Description of Variable.

Variables	Description	% imputed
Dependent Variables
College enrollmenta	Dichotomous indicator of the college enrollment status as of 2000: no college enrollment and college enrollment.	—
College degree attainmenta	Categorical measure of the highest degree attainted as of 2000: no college enrollment, certificate/associate's degree, BA or above, and no college degree attainment.	—
Independent Variables
Rurality	Trichotomous indicator of rurality: Rural (reference), suburban, and urban.	0.0
Socioeconomic background
Parental educational attainmentb	Trichotomous indicator of parental educational attainment when in 12th grade: High school graduation or less (reference), some college, BA or higher.	7.2
Family incomeb	Trichotomous indicator of family income in 12th grade; $24,999 or less (reference), $25,000 - $49,999, and $50,000 or more.	14.0
Family composition and social resource
Two-parent familyb	Dichotomous indicator of family composition when in 12th grade: Two-parent (i.e., biological mother and father) family versus other family arrangement (e.g., single-parent family) (reference).	11.6
Number of siblingsb	Continuous measure of the number of siblings when in 12th grade.	11.7
Parental educational expectationsb	Trichotomous indicator of parents' expectation of the surveyed child's education when in 12th grade: High school graduation or less (reference), certificate/associate's degree, and BA or higher.	10.8
Parents discuss with child about academic issuesb	Composite score averaging six parent responses about the extent to which they discussed with their children academic work when in 12th grade (alpha = .820) ; Values ranging from 1 (never) to 3 (often).	12.4
Community social resources
Parents communicate with parents of child's friendsb	Composite score averaging three parent responses about the extent to which they discussed with parents their teen's friends their academic/career plans when in 12th grade (alpha = .858); Values ranging from 1 (seldom or never) to 4 (almost daily).	20.3
Parents know parents of child's friendsc	Continuous measure of the extent of parents knowing the parents of child's closest friends reported by student; values ranging from 1 (not all) to 3 (many of the parents).	17.5
Student attends churchc	Continuous measure of how often student attended religious services; values ranging from 1 (not at all) to 6 (more than once a week).	19.9
Academic preparation in high school
GPAa	Continuous measure of high school grade point average (GPA), value ranging from 0 to 4.	22.5
Standardized test scores	Continuous measure of the NELS senior test score percentile; range from 1 percent (low achieving) to 100 percent (high achieving).	10.8
Curriculum intensity	Continuous measure of the rigor of student's high school curriculum determined for multiple subjects (e.g., math, AP courses, English, foreign language, etc.) by assessing both the quality of courses taken and number of hard courses (see Adelman, 2006, for more information on the construction of this variable); values ranging from 1 (lowest quintile) to 5 (highest quintile).	7.6
Controls
Female	Dichotomous indicator of the student's gender; reference: male	0.0
Race/ethnicity	Categorical measure of the student's race; Asian, Hispanic, Black, and White (reference).	0.0
Region	Categorical measure of the region of the high school; Northeast, Midwest, South (reference), and West.	0.0

^atranscript information.

^bparent questionnaire.

^cstudent questionnaire.