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Mapping Old Post-baccalaureate Award Levels with New Award Levels

  • As of the Fall 2010-11 Data Collection, all IPEDS institutions are required to use the new post-baccalaureate award levels.
  • Changes to the award levels affect only post-baccalaureate award levels.
  • The changes can be briefly be summarized as the elimination of the first-professional degree (Award level 10) and first-professional certificate (Award level 11), and the expansion of the doctor’s degree (Award level 9) into three categories: Doctor’s degree-research/scholarship (Award level 17), Doctor’s degree- professional practice (Award level 18) and, Doctor’s degree- Other (Award level 19).
  • Ultimately, IPEDS institutions have the discretion to decide how to recode their post-baccalaureate awards; this tip sheet simply provides suggestions on how to do this recoding.
Old Award Level Code Old Award Level Description New Award Level Code New Award Level Description
7 Master’s degree 7 Master’s degree
8 Post-master’s certificate 8 Post-master’s certificate
9 Doctor’s degree 17 Doctor’s degree-research/scholarship
18 Doctor’s degree-professional practice
19 Doctor’s degree-Other
10 First- professional degree (D.C, D.C.M, D.D.S,D.M.D., M.D., O.D., D.O., Pharm.D., D.P.M.,D.P., Pod.D., D.V.M., L.L.B, J.D.) 17 Doctor’s degree-research/scholarship
18 Doctor’s degree-professional practice*
19 Doctor’s degree-Other
10 First-professional degree (M.Div, M.H.L, B.D., Ordination) 7 Master’s degree
11 First-professional certificate 8 Post-master’s certificate

*While most doctoral level first-professional degrees will typically be re-coded as 18 Doctor’s degree-professional practice, schools may elect to recode them in another doctor’s degree category.