The Difference Between Graduate Files and Request Files (4 mins)

This lesson explains the difference between graduate files and request files for the StudentTracker for High School service.

Resources

• Formatting and Submitting a Graduates File (pdf)
• Knowledge Base article - The Difference Between a Graduates File and a Request File
• Knowledge Base article - Formatting and Submitting a Graduates File
• Formatting and Submitting a Request File

Transcript Welcome. The purpose of this tutorial is to describe the difference between graduates files and request files for StudentTracker for High Schools. Participants of StudentTracker for High Schools can submit data to the Clearinghouse in two ways by submitting a graduates file, also known as a diploma file, or submitting a request file. The most common type of file submitted is the graduates file. These submit all your institution's recent high school graduates to the Clearinghouse. In return, three times a year the Clearinghouse processes your student records for the most recent eight years submitted and generates your StudentTracker reports. These reports allow you to to compare your institution's postsecondary outcomes for each graduating year. Request files generally consist of a specific cohort of students your institution intends to use for unique analysis. These files tend to include records of students who have graduated from high school but share a specific characteristic, may have started at your school but not graduated from it for any number of reasons, obtained a GED or general education development after leaving your school, or are graduates who attended school prior to the most recent 8 years included in the Clearinghouse's reports generated from the graduates file. Main differences between these two types of files are as follows a graduates file is submitted once a year, stored and used for multiple reports during the year. A request file is submitted as needed for each cohort and is used once. However, it is important to note that StudentTracker for high school reports returned by the Clearinghouse contain the same types of information regardless of which file type submitted. The file formatting for the two file types is also slightly different. The header row, detail rows and trail row must be formatted correctly so that the Clearinghouse can process your file as efficiently as possible. The header row for a graduates file should have PH3 in the first field. Each student detail row should begin with PD3. The trailer row should have PT3 in the first field of the last row. The header Row for a request file should have H3 in the first field. Each student detail row should begin with D3 and the trailer row should have T3 in the first field of the last row. To learn about other differences between the formats of graduates files and request files and to discover more details on how to submit the view our submission help guide online.