This section, available for Young Women only, describes information collected from the high schools attended by respondents in the Young Women (and Young Men) cohorts and the set of created variables detailing characteristics of up to three colleges attended by respondents.
High School Survey
The Census Bureau, via a separate school survey, collected information on secondary schools during 1968. The survey was mailed directly to the 3,030 schools attended by respondents in the Young Women and Young Men cohorts. After Census conducted follow-up procedures to maximize responses, partial information is available for approximately 95 percent of the schools attended by the members of these two cohorts; complete information is available for 75 percent of the schools (Kohen 1973).
The universe for this survey consisted of those respondents who had (1) completed the ninth grade by the time of the 1968 survey and (2) signed a waiver form permitting Census to collect information from their school record.
The survey collected data on (1) characteristics of the schools (type of school, total student enrollment by grade, annual expenditure per pupil, number of books in the school library); (2) characteristics of the school's teachers and counselors (number of full-time teachers and counselors, annual salary for an inexperienced teacher, presence of a vocational guidance program); and (3) respondents' performances on various aptitude and intelligence tests, as well as their absenteeism and school disciplinary records. Available constructed variables include an index of school quality, number of books per pupil, number of students per full-time teacher, and number of counselors per 100 students.
| Related User's Guide Sections | Users can find additional information in the Aptitude, Achievement & Intelligence Scores and Crime, Delinquency & School Discipline sections. |
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| Survey Instruments & Documentation | Census collected data using the School Survey instrument. These variables can be identified by searching for the term "School Survey" on the data file. The Young Women's Codebook Supplement also contains appendices that provide additional information on this survey and some of its constructed variables. |
College information
A series of variables provides information about the colleges attended by respondents in the Young Women and Young Men cohorts during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Data on schooling were collected during the regular surveys (e.g., grade attending, when entered this school, names and locations of colleges, highest grade completed) and merged with information detailing the characteristics of each college to form a set of created variables called the "College Survey."
Certain variables were created for each of up to three colleges attended, i.e., the first college attended, the most recent college attended as of 1971/1972, and the college attended for the longest time between the first and most recent college. These variables include the following: the last year the respondent attended that college, state identification code for the college's location, whether the college was private or public, the type of college or university, the highest college degree offered at the institution, the race/sex composition and socioeconomic status of the student body, an index of institutional selectivity, the number of books in the library, the percentage of faculty with a Ph.D., expenditures per full-time student, the ratio of students to faculty, and an index indicating whether the college was "below average," "average," or "above average" in six areas of occupational/career orientation.
Respondents who attended fewer than three institutions are coded as "NA" for the college attended for the longest time between first and most recent college. For those respondents attending only one institution, characteristics of that institution are reflected twice, both in the series of variables relevant to the first college attended and in those relevant to the most recent college attended.
References
Astin, Alexander. Who Goes Where to College. Chicago: Science Research Associates, 1965.
Kohen, Andrew I. "Determinants of Early Labor Market Success among Young Men: Race, Ability, Quantity and Quality of Schooling." Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1973.
Light, Audrey. "Notes on the NLS Schooling Data."Columbus, OH: CHRR, The Ohio State University, 1995.
| Survey Instruments & Documentation | Responses to Information Sheet items and data collected from the "Educational Status" sections of the 1968-72 Young Women questionnaires provided the schooling information for each respondent. These variables can be identified by searching for the term "College Survey" on the data file. External data sources are identified in the codeblock for each created variable. |
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