This document is intended as a data file user's manual for the dataset resulting from the High School and Beyond Postsecondary Education Transcript Study. The purpose of this study, conducted during 1984-85, was to provide reliable and objective information about the types and patterns of postsecondary courses taken by all members of the High School and Beyond (HS&B) 1980 senior cohort. Transcripts were requested from each school reported by sample members in their responses to the first and second follow-up surveys. Information from the transcripts, including terms of attendance, fields of study, specific courses taken, and grades and credits earned, were coded and processed into a system of data files designed to be merged with HS&B questionnaire data files. The Computer Assisted Data Entry System was used for processing the collected data into a four-level hierarchy consisting of data at the student, transcript, term, and course levels. The file includes specific data items in the student-level records including: physical tape position on the data record, a short description of the field contents, and the nature of the value stored in the field. Frequently distributions for all categorical variables on the student record are displayed in the enclosed codebook. The appendices, which make up over three-fourths of the document, contain: (1) a list of endorsing institutions; (2) postsecondary school codes in numerical and alphabetical order; (3) course subject codes in numerical order; (4) the data file record layout; (5) information on other HS&B data files available from the Center of Statistics; (6) sampling error and design effects; and (7) frequency distributions.
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