Findings from the 2009 Administration of the Your First College Year ...

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Your First College Year (YFCY)The Your First College Year (YFCY) Survey assesses students’ curricular and cocurricularexperiences and outcomes during the first-year of college. Developed in acollaborative effort between the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA and The PolicyCenter on the First-year of College, the YFCY is the first national survey specifically designed tomeasure student development in the first college year. As part of the Cooperative InstitutionalResearch Program (CIRP), the YFCY which is taken at the end of the first year of college posttestsitems from CIRP Freshman Survey (TFS), given to students when they start the first-year ofcollege. In keeping with CIRP’s philosophy of looking at the characteristics that students bringwith them to college, the environmental experiences of students in college, and outcomes ofcollege, the YFCY contains measures designed to provide a comprehensive picture of the firstyearof college. Using in the TFS and YFCY in tandem—in a true longitudinal fashion—allowsschools to assess how and why their first-year students change over time.Beyond the first year, the YFCY can be followed in the senior year with the CIRPCollege Senior Survey (CSS). In keeping with what is known about student development,questions on each instrument appropriately reflect different developmental stages. For instance,while we examine student-faculty interaction on the TFS, YFCY, and CSS, the types ofrelationships that students have as high-school seniors, first-year college students, and collegeseniors are very different, and those differences are reflected in the types of items on eachsurvey. These three data sources together provide a rich source of information that can be usedto shed light on the student experience and institutional effectiveness.The 2009 Administration of the YFCY SurveyThe Your First College Year survey (YFCY) was administered for the eighth time in theSpring of 2009. Registration for the 2009 YFCY was available to all colleges and universitiesregardless of participation in the 2008 Freshman Survey (TFS). Therefore, the YFCY was opento institutions that were planning to use the survey as a stand-alone assessment tool as well as tothose that were using it as a follow-up instrument. An invitation to participate was mailed inSeptember 2008 to all regionally-accredited, two-year and four-year institutions across thecountry. These invitations were sent to various campus personnel, including institutional1
esearchers, vice presidents of academic affairs, student affairs officers, presidents, directors offirst-year programs, and deans of students.In the end, 26,758 students at 457 institutions participated in the 2009 YFCY. Table 1provides a breakdown of the students according to institutional type (see Appendix A for acomplete institutional list). Of these 457 institutions, 448 (or 87.6%) also participated in the 2008Freshman Survey.Table 1Student Participation by Institutional TypeInstitutional TypeNumberofStudentsPercentagePublic Universities 4,677 17.5Private Universities 4,216 15.8Public Four-Year Colleges 4,068 15.2Nonsectarian Four-Year Colleges 6,121 22.9Catholic Four-Year Colleges 2,216 8.3Other Religious Four-Year Colleges 5,460 20.4Total 26,758 100.0A Snapshot of the First-Year ExperienceThis report begins with an overview of responses from the 26,758 first-time, full-timefreshmen who responded to the YFCY. Table 2 offers a demographic overview of therespondents. Over half of this year’s respondents were women (66.1%), and a majority (77.9%)of students identifying as White. The findings within this report are organized thematically,beginning with students’ academic and social adjustment to college. This section is followed bya discussion of students’ academic experiences, including habits of mind for academic success,issues of academic climate, academic engagement, and interaction with faculty and staff. Selfreportedfreshman gains, financial concerns, and experiences with diversity precede analyses ofcivic engagement, peer relationships, and plans to return to college for the sophomore year.Finally, the report concludes with a longitudinal analysis of student changes and experiencesover time, including how college expectations meet freshman year realities.2
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Appendix C2009 Longitudinal Aggrega
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YOUR FIRST COLLEGE YEAR 2009 SURVEY
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13. To what extent have you experie
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