<p>I am pleased to see that US News has included information about the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) in its special annual college rankings report. For those who don't know, the NSSE is a nationwide survey that examines student reported information about how engaged students are with their educations. A number of schools who participate in the NSSE agreed to have the US News & World Report publish their results - good information in there about how often students engage in classroom discussions, have to write papers, discuss material outside of the classroom with their peers and faculty, how satisfied they are with the faculty, whether they feel their peers are friendly or not, etc.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are over 700 colleges and universities that participate in the NSSE --- the handful of schools that agreed to have their results published are a small minority. that's a shame because it would be so useful if potential students had access to the results, no matter what they show. There are also many other schools, including most of the Ivy schools, that do not feel it is necessary to even participate to see how students experience their undergraduate years. </p>
<p>I saw it two night a ago and clicked with anticipation. I was positively underwhelmed and quickly gave up. </p>
<p>In theory the information should be interesting. In practice, but only based on what I saw on the USN site, I'll wait for someone to compile the information. </p>
<p>That said, it is entirely possible that the reading of the new rankings influenced my disposition. :)</p>
<p>Dont hold your breath Xiggi. This is not public information and results can only be released with permission. As Carolyn noted, most prefer to keep it close to the vest.</p>
<p>I don't know about that--I've been surprised by the number of colleges who have published NSSE results on the web. Of course, maybe these are the same ones who are agreeing to let US News reveal them.</p>
<p>I think one of the visions of NSSE has been to have this sort of information available for prospective students, so they can know these kinds of things about institutions they are considering. But another use for NSSE is to spark important campus discussion among faculty and administrators. Even those who don't make it a part of their prospective student information may be putting it to very good use improving the undergraduate experience for students.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that 31 of the top colleges have been doing their own consortium surveys for years: the COFHE group. The COFHE members do extensive surveys on a scheduled basis: of all students, incoming freshmen, graduating seniors, alumni, etc.</p>
<p>They had little incentive to spend money on yet another survey outfit. It was mostly the colleges who were not a part of an ongoing survey group who had the most incentive to purchase NSSE's services.</p>
<p>Having said that, I do see that both Swarthmore and Williams (the only two I checked) became new customers of the NSSE survey in 2005. The 2005 data is just being released to the customers and was not available for USNEWS.</p>
<p>
[quote]
They had little incentive to spend money on yet another survey outfit
[/quote]
</p>
<p>"yet another another outfit" -- You say that like NSSE is a little fly-by-night moneymaking scheme. LOL</p>
<p>I think some of the COFHE institutions would have some interest in benchmarking themselves with other institutions (non-COFHE included). Recall that some COFHE institutions have sponsored special administration of COFHE instruments to non-COFHE peers so they could get wider comparisons.</p>
<p>PArents ...my mom found about this study a couple of years ago. Of course I paid absolutely NO attention to it untill I started to set out on college interviews. I didnt use the study to evaluate colleges and I gather that is the purpose of the study...but I used it to brainstorm questions that I wanted to ask of college interviewers. I mean I had a vague idea of questions ...mainly "Will you admit me?????"....but looking at the NSSE questions helped me structure my interview conversation (ie be less petrified) and also helped me be armed with a couple of silence breakers if the chat lagged. I'd recommend that all kids embarking on the interview slog at least look at the study and adapt what they think is useful.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well, it's not exactly a free service. NSSE charges the smallest LACs $3,600 a year.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>?? I apologize if I implied it was free. It is not, but it is a relative bargain. A huge bargain, actually. What with the PEW money and their desire to compile a good dataset of students across the country, they make it very affordable.</p>
<hr>
<p>As Spiker notes, NSSE has a "college guide" publication that encourages students and their families to ask good probing questions. It's definitely worth checking out.</p>
<p>I have to administer a similar national survey in my freshman seminar class. If all the students are as bored and peremptory about filling all this out as mine are, I'd treat the results with a lot of reservations.</p>