Overview
A university lookup API that answers two questions. Search by name, country or state to get institutions with their domains and websites; US results come from the NCES IPEDS directory with address, coordinates, control, level, highest degree, HBCU and land-grant flags. Or send a domain or a whole email address and the API says whether it is academic: it matches the domain and its parents against every institution's domains, then falls back to academic suffixes such as .edu and .ac.uk. Paid plans unlock the IPEDS figures for US institutions: enrollment, student-faculty ratio, admission rate, in-state and out-of-state tuition, graduate tuition and room and board.
Live Test University Lookup Source →
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the next are its inputs, and the field after them says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("universitylookup", "count")=VERVE.CALL("universitylookup", "count")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below, followed by the field. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after that — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
nameOptional | string | "name", value | University name or words from it; US abbreviations match too length 0–150 |
domainOptional | string | "domain", value | Domain to check, e.g. stanford.edu; subdomains match their institution length 0–253 · domain |
emailOptional | string | "email", value | Email address to check; its domain is used length 0–320 · email |
countryOptional | string | "country", value | Country name or two-letter code length 0–60 |
stateOptional | string | "state", value | State or province (two-letter code in the US) length 0–60 |
limitOptional | integer | "limit", value | Maximum universities to return (1-50) default 10 · range 1–50 |
Passing an option
=VERVE("universitylookup", "count", "name", "Stanford")=VERVE.CALL("universitylookup", "count", "name", "Stanford")What lands in your sheet
The field — the argument after the inputs — is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Leave the field out and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("universitylookup")=VERVE.CALL("universitylookup")The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the field argument accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as the field | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
domain | object | null | The domain checked (domain and email lookups); null for searches |
isAcademicDomain | object | null | The domain belongs to a university or ends in an academic suffix; null for searches |
matchType | object | null | exact, subdomain or academic_suffix when the domain is academic; null otherwise |
matchedDomain | object | null | The institution domain that matched; null when none did |
count | number | 1 | Number of universities returned |
totalMatches | number | 1 | Number of universities that matched before the limit |
universities | array[1] | ||
universities.0.id | string | us-166683 | Our identifier: us-<IPEDS unit id> for US institutions, <country>-<name slug> elsewhere |
universities.0.name | string | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Institution name |
universities.0.aliases | array | ["MIT","M.I.T."] | Other names and abbreviations the institution reports (US) |
universities.0.country | string | United States | Country name |
universities.0.countryCode | string | US | ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code |
universities.0.stateProvince | string | MA | State (two-letter code in the US) or province, where known |
universities.0.city | string | Cambridge | City (US) |
universities.0.address | string | 77 Massachusetts Avenue | Street address (US) |
universities.0.zip | string | 02139-4301 | ZIP code (US) |
universities.0.latitude | number | 42.359243 | Latitude of the campus (US) |
universities.0.longitude | number | -71.093226 | Longitude of the campus (US) |
universities.0.timezone | string | America/New_York | IANA time zone of the campus (US) |
universities.0.domains | array | ["mit.edu","web.mit.edu"] | Web and email domains of the institution |
universities.0.website | string | https://web.mit.edu/ | Main website |
universities.0.phone | string | 6172531000 | Main phone number, 10 digits (US) |
universities.0.ipedsUnitId | number | 166683 | IPEDS unit id (US) |
universities.0.control | string | private_nonprofit | public, private_nonprofit or private_for_profit (US) |
universities.0.level | string | four_year | four_year, two_year or less_than_two_year (US) |
universities.0.highestDegree | string | doctorate | doctorate, master, bachelor, associate or non_degree (US) |
universities.0.offersUndergraduate | boolean | true | Offers undergraduate programmes (US) |
universities.0.offersGraduate | boolean | true | Offers graduate programmes (US) |
universities.0.hbcu | boolean | false | Historically Black college or university (US) |
universities.0.tribal | boolean | false | Tribal college (US) |
universities.0.landGrant | boolean | true | Land-grant institution (US) |
universities.0.locale | string | city_midsize | Campus setting, e.g. city_large, suburb_midsize, rural_remote (US) |
universities.0.sizeBand | string | 10000_19999 | Enrollment band: under_1000, 1000_4999, 5000_9999, 10000_19999 or 20000_plus (US) |
universities.0.system | object | null | Multi-campus system the institution belongs to (US) |
universities.0.stats | object | {…} | IPEDS enrollment, admissions and cost figures (US); null elsewhere |
universities.0.stats.enrollmentTotalPremium | number | 11920 | 12-month or fall total enrollment |
universities.0.stats.enrollmentUndergraduatePremium | number | 4576 | Undergraduate enrollment |
universities.0.stats.enrollmentGraduatePremium | number | 7344 | Graduate enrollment |
universities.0.stats.studentFacultyRatioPremium | number | 3 | Students per faculty member |
universities.0.stats.admissionRatePremium | number | 5 | Percent of applicants admitted |
universities.0.stats.tuitionInDistrictPremium | number | 60156 | In-district undergraduate tuition and fees, US dollars per year |
universities.0.stats.tuitionInStatePremium | number | 60156 | In-state undergraduate tuition and fees, US dollars per year |
universities.0.stats.tuitionOutOfStatePremium | number | 60156 | Out-of-state undergraduate tuition and fees, US dollars per year |
universities.0.stats.graduateTuitionInStatePremium | number | 59750 | In-state graduate tuition, US dollars per year |
universities.0.stats.graduateTuitionOutOfStatePremium | number | 59750 | Out-of-state graduate tuition, US dollars per year |
universities.0.stats.roomAndBoardPremium | number | 19390 | On-campus room and board, US dollars per year |
universities.0.stats.tuitionYear | string | 2023-24 | Academic year of the cost figures, e.g. 2023-24 |
universities.0.stats.enrollmentYear | number | 2023 | IPEDS collection year of the enrollment and admissions figures |
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in universitylookup | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The field path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Use cases
- Student Discount Verification
- Check that a sign-up email belongs to a university before granting an education plan.
- Lead Enrichment
- Turn the domain on an inbound lead into the university behind it, with country and website.
- College Search
- List US colleges in a state with control, level, enrollment and tuition for comparison tools.
- Form Autocomplete
- Suggest institution names as students type their school on an application form.
Other ways to use University Lookup
Set up University Lookup on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
Related
More in Reference Data: