Survey Instrument

Click here for a copy of the 2007 version of the YFCY survey instrument. 

“Your First College Year” (YFCY) was developed as a comprehensive assessment tool for the first-year experience.  Building upon the foundation of over three decades of research provided by the Cooperative Institution Research Program’s (CIRP) Freshman Survey and more than 20 years of studying the first-year experience at the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, YFCY was designed by principals at both the Higher Education Research Institute and the Policy Center on the First Year of College.  Because YFCY was developed as a follow-up survey to the annual CIRP Freshman Survey, YFCY data are particularly valuable when linked to students' responses to the CIRP Freshman Survey.  However, YFCY may be administered as a stand-alone instrument to students who did not complete the CIRP. The data collected utilizing YFCY provide institutions with important information to guide programs and policy changes to improve the first year of college.

In order to capture the experiences of first-year students at the broadest possible range of institutions, YFCY was developed in consultation with faculty, administrators, and students at two- and four-year campuses around the country.  YFCY is designed to measure student change since time of matriculation. About one-third of the items on the instrument directly post-test questions on the CIRP Freshman Survey, thus allowing institutions to examine how aspects of student behavior, beliefs, and identity change during the first year of college. The range of items on the survey ensures that institutions can assess learning outcomes, attitudes, and behaviors across numerous cognitive and affective measures.

The YFCY instrument covers a variety of areas including:
	Academic achievement and engagement
	Learning strategies and pedagogical practices
	Residential and employment experiences
	Interactions with family, peers, faculty, and staff
	Patterns of behavior
	Student values and goals
	Satisfaction, self-confidence and feelings of personal success
	College adjustment issues
The YFCY survey is available as a paper form or as an on-line instrument. Both the paper and on-line versions of YFCY include space for your campus to ask up to 20 optional questions of local relevance and allow institutions to indicate up to 190 various student subgroups on the survey. To register your campus for the 2007 YFCY, click here.