ADMINISTRATIVE DATA OVERVIEW

The THEOP administrative data consists of college applications and enrollee college transcripts obtained from nine Texas universities--seven public and two private institutions. For the public institutions, freshman Application Data spans several years prior to the implementation of the Texas Top 10% law in 1998, and extends until at least 2002.  Application Data for the two private institutions is available only for the period after implementation of the automatic admission law.  

College Transcript Data are available for applicants who were accepted and subsequently enrolled. These files register academic progress toward degree based on credit hours completed, as well as term and cumulative grade point averages (GPA).  For most institutions, College Transcript Data was obtained through at least 2004.

 The file sizes and years available for each institution are summarized below.

* Applicant data for enrollees only: 1992-1994

** Limited variables provided

^# Applicant data for enrollees only: 1990-1997

Each university was asked to provide a subset of the items typically found on a college admission application. These items included the year and term an applicant desired to enroll, applicant demographics (gender, race, citizenship, Texas residency), applicant academic characteristics (high school class rank, high school grade point average, SAT score, ACT score, AP classes taken, TOEFL score, desired major), and high school characteristics (high school name, address, city, state, senior class size).  The universities were also asked to indicate admission and enrollment decisions, as well as college graduation dates for those enrollees who earned a degree within the time span of the data set. There is considerable overlap in information provided across institutions, but not every university provided identical sets of data items.  Universities were not asked to provide applicant essays or specific high school course-taking information.

To increase the usefulness of the Application Data for research purposes, several data items are added to each application record.  These include flags indicating whether an applicant’s high school is (1) public or private, (2) regular or special, and (3) in Texas or out of state.  Additionally, for Texas high schools, the data include a variable indicating the percentage of economically disadvantaged students.

The College Transcript Data tracks progress toward a degree for a single enrollee in a single semester. Specifically, the data provide hours earned, semester GPA, cumulative GPA, and department and field of major.

For ease of analysis across institutions, THEOP administrative data has converted into a standard, machine-readable format, with consistent variable names and value labels across institutions. Click here for a complete list of variables for all nine institutions.