Jean Chen
Carmen Williams
Bobby Reis
Office of Institutional Research
November 30, 2002
The Your First College Year (YFCY) Survey
is part of a national study for use at the end of the first
college year as a follow-up survey to the annual Cooperative
Institutional Research Program (CIRP)
Freshman Survey that is administered at the beginning of
their first year. YFCY includes 21 measures
of student satisfaction with curricular and co-curricular
experiences, campus facilities, and student
services. YFCY also asks students to rate how successful
they feel in adjusting to several aspects of
the first college year. It yields data that can be used to
improve the effectiveness of academic and
co-curricular programs, retention rates, and learning outcomes.
At the University of North Dakota, 1,106 first-year (576
male and 530 female) students received the
2002 YFCY Survey by mail in April 2002 and 223 (77 male,
145 female, and 1 unknown) completed
and returned the survey. An overall net response rate of
21 percent was attained.
Every nine out of ten respondents believed they were sufficiently
prepared academically (89%) or
socially (91%) for college. Nineteen percent of respondents
took a college course or a seminar
specifically designed to help first-year students adjust
to college.
Thirteen percent never interacted with their instructors
during office hours and 15 percent never
interacted with their academic advisors. UND respondents
were less likely to receive tutoring, seek
personal counseling, or work with a professor on a research
project. They also indicated a lower selfrating
in their academic skills, knowledge, and ability compared
with their national counterparts.
Respondents felt satisfied or very satisfied with the amount
of contact they had with the faculty (60%),
with the relevance of coursework to future career plans (62%),
and with the overall quality of
instruction (74%). Since entering UND, 41 percent had changed
their career plans, 47 percent had
declared their major, and 37 percent indicated to pursue
a different major.
More than eighty percent reported feeling completely successful
or fairly successful at understanding
what their professors expected of them academically. More
than ninety percent felt they have
adjusted to the academic demands of college and have developed
close friendships with other
students. Eighty-two percent were satisfied with their overall
first year college experience at UND.
Students who came to UND were less receptive to diversity
issues and were less likely to socialize
with someone of another racial/ethnic group or have knowledge
of people from different races or
cultures than their national counterparts. The first year
at UND appears to have increased their
desire to develop a meaningful philosophy of life and to
help promote racial understanding.
There is an increase in the number of students who reported
feeling depressed or overwhelmed at
some point during the past year. Sixty-five percent of male
and 49 percent of female respondents had
some concern about their ability to finance their college
education. With comparisons with the CIRP
data, a greater percentage of UND respondents drunk and smoked
than the national norm.
Nearly 83 percent of respondents would encourage others to
attend UND. Eighty-eight percent
thought they would be returning to UND while 11 percent indicated
that they might be attending
another institution for the 2002 Fall Semester. Seventeen
percent indicated they planned to transfer
elsewhere before graduating from UND.
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