This is a live demo, built on made-up or public data. All demos

Indiana Pathways Advisor

An advisor should be able to see a young person's whole path — school, college, completion odds, and what it pays — in one sitting. This demo draws that path for any of the 530 Indiana high schools in the state's college-going file, using data Indiana and the federal government already publish (all of it downloaded in August 2026, no special access required). Where a number is hidden to protect students in small groups, the page says why.

Merrillville High School

Merrillville · Lake County · Merrillville Community School Corp

446
graduates in the Class of 2024
49%
enrolled in college within a year

220 of 446 — about 3 points below the state rate of 52%

44%
earned dual credit from an Indiana public college

197 graduates; 68% of them went on to college, vs 35% of classmates without dual credit

Merrillville High School's college-going rate held steadier than the state's: down 6.7 points since 2016 vs the state's 11.6.

share of graduates enrolling in any college within a year of graduation

View as table
Cohort Merrillville High School Indiana

Wider than this screen — scroll it sideways to see the rest.

Download these numbers (CSV)

Merrillville High School's 21st Century Scholars enroll in college at 84% — about 39 points above their classmates.

21st Century Scholars is Indiana's income-based scholarship: students who sign up in middle school and keep the pledge have their tuition at an Indiana public college covered.

21st Century Scholars 41 of 49 enrolled
84%
Their classmates 179 of 397 enrolled
45%

Both bars run on the same 0–100% track: the share of each group that enrolled in college within a year of graduating. Indiana's college-going file reports the two groups separately; it does not say why they differ.

Campus the paths from here

  • Indiana Commission for Higher Education · College-Going Dataset, 2024 cohort · downloaded August 2026
  • Trend line: the Commission's own 2016–2023 cohort workbooks · downloaded August 2026
Where these numbers come from

The files this screen reads

  • Indiana Commission for Higher Education · College-Going Dataset, 2024 cohort · downloaded August 2026 One row per school per breakout for every Indiana high school with a 2024 graduating class. College enrollment is counted within a year of graduation.
  • Trend line: the Commission's own 2016–2023 cohort workbooks · downloaded August 2026 The same measures for the classes of 2016 through 2023, one workbook per cohort. These older rows are matched to today's schools by name, so a school that was renamed drops out of the trend line.

Fields used on this screen

Field File What it is here
Graduates (hs_grads) CHE College-Going Dataset the class the whole demo counts, and the denominator under every percent on the walk
Enrolled in college (enr_college) CHE College-Going Dataset graduates who enrolled at any college, anywhere, within a year of finishing high school
The state's own row (LocationType = State) CHE College-Going Dataset Indiana's rate, taken from the same file and the same year, so the tile compares like with like
21st Century Scholar breakout CHE College-Going Dataset graduates and enrollees published separately for Scholars and for their classmates
Dual Credit breakout CHE College-Going Dataset graduates who earned dual credit from an Indiana public college, and those who did not
Classes of 2016–2023 (hs_grads, enr_college) CHE college-going workbooks, one per cohort the trend line; a school with no published rate in a given year leaves a gap rather than a zero

When a number is missing, the mark says why

  • hidden by the state to protect students in small groups
  • cohort too recent to measure
  • not applicable — nothing to draw

Nobody publishes how these files connect to each other — school to corporation, campus to Ivy Tech region, program to occupation. Each link was worked out for this demo, and the About page walks through every one.

Want something like this for your program? Schedule a conversation or email matt@mattniksch.com.