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.
|
Application Data |
College Transcript Data |
Institution |
N |
Years |
N |
Years |
Texas A&M |
163,027 |
1992-2002 |
637,028 |
1992-2007 |
Texas A&M Kingsville* |
18,872 |
1992-2002 |
91,106 |
1992-2004 |
UT Arlington |
29,844 |
1994-2002 |
51,315 |
1994-2002 |
UT Austin |
210,006 |
1991-2003 |
659,102 |
1991-2004 |
UT Pan American** |
44,747 |
1995-2002 |
115,812 |
1995-2005 |
UT San Antonio# |
61,221 |
1990-2004 |
160,604 |
1990-2004 |
Texas Tech |
81,153 |
1995-2003 |
211,771 |
1995-2004 |
Rice |
36,190 |
2000-2004 |
18,149 |
2000-2005 |
SMU |
45,549 |
1998-2005 |
60,607 |
1998-2005 |
* 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.
The
Administrative Data public-use data sets are now
accessible through the OPR Data Archive.
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