For the most recent BPS cohort, a sample of first-time beginning students was interviewed in 2004 as part of NPSAS. This cohort of beginning students was reinterviewed in 2006, three years after beginning their postsecondary education. The final interview of this cohort will occur in 2009, six years after beginning their postsecondary education. Approximately 19,000 beginning students from 1,360 institutions are included in the current BPS cohort.
BPS now provides students with the option of completing either a self-administered interview via the Web or an interviewer-administered telephone or in-person interview. Regardless of how the interviews are administered, the items in the interviews are identical and collect information on education, work, and related experiences over the six years since beginning their postsecondary education.
