CIRP Freshman Survey

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CIRP Program Overview

Participating institutions receive a detailed profile of their entering freshman class, as well as national normative data for students in similar types of institutions. These campus profile reports, together with the national normative profile, provide important data that can be useful in a variety of program and policy areas:

Admissions and recruitment
Academic program development, review and self-assessment
Institutional self-study and accreditation activities
Public relations and advancement/development
Institutional research and assessment
Retention studies
Longitudinal research about the impact of policies and programs

Although the normative data provided with the institutional reports (and published annually in The American Freshman) are based on the population of first-time, full-time freshmen, participating institutions also receive separate reports for their part-time and transfer students. Additionally, participating campuses can obtain supplemental reports profiling students by various subgroups (for example, by intended major or career, by academic ability, by home state).

CIRP Freshman Survey: The Survey Instrument

The CIRP Freshman Survey is appropriate for all entering students. The four-page survey instrument covers a broad array of issues and themes:

Demographic data;
Expectations of college;
High school experiences;
Degree goals and career plans;
College finances;
Attitudes, values, life goals; and
Reasons for attending college.

The freshman survey instrument repeats items from previous years to help institutions assess trends in the characteristics, attitudes, values, and aspirations of their entering freshmen. At the same time, the freshman survey is revised annually to reflect the changing needs of institutional participants. Moreover, the survey provides space for participating campuses to add up to 18 items of local interest and importance.

A copy of the 2007 questionnaire is posted here.

New Freshman Survey Features

Online Registration Form

Fast, convenient, and secure

Data and Deliverables

Receive a final data file of your scanned and processed surveys
Receive your campus profile report in MS Excel format

New Questions for 2007

Entering students’ “habits of mind”
Involvement of parents (or legal guardians’) with entering students’ college decision process

CIRP Freshman Survey: Reports & Special Services

Institutional Profile
In December, campuses receive a detailed report profiling freshman responses from their institutions. This report provides an in-depth profile of freshmen men, freshmen women and all freshmen. In addition, the report includes separate profiles of transfer and part-time students. Finally, the report provides comparative normative data for freshmen entering similar types of institutions.

In addition to the campus profile report, and to facilitate further institutional analyses, CIRP survey results are available in the following electronic files:

Standard Data Services
These are included for each institution as a standard part of the CIRP Freshman survey participation.

Data files
Institutions will receive a file containing the individual responses of their respondents in a format designed for statistical analysis or for merging with other institutional data bases (such as transcript files).

Reports on Spreadsheet
Institutions will receive exact copies of the printed campus profiles in EXCEL spreadsheet format. With the results in computer-readable format, reader-friendly charts and graphs can be easily constructed.

Special Data Services
These can be ordered using the CIRP Data Services Order Form, or by contacting HERI’s Associate Director for Operations.

Data Merge
HERI will upon request merge the contents of a CIRP data file with a data file provided by an institution. The merge is effected using Social Security Number or local Institution ID as a key. Merged files can be used for deeper secondary analyses of the CIRP data, retention analysis, etc.

'Peer Group' Report
An institution can order a report in Excel spreadsheet format comparing its results to the aggregated results of any five or more participating institutions. Specialized institutions for which the standard CIRP comparison groups are not sufficient (such as women’s colleges, engineering schools, etc.), or institutions that normally compare themselves to a specific "peer group", can use this report to create their own comparison groups.

Special Breakout Report
Compare up to 190 subsets of students by taking advantage of the group code grids on the CIRP survey instrument. HERI will produce reports in EXCEL spreadsheet format containing the results for respondents that marked each group code.

Other Special Reports
HERI can produce an institutional profile (in EXCEL spreadsheet format) broken out by virtually any variable

Fees

Basic costs include an institutional participation fee of $675. For each completed survey returned, processing fee are as follows:

$2.00 for the first 500 surveys returned,

$1.50 for the next 500(501-1,000), and

$1.00 for those over 1,000.

The upgraded participation fee covers all costs for the data collection, preparation of the campus reports, as well as a new data file (former cost for the data file was $75 plus 10¢per returned survey).

Click here for a calculator to help estimate your costs.

Billing Policy
Upon registration, institutions are sent one bill for the participation fee. After each institution completes their survey administration and returns the data for processing, the per-survey processing fees are calculated and a second bill is sent to each institution for their respective processing charges. Institutions are also billed separately for any Data Service Orders they may place, and these bills are sent out after the completion and fulfillment of each Data Service Order.

Cancellations Policy
There is a $100 cancellation fee if survey materials have already been delivered. Survey materials must be returned to HERI's survey processing center upon cancellation. HERI will keep the full participation fee of $675 if survey materials are not returned after cancellation.

