The American Freshman : National Norms for Fall 1999 / Linda J. Sax, Alexander W. Astin and William S. Korn.

This 34th annual report of national normative data on college freshmen is part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program's (CIRP) longitudinal study to assess the effects of college on students. Data for this study is based on 261,217 entering students at 462 U.S. two- and four-year colleges and universities, and is statistically adjusted to reflect the 1.64 million first-time, full-time students entering college as freshmen in fall 1999. The normative data are reported for all freshmen, and separately for men and for women and for 35 institutional groupings. The major stratifying factors are institutional race (predominantly white versus predominantly black); control (public, private-nonsectarian, Roman Catholic, Protestant); type (university, four-year college, two-year college); university selectivity level by sex, and four-year colleges by selectivity level. An overview identifies major trends, which include: growing amounts of stress, especially among women; increasing academic disengagement; intensified grade inflation; declining commitment to social activism; a decline in drinking and smoking; growing interest in teaching careers and the arts; and growing numbers of older freshmen students. Appendices present details on the CIRP survey methodology, the 1999 student information form, coding scheme, participating institutions, data precision, and a sample report furnished to participating campuses. (Contains 16 references.) (SM)

Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.