Title:	A Method to Download Department of Education College Scorecard Data
Version:	0.32.0
Maintainer:	Benjamin Skinner <ben@btskinner.io>
URL:	https://www.btskinner.io/rscorecard/
BugReports:	https://github.com/btskinner/rscorecard/issues
Description:	A method to download Department of Education College Scorecard data using the public API https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/data-documentation/. It is based on the 'dplyr' model of piped commands to select and filter data in a single chained function call. An API key from the U.S. Department of Education is required.
Depends:	R (≥ 4.1.0)
License:	MIT + file LICENSE
Imports:	dplyr, httr, jsonlite, lazyeval, tibble, tidyselect, tidyr, purrr
RoxygenNote:	7.3.2
Encoding:	UTF-8
Suggests:	knitr, rmarkdown, testthat
NeedsCompilation:	no
Packaged:	2025-04-30 14:23:08 UTC; benski
Author:	Benjamin Skinner [aut, cre]
Repository:	CRAN
Date/Publication:	2025-05-12 13:40:05 UTC

rscorecard: A Method to Download College Scorecard Data.

Description

The rscorecard package provides a series of piped functions (a la dplyr) to facilitate downloading Department of Education College Scorecard data. In reality it is simply a method for converting idiomatic R code into a properly formatted URL string that is then queried. This package requires an API key, which can be requested at https://api.data.gov/signup/.

Details

All command pipes must start with sc_init(), end with sc_get(), and be linked with the base pipe, |>, or magrittr pipe function, %>%. Internal commands, sc_select, sc_filter, sc_year, sc_zip, can come in any order in the pipe chain. Only sc_select is required.

Author(s)

Maintainer: Benjamin Skinner ben@btskinner.io (ORCID)

See Also

Useful links:

• https://www.btskinner.io/rscorecard/

• Report bugs at https://github.com/btskinner/rscorecard/issues

Search data dictionary.

Description

This function is used to search the College Scorecard data dictionary.

Usage

sc_dict(
  search_string,
  search_col = c("all", "description", "varname", "dev_friendly_name", "dev_category",
    "label", "source"),
  ignore_case = TRUE,
  limit = 10,
  confirm = FALSE,
  print_dev = FALSE,
  print_notes = FALSE,
  return_df = FALSE,
  print_off = FALSE,
  can_filter = FALSE,
  filter_vars = FALSE
)

Arguments

Examples

## simple search for 'state' in any part of the dictionary
sc_dict('state')

## variable names starting with 'st'
sc_dict('^st', search_col = 'varname')

## return full dictionary (only recommended if not printing and
## storing in object)
df <- sc_dict('.', limit = Inf, print_off = TRUE, return_df = TRUE)

## print list of variables that can be used to filter
df <- sc_dict('.', filter_vars = TRUE, return_df = TRUE)

Filter scorecard data by variable values.

Description

This function is used to filter the downloaded scorecard data. It converts idiomatic R into the format required by the API call.

Usage

sc_filter(sccall, ...)

sc_filter_(sccall, filter_string)

Arguments

Functions

• sc_filter_(): Standard evaluation version of sc_filter (filter_string must be a string or vector of strings when using this version)

Examples

## Not run: 
sc_filter(region == 1) # New England institutions
sc_filter(stabbr == c("TN","KY")) # institutions in Tennessee and Kentucky
sc_filter(control != 3) # exclude private, for-profit institutions
sc_filter(control == c(1,2)) # same as above
sc_filter(control == 1:2) # same as above
sc_filter(stabbr == "TN", control == 1, locale == 41:43) # TN rural publics

## End(Not run)
## Not run: 
sc_filter_("region == 1")
sc_filter_("control != 3")

## With internal strings, you must either use both double and single quotes
## or escape internal quotes
sc_filter_("stabbr == c('TN','KY')")
sc_filter_('stabbr == c(\'TN\',\'KY\')')

## stored in object
filters <- c("control == 1", "locale == 41:43")
sc_filter_(filters)

## End(Not run)

Get scorecard data.

Description

This function gets the College Scorecard data by compiling and converting all the previous piped output into a single URL string that is used to get the data.

Usage

sc_get(
  sccall,
  api_key,
  debug = FALSE,
  print_key_debug = FALSE,
  return_json = FALSE
)

Arguments

Obtain a key

To obtain an API key, visit https://api.data.gov/signup

Examples

## Not run: 
sc_get("<API KEY IN STRING>")
key <- "<API KEY IN STRING>"
sc_get(key)

## End(Not run)

Initialize chained request.

Description

This function initializes the data request. It should always be the first in the series of piped functions.

Usage

sc_init(dfvars = FALSE)

Arguments

Examples

## Not run: 
sc_init()
sc_init(dfvars = TRUE)

## End(Not run)

Store Data.gov API key in system environment.

Description

This function stores your data.gov API key in the system environment so that you only have to load it once at the start of the session. If you set your key using sc_key, then you may omit api_key parameter in the sc_get function.

Usage

sc_key(api_key)

Arguments

Obtain a key

To obtain an API key, visit https://api.data.gov/signup.

Examples

## Not run: 
sc_key('<API KEY IN STRING>')

## End(Not run)

Select scorecard data variables.

Description

This function is used to select the variables returned in the final dataset.

Usage

sc_select(sccall, ...)

sc_select_(sccall, vars)

Arguments

Functions

• sc_select_(): Standard evaluation version of sc_select (vars must be string or vector of strings when using this version)

Examples

## Not run: 
sc_select(UNITID)
sc_select(UNITID, INSTNM)
sc_select(unitid, instnm)

## End(Not run)
## Not run: 
sc_select_("UNITID")
sc_select_(c("UNITID", "INSTNM"))
sc_select_(c("unitid", "instnm"))

## stored in object
vars_to_pull <- c("unitid","instnm")
sc_select(vars_to_pull)

## End(Not run)

Select scorecard data year.

Description

This function is used to select the year of the data.

Usage

sc_year(sccall, year)

Arguments

Important notes

1. Not all variables have a year option.

2. At this time, only one year at a time is allowed.

3. The year selected is not necessarily the year the data were produced. It may be the year the data were collected. For data collected over split years (fall to spring), it is likely the year represents the fall data (e.g., 2011 for 2011/2012 data).

Be sure to check with the College Scorecard data documentation report when choosing the year.

Examples

## Not run: 
sc_year() # latest
sc_year("latest")
sc_year(2012)

## End(Not run)

Subset results to those within specified area around zip code.

Description

Subset results to those within specified area around zip code.

Usage

sc_zip(sccall, zip, distance = 25, km = FALSE)

Arguments

Note

Zip codes with leading zeros (Northeast) can be called either using a string ("02111") or as a numeric (02111). R will drop the leading zero from the second version, but sc_zip() will add it back before the call. The shortened version without the leading zero may also be used (2111 and "2111" both become "02111"), but is not recommended for clarity.

Examples

## Not run: 
sc_zip(37203)
sc_zip(37203, 50)
sc_zip(37203, 50, km = TRUE)
sc_zip("02111")              # 1. Using string
sc_zip(02111)                # 2. Dropped leading zero will be added
sc_zip(2111)                 # 3. Will become "02111" (not recommended)

## End(Not run)