Exceptional Bonus Opportunity

We are offering, as a special package, free access to our new online data analysis and reporting system to institutions that sign up for all three CIRP student surveys (the 2007 CIRP Freshman Survey, the 2008 Your First College Year Survey, and the 2007-2008 College Senior Survey). Normally, the standard fee for the data analysis package is $425. However, by registering for all three surveys at once, you receive this highly user-friendly, convenient and efficient tool for free.

More about the online data analysis package: institutions participating this year will have the ability to perform “real-time” data analysis on their survey results. This will include frequency distributions, cross-tabulations, and means, as appropriate. Institutions will have the ability to utilize this service to conduct simple descriptive analyses in “real-time” because data are added to the data file as soon as the surveys are processed.

CIRP Administration Schedule

1	Mid-January	HERI begins accepting registrations for the CIRP Freshman Survey. Registrations can be submitted using the online registration form or the registration brochure.
2	Mid-March	CIRP Survey Instruments are available. Participating schools may begin administering the survey any date after the survey instruments are available.
3	Late-September	Institutions that wish to receive an early data file must return their surveys to the processing center.
4	Mid-October	Schools that wish to receive their institutional reports on time and be considered for inclusion in the National Norms must return their surveys to the processing center.
5	Early thru Mid December	Institutions submitting their surveys on time will receive their institutional reports.
6	Mid-January	Schools with late surveys must submit remaining surveys in order to receive an updated report. The American Freshman is published and released.
7	March	Schools submitting late surveys for processing will receive their reports no earlier than this date.

Administering the Freshman Survey

Administration Procedures

Institutions planning to participate in the annual survey notify the CIRP project office. Registration consists of a request to participate, plus notification of

(a) the number of forms needed (based on the number of anticipated new freshmen and entering transfer students), and

(b) the date the forms must arrive on campus (a minimum of one week prior to the scheduled administration date).

On most campuses students complete the survey during freshman orientation. Most institutions allow about one hour for survey administration. The best results occur when the survey is administered in a proctored setting.

Registration Information

Campuses can register for the 2007 CIRP Freshman Survey using our online registration form.

The 2007 instrument is now available. Click here for a review copy.

Important Forms and Documentation

Please make sure to review all these documents carefully, so as to ensure a smooth administration of the CIRP Freshman Survey at your institution.

Click Icon to Download		Form/Document Title
		Administration Guidelines
		Information About Using Student Identifiers
		Research (IRB) Approval Form*
		Survey Information Sheet
		Survey Administration Checklist
		UCLA IRB Approval Notice
		Changes To The Current Year Survey Instrument
		Information About Payment Using Purchase Orders
		Survey Transmittal Form
		Administration Report Form Note: In 2007, we will ask you to provide the information previously on the Administration Report Form (ARF) via the web. We will add a link to the online form when it has been developed.

* Form must be filled out, signed, and returned to HERI.

CIRP for Insititutional Researchers

How Colleges Use Freshman Survey Results

Click on the follow headers to see how colleges utilize the results from the CIRP Freshman Survey.

For Planning and Resource Allocation

Information on entering students’ financial needs, aspirations and preparations for college is a valuable planning tool. Contrasting financial needs to institutional resources, for example, or students’ academic preparation to course taking patterns assists with evaluating the effectiveness of existing policies and practices and/or identifying areas for improvement.

To Study Retention

A recent study conducted by HERI found that CIRP data are a powerful predicator of retention. In fact, two-thirds of the variation among institutions’ degree completion rates is attributable to the characteristics of their entering students rather than to differences in the effectiveness of their undergraduate retention programs.*

*Astin, A.W. & Oseguera, L. (2005). Degree Attainment Rates at American Colleges & Universities. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA.

To Provide Baseline Data

One of the most important features of the CIRP Freshman Survey is its potential to serve as a baseline for future research on entering college students (see figure 1). Longitudinal follow-up of these students (e.g., after the first year of college and/or during their senior year) allows institutions to assess student development and change over time and the impact of campus programs, practices and policies on such important dimensions as student involvement, satisfaction, and success.

The CIRP Freshman Survey and the two CIRP follow-up surveys (Your First College Year and the College Senior Survey) are the only national surveys specifically designed to evaluate students during their entire college experience, including the ability to evaluate the impact of the students’ experience and growth during their first year of college.

Longitudinal assessments provide valuable and practical data on students’ cognitive and affective growth during college as well as their post-college plans. The YFCY and the CSS have been used by institutional researchers to study the impact of service-learning, leadership development, and faculty mentoring, and to assess a wide variety of instructional practices. When the data are available, institutions participating in the follow-up surveys will receive linked longitudinal reports for students with CIRP and/or YFCY data.

