The 23rd annual report of national normative data on the characteristics of students attending American colleges and universities as first-time, full-time freshmen is presented. This project of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program of the American Council on Education and the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, assesses the effects of college on students. Information is provided on the American freshman (national norms for fall 1988) and the 1988 national norms (type of institutions and control for men, women, and all freshmen). The major stratifying factors are institutional race, control, type, and the selectivity level of the institution. Survey results include: freshman participation in all major federal financial aid programs continues to decline; the 18-year rise in freshman interest in business majors may have peaked; there is a modest increase in the proportion of students planning to pursue nursing careers; there is rising interest in teaching careers; and 72.6% say concerns about jobs and money are reasons why they attend college. Seven appendices show: research methodology; 1988 student information form; coding scheme for collapsed items; participating institutions; precision of the normative data and their comparisons; sample report furnished to campuses; and some comments on comparing certain survey results from various versions of the norms report. Two summary reports are also attached. Along with 4 tables and 13 figures, the report contains 12 references. (SM)