The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) is a continuing longitudinal study of the American higher educational system. CIRP annually conducts a survey of students entering college as first-time, full-time freshmen. The freshman surveys began in 1966; the 1984 survey is the nineteenth in the series. All institutions responding to the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) (and having more than 25 incoming students) are invited to participate. The survey is conducted via a Student Information Form (SIF) designed for proctored self-administration during the first two weeks of school. The SIF data are read by an optical mark reader. Approximately 20% of the invited institutions participate; this captures data on approximately 20% of the total number of freshmen. The 1984 file contains data from 526 institutions on 271,647 students. The data contain a wide range of biographic and demographic information. Some of the more substantive SIF variables are: high school background and activities; career plans and goals; educational aspirations; current attitudes; reasons for attending college; parents' education and occupation; parents' and student's religious preference; parents' income; political attitudes; social values; sources of financial support. In addition to data returned directly by the participating institutions, a wide variety of institutional data are obtained from the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) and are used in conjunction with the data obtained annually. Data obtained from the College Board include: total freshmen by sex; SAT and ACT composite score quartiles; full-time/part-time status; percentages of students from in state that commute and that are in campus housing; tuition costs, fees, room and board costs, cost of books and supplies, transportation costs; total scholarship/grant dollars expended; student loan dollars provided; jobs offered and obtained for students. Each year, four machine-readable data files (MRDF) are developed from the SIF; (1) an institutional summary file containing institutional identification numbers and an institutional summary of the responses for men and women; (2) a file containing individual responses and a student identification number, but no names and addresses; (3) a name-and-address file containing a second, independent student identification number; and (4) a "link" file containing only the two independent identification numbers. This last file is maintained under an elaborate system developed to ensure strict confidentiality of individual student data and to protect against misuse of the name-and-address file. TYPE OF SURVEY: National Survey; Cross Sectional Survey. POPULATION: Higher Education Institutions (2734) College Freshmen (2,000,000). SAMPLE: Higher Education Institutions (2641=97%); College Freshmen (1,635,208=82%). RESPONDENTS: Higher Education Institutions (526=20%); College Freshmen (271,647=17%). FREQUENCY OF UPDATE: Annual. YEAR OF FIRST DATA: 1966. (WTB)