For Benchmarking and Trends Data

An important advantage of participating in any CIRP survey is that the information you receive is “benchmarked” against similar schools’ results. This provides context and perspective to any reports you create based on these data. In addition, because the surveys are offered yearly, “trends” reports provide valuable data to empirically demonstrate change in your students over time.

HERI maintains extensive databases of all surveys: the CIRP Freshman Survey , Your First College Year, College Senior Survey, and the HERI Faculty Survey. HERI provides a number of special reports and data files in connection with all its surveys. These permit you to view your survey results in different ways and to refine analyses and reports for your campuses’ individual needs.

The following are Frequently Asked Questions that HERI gets regarding the CIRP Freshman Survey. Click on any one of the headers to learn more about each topic. Click here to submit a question that has not yet been addressed.

Determining First-time Full-time Status

HERI uses the following algorithm to determine whether or not a CIRP Freshman Survey respondent should be considered a first-time full-time freshman. Please note that the question numbers referred to below are based on the 2002 Freshman Survey.

RULE #1
IF a respondent indicates that he/she did not graduate from high school in the current year (Question #4) AND, IF the respondent reports having taken courses for credit at his/her freshman institution (Question #11) OR the respondent reports having taken any courses (for credit or not for credit) at any other postsecondary institution (Question #12) *,
THEN the respondent is considered “not first-time” (shown on the institutional profiles as a “transfer”).

RULE #2
IF a respondent fails the tests in Rule #1 (i.e., is considered a first-time respondent) AND indicates he/she is enrolling as a part-time respondent (Question #5),
THEN the respondent is considered “not full-time” (shown on the institutional profiles as “parttime”).

RULE #3
IF a respondent fails the tests in Rule #1 AND Rule #2,
THEN the respondent is considered a “first-time full-time freshman.”

RULE #4
IF the tests in Rule #1 or Rule #2 can not be performed because the respondent did not respond to any or all of Question #s 4,5, 11 and 12,
THEN the respondent is considered to have failed the test. That is, the algorithm assumes that the respondent is a first-time full-time freshman unless he/she passes the tests in Rule #1 or Rule #2. **

* The structure of Rule #1 is designed to account for respondents who took college courses during their high school career by requiring that they took at least one year off between high school graduation and college entry in order to pass the test. It is possible that a student who took college courses in high school and took a year or more off before entering college would incorrectly be considered a “not first-time” student, but HERI deems that to be a very low-probability occurrence.

** Please note that this Rule might cause a person to be considered a first-time full-time freshman when he/she in fact isn’t.

CIRP Stratification Cells

CELL	INSTITUTIONAL TYPE/SELECTIVITY¹	SELECTIVITY SCORE²
Public Universities
01	low	less than 1,085
02	medium	1,085 – 1,139
03	high	1,140 or more

Private Universities
04	medium	less than 1,174
05	high	1,174 – 1,309
06	very high	1,310 or more

Public Four-year Colleges
07	low	less than 985
08	medium	985 – 1,054
09	high	1,055 or more
10	unknown 3

Nonsectarian Four-year Colleges
11	low	less than 1,015
12	medium	1,015 – 1,099
13	high	1,100 – 1,249
14	very	high 1,250 or more
15	unknown

Catholic Four-year Colleges
16	low	less than 1,020
17	medium	1,020 – 1,074
18	high	1,075 or more
19	unknown

Other Religious Four-year Colleges
20	very low	less than 985
21	low	985 – 1,049
22	medium	1,050 – 1,099
23	high	1,100 or more
24	unknown

Two-year Colleges⁴
25-29	public
30-33	private

Historically Black Colleges & Universities⁴
34	public 4-year colleges/universities
35	private 4-year colleges/universities
36	public 2-year colleges
37	private 2-year colleges

1 The broad categories of institutional type are defined as follows:

University an institution that awards a substantial number of doctoral-level degrees in at least five different disciplines. The CIRP “university” is roughly equivalent to the Carnegie “Research” and “Doctoral” designations.

Four-year College an institution that awards master- and/or bachelor-level degrees. Corresponds Equivalent to the Carnegie “Master’s (Comprehensive)” and “Baccalaureate (Liberal Arts)” designations.

Two-year College an institution that awards associate-level degrees.

2 Selectivity is defined as the average SAT Composite Score of the entering class.

3 Institutions with unknown selectivity are grouped with the low-selectivity when computing the National Norms.

4 Two-year colleges and historically Black colleges & universities are not differentiated by selectivity.

Participation History

These two files show each institution's participation history from 1966. Participation for a given year is indicated by an "@" or an "x". Institutions providing data judged to be representative of their first-time full-time freshman class and included in the national norms report are indicated by an "@". Campuses that participate in the survey but whose data were not included are indicated by an "x". Institutions that did not participate in a given year are indicated by a "-".

	Participation History Arranged Alphabetically
	Participation History Arranged By Stratification Cell