Gates Millennium Scholars Program (GMS) Cohort 1, 2000-2008 (ICPSR 34375)

Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)

Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection

Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes

Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

The purpose of the GMS Tracking and Longitudinal study is to gather data on the lives of scholars and selected non-recipients in order to analyze the effects on the educational, civic, and personal lives of selected sample members. The Gates Foundation hopes to generate research that will help improve education attainment and achievement of minority students.

Study Design View help for Study Design

This study was conducted using cross-sectional survey files and a longitudinal survey design. In total, there will be seven cohorts, but to date, only five cohorts have begun the survey process. For this study, a cohort is defined as all GMS scholars and a representative sample of non-recipients. Non-recipients are defined as individuals who were asked to go on to the scholar confirmation/verification phase, but did not become a scholar for one or more reasons. Each cohort will be asked to fill out a baseline survey and five follow-up surveys. As the study is scheduled to end in 2022, only Cohorts 1, 2, 3, and 5 are scheduled to go through all six rounds of data collection. Cohort 9 will continue through the fourth follow-up, Cohort 13 through the third follow-up, and Cohort 17 will end with the second follow-up. The baseline survey occurs after the first year out of high school when they have made the transition to college or the workforce. The first follow-up will correspond to their third year out of high school, which for many will be during their junior year in college. The second follow-up will occur at the end of the applicants' fifth year out of high school, which may mark the transition to graduate or professional school, or into the workforce. At the end of the eighth year out of high school, the third follow-up will occur. For some this will correspond to the transition into the workforce after the completion of graduate or professional school. The fourth follow-up will take place thirteen years out of high school around the age of 31, and the fifth will be eighteen years out of high school, around the age of 36.

Sample View help for Sample

Cross-sectional data collection contains the responses of all 4,053 scholarship recipients in the first year of Gates Millenium Scholars and additional sampling of 2,744 non-recipients. A stratified sample design was used for non-recipients in order to enable powerful comparisons at the level of racial/ethnic group between freshman and continuing undergraduate students. All Pell-Grant-in-place no-recipients were included in the samples for each racial/ethnic group. The remainder of cases was drawn from the pool of non-recipients without Pell Grants in place. The goal was to obtain 300 completes from each racial/ethnic group except American Indians. Due to their small number, all non-recipients were included in the samples of both populations. The designs are likely to produce a design effect for non-recipients because the samples are not proportional to their representation in the population as a whole. This effect is likely to be offset by the stratification. For additional information, see the sampling section of the Cohort 1 Survey Codebook.

Time Method View help for Time Method

Universe View help for Universe

Population of American high school students graduating in the year of 2001, continuing undergraduate students, and graduate students who meet the criteria established by the Gates Foundation as stated in the summary.

Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation

Data Source View help for Data Source

Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

See Variables Section corresponding to Cohort 1 Year Codebook. The survey included questions that address the topics of (a) social, cultural, linguistic, economic background; (b) race/ethnicity and gender patterns; (c) high school preparation and experiences; (d) the role of financial aid; (e) college choice; (f) major choice; (g) engagement and leadership in college; (h) academic achievement, persistence, and completions; (i) graduate education plans; (j) career choice and transition to the workplace; and (k) democratic values and leadership after college.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

By weighting the responses with respect to their relative response rates, the population estimates accurately reflect the proportion of the groups in the population. Percent responses and non-responses are shown with the counts of respondents and non-respondents in each category of background variable. Gender and Race/ethnicity were variables taken into account for response rates.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

Binomial response, Several Likert Scales, Free response

Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2013-04-02

Version History View help for Version History

Weight View help for Weight

In this study, the entire population of scholars and the entire population of non-recipients were asked to participate in the survey, so weights were only needed to compensate for sub-population differences in non-response to the survey. The response rates for non-recipients are weighted to account for differences in the selection probabilities of the sample members. No such adjustment was necessary for the scholars since all scholars were selected for the survey with certainty. For the cross-sectional datasets (baseline, first follow-up, second follow-up), the weight variable is called "WEIGHT" and the longitudinal datasets the weight variables for baseline are "R1_WGT" (Cohort 1). For more information on weighting procedure, please refer to the weighting section of the documentation.