This set of Web Tables is the first in a series of four that together provide key information about first-time postsecondary students' characteristics and their 3-year retention, persistence, attainment, withdrawal, stopout, and transfer rates. This particular set of Web Tables provide a profile of America's first-time postsecondary students' personal and enrollment characteristics within the institutions and degree programs they first attended or pursued and the cost of college and receipt of various types of financial aid for first-time students.

The second set of Web Tables in this series, entitled First-Time Postsecondary Students in 2011–12: Three-Year Retention and Attainment at First Institution (https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016137), presents 3-year retention and attainment rates at the first institution students attended.

The third set of Web Tables, entitled First-Time Postsecondary Students in 2011–12: Three-Year Persistence and Attainment at Any Institution (https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016138), highlights 3-year persistence and attainment rates at any institution attended.

The final set of Web Tables, entitled First-Time Postsecondary Students in 2011–12: Three-Year Withdrawal, Stopout, and Transfer Rates (https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016139), presents the year-by-year cumulative rates at which first-time students withdrew from postsecondary education without a degree and the rate at which students stopout or transfer.