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National Survey of Student Engagement: CU-Boulder 2000

AAU Institutions

A total of 15 AAU public institutions, including CU-Boulder, participated in the spring 2000 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). All 15 institutions agreed to share NSSE data with one another, under the condition that data for individual schools not be identified by institution name. In addition to the NSSE survey items, 7 schools administered a common set of 20 additional items.

How AAU institutions differ

The AAU institutions differ in a number of ways that have implications for survey findings. The demographics plot shows the distribution among the AAU institutions on a number of demographic items including admission and graduation statistics; total, minority and resident-student enrollments; and various survey demographics (e.g., age and gender of respondents, percent working for pay).

The institutions vary considerably in:

• entering class size
• percent minority and nonresident enrollment
• six-year graduation rates
• students' entering test scores

Among institutions, survey respondents differ in:

• the percent of seniors who are of traditional college age (i.e., less than 24 years of age)
• the percent of seniors indicating full-time status
• the amount of time seniors spend caring for dependents

Not unexpectedly, the higher the rate of nontraditional seniors, the lower the full-time enrollment and the more hours seniors spend caring for dependents.

In interpreting institutional differences in NSSE responses, it is important to keep in mind that at least some of the differences in NSSE scores among institutions may be due to variation in student population rather than, or in addition to, specific actions the institution takes to improve quality.

NSSE 2000 Table of Contents

Last revision 04/26/02

cb - l:\ir\survey\nsse\00\report\AAU_summary text2.doc, last updated 5/08/01