STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY.

Research Program being conducted by the 'Office of Research of the American Council. on Education to assess the impact of different types of college environinents on students ' development, and to provide up-to-date source of data about the population of US college students. National,normative data are presented on the characteristics of students.entering colleges for the first time as full-time freshmen in 1968. The data are reported separately *for men, women, types of institutions, and different geographic regions in the US. and are based on 243.156 freshmen entering 358 institutions in 1968. The data were differentially weighted in order to be representative of the population of entering freshman students. and so that related summary data would be representative of the defined population of institutions. The information.obtained, together with follow-up data to be collected from the students in subsequent years. will be used to measure changes in educational and career plans. attitudes and behavior during college years. Table 1 gives information about the participating institutions.. Table 2 tummarizes the items in the student information form (survey instrument). and Table 3 shows the number of institutions and students on which the national norms are based. 'and gives an estimate of the total student population. (WM) RESEARC