Literature Overview and Data Set update

I have updated my data set with a variables page, it is the second one. The updated data set is here. I've started trying to use Stata to see if I can find any interesting relationships. I'll let you know how that has been going next week.

I also updated my Literature review. If you have the time, could you skim it for about 5 minutes, just to see if the format is correct. I'm worried it may sound too much like an essay, rather than a literature review. The update can be found here.

If there's anything more I should be doing, please let me know. Thanks.

Data Update

My updated data set can (hopefully) be found here. It contains all the data I used, most of it summarized on sheet 1, titled "All IL Public." All the data is from 2012. Illinois Transfer information is from the university and can be found on their website under 2012. Driving distances were found using Google Maps. Overall college data was found using College Measures. As a note, Google uses slightly different formulas, so variance and standard deviation do not show up. If you want the original copy, please comment.
I have decided to broaden my focus away from Engineering Pathways specifically and towards Illinois Community College Students overall. I want to see what makes them successful individually and specifically at getting students transferred into UIUC. My plan is to upload this data into Stata, which will hopefully make analysis easier. I will let you know how this turns out in latter posts.

Progress Report: March 20

I think I have come up with a potential thesis topic: the UIUC Engineering Pathways program. I want to study how it is the same and/or different from the normal transfer process. I would focus on: if and how their backgrounds and pre-UIUC results differ from other transfer and native students, and try to find strengths and weaknesses of the program. Some downsides that I can see are that the university does not track transfer students differently after they arrive on campus, and potential difficulty getting data on Pathways students directly. But I think it would be useful to know how designated programs may help or hurt students.

To start I collected data from College Measures (collegemeasures.org) about the Community Colleges that are connected to the Pathways program, as well as general information about Illinois community colleges . I also found information on UIUC transfer students overall (http://www.pb.uillinois.edu/Documents/transferchars/2012/2012-Transfer-Characteristics.pdf) . Both sets of data were for 2012, and can be found summarized here.

For spring break, it intend to look more into the Engineering Pathways program: checking it's requirements, finding out how many students utilize it, etc. I will also try to find similar programs both at UIUC and other universities to compare and contrast their set up. Perhaps there has been some scholarship already on guaranteed transfer programs, so I will try to find what others have done. Finally, I want to use the data I collected to see if the chosen Community Colleges are any different from others in Illinois, and if Pathway students are any different from other transfer students.

Hopefully this is a reasonable topic for my senior thesis. Any comments would be appreciated.