National normative data for 1981 on characteristics of students entering college as first-time, full-time freshmen are presented as part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program. Based on administration of the Student Information Form (SIF), data are reported separately for women and men, and for 38 groups of institutions. The major stratifying factors are institutional race (predominantly black versus predominantly white), type (two-year college, four-year college, university), control (public, private and nonsectarian, Roman Catholic, and Protestant), and the selectivity level of the institution. The normative data are based on responses from 192,248 freshmen entering 368 institutions. Data were collected by administering the 1981 SIF during registration, freshman orientation, or the first few weeks of classes. The SIF is designed to elicit a wide range of biographic and demographic data, as well as data on the student's high school background, career plans, educational aspirations, financial arrangements, high school activities, and current attitudes. Weighting procedures for the SIF are described, along with an estimate of the total student population of first-time, full-time college students. The norms are also presented for the four geographic regions. Appended materials include: a list of participating institutions, the 1981 SIF, region categories and coding scheme for father's and mother's occupations; guidelines for judging the precision of the normative estimates and their comparisons; and a sample report furnished to a participating institution. (SW)