High school to college transition study

About this book

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the college experience on subjects' expectations and behavior. A random sample of 1,739 students entering in 1970 at the University of Illinois were mailed initial questionnaires during the summer prior to their entrance to the university. A total of 771 men and 555 women completed and returned the questionnaire in this first wave of data collection. In the fall of 1970, shortly after school began, all the participants who had responded to the initial questionnaire were sent a follow-up questionnaire. A total of 578 men and 455 women participated in the second wave of the study. In the spring of 1971, at the end of the freshman year, those who had participated in the first wave were sent a third questionnaire soliciting largely the same information as the previous two waves. A total of 872 participants (472 men, 397 women,and 3 with unspecified gender) completed questionnaires for wave 3. Eight hundred and fifty-four subjects participated in all three waves. These lengthy questionnaires, consisting of precoded items, solicited information on family background, high school experiences, daily acitivities, academic interests, career plans, self-perceptions, expectations, college life plans, and attitudes toward a variety of social and political issues, such as integration, sex roles, sexual behavior, and crime control. Several scales regarding sexual activities and attitudes toward sex were added in waves 2 and 3. Computer-accessible data are available at the Murray Center.