Each year, hundreds of two-year colleges, four-year colleges and universities administer the CIRP Freshman Survey (TFS) to hundreds of thousands of entering students during orientation or registration.
The survey covers a wide range of student characteristics: parental income and education, ethnicity, and other demographic items; financial aid; secondary school achievement and activities; educational and career plans; and values, attitudes, beliefs, and self-concept.
Published annually in "The American Freshman", the results from these surveys continue to provide a comprehensive portrait of the changing character of entering students and American society at large.
"The survey is a widely cited source of data on college demographics and attitudinal trends"
— The Chronicle of Higher EducationAbout the CIRP Freshman Survey
The CIRP Freshman Survey is designed for administration to incoming first-year students before they start classes at your institution. The instrument collects extensive information that allows for a snapshot of what your incoming students are like before they experience college. Key sections of the survey examine:
- Established behaviors in high school;
- Academic preparedness;
- Admissions decisions;
- Expectations of college;
- Interactions with peers and faculty;
- Student values and goals and
- Student demographic characteristics; and
- Concerns about financing college.
Many of the items on the CIRP Freshman Survey are pre-test questions that are then post-tested on CIRP follow-up surveys - Your First College Year (YFCY), Diverse Learning Environments (DLE), College Senior Survey (CSS) - providing for longitudinal examination of cognitive and affective growth during college. All CIRP surveys allow you to add questions of your own on the instrument.
Schools participating in the CIRP Freshman Survey receive an institutional profile, which includes your institutional results broken out by sex, full and part-time status, comparisons with other similar institutions, significance testing, effect sizes, CIRP Constructs and Theme reports, a data file of your student responses, a PowerPoint presentation, a Graduation Rate Calculator; and a monograph summarizing the national results.
Administering the Survey
Administered anytime between March 15 - October 8, 2013.
The CIRP Freshman Survey is conducted before students start their college careers, and is available as early as March and as late as October. Most campuses conduct the survey during orientation and allow about one hour for survey administration. The best results occur when the survey is administered in a proctored setting.
Traditionally a paper survey, the CIRP Freshman survey is also available as a web survey. The CIRP Web Portal at www.cirpsurveys.org provides greater flexibility and ease of use when managing your survey administration.
- The Paper Survey
- is best when administered in a large-group setting during orientation, but is also used in classrooms, residence halls, or small groups. It can also be administered through the mail. You set the delivery date and the number of questionnaires needed. Your paper survey data is available just 3 weeks after your paper questionnaires arrive for scanning.
- The Web Survey
- can be administered either with your campus managing the email notification process, or for ease of use, you can elect to have HERI manage the email notifications to students. A web survey can be more convenient for both you and your students. Our web portal allows you maximum flexibility in setting email notification and reminder dates, customized, "welcome" and "thank you" pages, customized email notifications, and input of additional questions. Throughout the administration, you can obtain updates on your response rate. Your survey data is available the day after a student completes the questionnaire.
- The Paper & Web
Survey Combination - enables your institution to enhance its response rate by using both methodologies for maximum exposure. Students may complete either version.
Web Survey Features
- HERI can send customizable email notifications (including reminders) to your students
- Customizable "Welcome" and "Thank you" Screens
- Upload your own additional questions
The Survey Instrument
Important Forms and Documentation
Administration Guidelines Necessary information for schools concerning the administration of the CIRP Freshman Survey- Timeline of Activities This timeline summarizes general activities in a survey cycle
- Survey Administration Checklist A one-page summary of administration responsibilities
- Survey Information Sheet Copy of the informed consent given to survey respondents
- UCLA IRB Approval Notice Copy of the current UCLA IRB approval
- Student Identifiers Information about using student identifiers
- Paying with Purchase Orders Important information about paying via Purchase Order
- Survey Shipping Form Use this form when you are sending forms back to the processing center
- HERI's Email Distribution Service Important information about how to prevent survey invitation and reminders from HERI being filtered out as bulk or junk mail.
- Information for Campuses using Additional Questions
Important information for campuses adding their own questions to the instrument
- Using Group Codes
What group codes are and how you can use them in your administration
- Invitation and Reminder Templates
Sample text for inviting your students to participate
- Encouraging Participation in CIRP Surveys
Suggestions for increasing response rates
- Data and Reporting
Fees / Withdrawal Policy
| STANDARD COSTS | |
|---|---|
| Participation Fee | $825 |
| Processing Fee | $3.25 per survey processed |
| OPTIONAL COSTS | |
| Customized Welcome and Thank You Pages | FREE |
| Integrated additional questions | $350 |
| Email distribution to students | $375 |
| On-line Data Analysis | $150 |
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.
Withdrawal Policy
You may cancel without penalty up to the time that the unique web log-in codes have been sent to your institution, or distributed per your institution's direction. If the web log-in codes have already been sent to your institution or distributed via HERI's email distribution service to your intended survey participants, you will be charged a withdrawal fee of $100. In addition, if HERI has provided any customized services at your request (e.g., incorporated on-line additional questions, etc), you will also be responsible for the full cost of these services.