CD-ROM:

Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Follow-up (B&B: 93/94) Public Use Data Analysis System (DAS)

September 1996

This CD contains data from Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study in the form of a public release Data Analysis System (DAS). The DAS does not contain all variables collected as part of each study, but does contain most of those which are of interest to analysts for descriptive purposes.

This CD contains all current postsecondary cohort longitudinal DASs and a number of related reports to make things as easy as possible for users. This CD contains the following directories, subdirectories, and files:

\acroread       Contains files to install the Acrobat Reader for reports
\BB94           B&B:93/94 DAS files
\BPS92          BPS:90/92 DAS files
\BPS94          BPS:90/94 DAS files
\NPSAS87U       NPSAS:87 Undergraduate student DAS
\NPSAS87G       NPSAS:87 Graduate/First Professional student DAS
\NPSAS90U       NPSAS:90 Undergraduate student DAS
\NPSAS90G       NPSAS:90 Graduate/First Professional student DAS
\NPSAS93U       NPSAS:93 Undergraduate student DAS
\NPSAS93G       NPSAS:93 Graduate/First Professional student DAS
\reports        Contains recent B&B and related reports
   \BB94RPTS        All current B&B reports
        \BB94DESC        The B&B:94 Descriptive Report with an essay on Time to
                         Degree
          \TPFFILES All TPF files used to create tables in the descriptive
                    report    
        \BB94TEAC   The B&B teacher report  Out of the Lecture Hall ...'
                    with an essay on Undergraduate Academic Experiences
        \BB94METH       The B&B:93/94 Methodology Report
     \BPSRPTS            All current BPS:90/94 reports
        \b94desc         The BPS:90/94 Descriptive Report with an essay on
                         Postsecondary Persistence and Attainment
          \tpf      All TPF files used to create tables in the descriptive
                    report    
        \b94meth        The BPS:90/94 Methodology Report
        \b92edtab        The BPS:90/92 EDTab Beginning Postsecondary Students
                         Persistence and Attainment in Postsecondary Education 
        \b92desc        The BPS:90/92 Descriptive Report
      \N93RPTS           The NPSAS:93 reports          
        \UGPROF         Profile of Undergraduates
        \UGFIN          Undergraduate Financing
        \G1PFIN         Graduate/First Professional Financing
        \METH           NPSAS:93 Methodology Report
        \QUEX           NPSAS:93 CADE/CATI data elements
       N93VARS  TXT      List of variables in all NPSAS:93 data files
       TABN93R3 PDF      NPSAS:93 EDTab, Acroread format
       TABN93R3 W51      NPSAS:93 EDTab, WordPerfect format
\misc           Miscellaneous DAS-related files
     HOW2DAS  TXT        Text file with instructions for using a DAS, and for
                         running a DAS over the Internet
     TPFBATCH TXT      Text file describing how to run tables in batch mode
     TPFBATCH EXE   Program for setting up and running multiple *.tpf
                    files 
     PRN2TXT  EXE      Program to print raw DAS output *.PRN files
     FIXTPF   EXE      
     LICENSE  TXT        Information on how to obtain access to restricted data
                         files

Background Information

The Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:93) tracks the experiences of a cohort of recent college graduates, those who received the baccalaureate degree during the 1992-93 academic year and were first interviewed as part of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). B&B will follow this group into graduate/first professional school, and into the workforce to provide information concerning experiences in the areas of academic enrollments, degree completions, employment, public service, and other adult decisions. Ultimately, B&B:93 will provide data to assess the outcomes of postsecondary education, graduate and professional program access, and rates of return on investment in education.

The B&B is part of the Postsecondary Longitudinal Studies (PLS) program within the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The PLS is made up of two major components: high school cohort studies and postsecondary cohort studies. The former component includes:

The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 -

NLS:72 - followed through 1986,

High School and Beyond, 1980 - HS&B, - followed through 1986 (senior cohort) and 1992 (sophomore cohort), and

National Education Longitudinal Study, 1988 - NELS:88 - starting with the third follow-up in 1994

While the high school cohort studies adequately address issues related to access to and entry into postsecondary education (PSE), they are not as well able to address issues related to progress through the various levels of postsecondary education and into the work force because of the continually reduced number who proceed to the next higher level. The postsecondary cohort studies have been designed to overcome this problem by selecting a full base cohort from each new level.

These postsecondary cohort studies currently include three series based on the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS):

Beginning Postsecondary Students - BPS:90/94

Beginning Postsecondary Students - BPS:96/98

Baccalaureate and Beyond - B&B:93/97

BPS is based on students first entering PSE and will follow them for four to 12 years.

The B&B is based on students who complete a bachelor's degree, no matter how long they have taken to complete the degree. The first B&B cohort includes students who received the baccalaureate degree within the academic year 1992-93. As part of the first B&B follow-up (B&B:93/94), undergraduate transcripts were collected from the college that awarded the degree.

The B&B:93 sample design represents all postsecondary students in the United States who completed a bachelor's degree in the academic year 1992-93 (AY 93). The B&B:93/94 sample was a subsample of the students selected for the 1993 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study sample, a nationally representative sample of all postsecondary students. The B&B:93/94 sample of baccalaureate degree graduates includes those students in the NPSAS:93 sample who were identified by the institution or during the student interview as potentially eligible for B&B:93/94. Cases were identified as potentially eligible for B&B:93/94 if there was information indicating that the respondent had received, or expected to receive a baccalaureate degree between July 1, 1992 and June 30, 1993. All NPSAS:93 sample persons who satisfied the subsample requirements were designated as potential eligibles for B&B:93/94 irrespective of whether these persons were respondents or nonrespondents in NPSAS:93. Final eligibility for B&B was determined through the B&B interview or from undergraduate transcripts received from the sample institution.

For questions about the content of this CD product, please contact Paula Knepper at Paula.Knepper@ed.gov.