes/disbursements → ./references/variable-definitions.md
├─ Campus-based programs
│   ├─ Federal Work-Study → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   ├─ FSEOG → ./references/title-iv-programs.md
│   └─ Program allocations → ./references/variable-definitions.md
├─ Institutional oversight
│   ├─ Financial responsibility scores → ./references/financial-responsibility.md
│   ├─ 90/10 rule compliance → ./references/90-10-rule.md
│   └─ Eligibility/participation → ./references/data-quality.md
└─ Data quality concerns
    └─ Coverage, timing, limitations → ./references/data-quality.md

Which FSA dataset do I need?

FSA dataset selection?
├─ Need grant data (Pell, FSEOG)
│   └─ fsa/colleges_fsa_grants (single-file, 1999-2021)
├─ Need loan data (Direct, PLUS)
│   └─ fsa/colleges_fsa_loans (single-file, 1999-2021)
├─ Need campus-based program data
│   └─ fsa/colleges_fsa_campus_based_volume (single-file, 2001-2021)
├─ Need institutional financial health
│   └─ fsa/colleges_fsa_composite_scores (single-file, 2006-2016)
└─ Need 90/10 compliance (for-profits)
    └─ fsa/colleges_fsa_90_10_revenue_percentages (single-file, 2014-2021)

Quick Reference: FSA Datasets and Codes

Datasets

fsa/colleges_fsa_grants

grant_type

grant_recipients_unitid

value_grants_disbursed_unitid

fsa/colleges_fsa_loans

loan_type

loan_recipients_unitid

value_loan_disbursements_unitid

fsa/colleges_fsa_campus_based_volume

award_type

campus_award_recipients_unitid

value_campus_disbursed_unitid

fsa/colleges_fsa_composite_scores

financial_resp_score

fsa/colleges_fsa_90_10_revenue_percentages

rev_pct_90_10

Data access: All FSA datasets are single-file (all years in one file). Fetch using

fetch_from_mirrors()

from

fetch-patterns.md

with the canonical path from

datasets-reference.md

. See

mirrors.yaml

for mirror configuration.

Key Identifiers

unitid

110635

fips

6

Title IV Programs

Financial Responsibility Scores

Grant Type Codes (grants dataset)

1

2

3

4

5

Loan Type Codes (loans dataset)

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Award Type Codes (campus-based-volume dataset)

1

2

3

Yes/No Codes (allocation_flag, combined_flag)

0

1

null

Missing Data Codes

-1

-2

-3

null

Data Access

All FSA datasets are fetched via the mirror system. Three reference files govern data access:

mirrors.yaml

datasets-reference.md

fetch-patterns.md

fetch_from_mirrors()

Key datasets (all single-file, all years in one file):

fsa/colleges_fsa_grants

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_grants

fsa/colleges_fsa_loans

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_loans

fsa/colleges_fsa_campus_based_volume

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_campus_based_volume

fsa/colleges_fsa_composite_scores

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_financial_responsibility

fsa/colleges_fsa_90_10_revenue_percentages

fsa/codebook_colleges_fsa_90-10_revenue_percentages

Naming mismatches (intentional): Financial Responsibility uses

composite_scores

in data path but

financial_responsibility

in codebook path. 90/10 Revenue uses underscores (

90_10

) in data path but hyphens (

90-10

) in codebook path.

Fetch Example

import polars as pl

# Using fetch_from_mirrors() from fetch-patterns.md
df_grants = fetch_from_mirrors("fsa/colleges_fsa_grants", years=[2019, 2020, 2021])

# Filter by grant type (1 = Federal Pell Grant)
df_pell = df_grants.filter(pl.col("grant_type") == 1)

# Filter by institution
df_inst = df_grants.filter(pl.col("unitid") == 110635)

# Filter by year range
df_recent = df_grants.filter(pl.col("year").is_between(2015, 2021))

Common Pitfalls

grant_type == 1

"Pell"

-1

-2

-3

colleges_fsa_composite_scores

rev_pct_90_10

grant_recipients_unitid

grant_type==1

sfa_grants_and_net_price

type_of_aid=9

Joining FSA Data with Other Sources

unitid

unitid

unitid

unitid

unitid

Common Research Applications

fsa/colleges_fsa_grants

fsa/colleges_fsa_loans

fsa/colleges_fsa_composite_scores

fsa/colleges_fsa_90_10_revenue_percentages

fsa/colleges_fsa_campus_based_volume

fsa/colleges_fsa_grants

fsa/colleges_fsa_loans

Data Update Schedule

• FSA data typically lags 1-2 years behind the current award year
• Financial responsibility scores published annually
• 90/10 percentages updated after institutional fiscal year audits
• Campus-based data tied to FISAP reporting cycle

Related Data Sources

education-data-source-ipeds

unitid

education-data-source-scorecard

education-data-source-fsa

education-data-explorer

education-data-query

fetch_from_mirrors()

Topic Index

./references/title-iv-programs.md

./references/title-iv-programs.md

./references/title-iv-programs.md

./references/title-iv-programs.md

./references/title-iv-programs.md

./references/title-iv-programs.md

./references/financial-responsibility.md

./references/financial-responsibility.md

./references/financial-responsibility.md

./references/financial-responsibility.md

./references/90-10-rule.md

./references/90-10-rule.md

./references/variable-definitions.md

./references/variable-definitions.md

./references/variable-definitions.md

./references/data-quality.md

./references/data-quality.md

./references/data-quality.md