These data are a Public-Use version of the ELS:2002/06 Restricted-use Base Year to Second Follow-up data (NCES 2008-346) released previously. These data can be downloaded using a new “EDAT” web application on the NCES website. The application allows users to download the data files they need for research in one of six statistical programming languages and then select the variables they need to perform that research. ELS:2002/06 is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of 16,200 high school sophomores in 2002, who were interviewed again in 2004 when most were seniors, and again in 2006 when many were sophomores in college or in the workforce. Data are included on the academic and other aspects of the environment of the schools in which these students were enrolled, as well as peer and parental influences. At the college level, data on the extent of college search, expectations, and choice processes prior to college enrollment, as well as information about subsequent pathways into and out of various types of postsecondary institutions are included. The initial entry of these youth into adulthood is then traced with respect to employment, living patterns, family formation, volunteerism, and military service. The last data collection in the survey will be in 2012, when most of the sample members who went to college will have left college and entered the workforce.
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