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National Survey of Student Engagement 2002

Method

Population and Sample

The CU-Boulder population for the 2002 NSSE included:

• Freshmen - all first-time freshmen who started at CU-Boulder in summer or fall 2001 and who were still enrolled in spring 2002 (n = 4,901)
• Seniors - all undergraduates enrolled spring 2002 with no more than 24 credit hours under the 120-128 hours required for graduation (n = 3,242)

Students on study abroad and students who requested a privacy block on their records were removed from the population file, which was sent to NSSE. From this file, NSSE staff selected a random sample of 1,000 freshmen and 1,000 seniors to participate in the survey. An additional 500 seniors in the 24 largest majors (e.g., economics, psychology) and small colleges (e.g., journalism) were oversampled to allow us to characterize these majors/colleges separately. For analyses that include seniors, the data have been weighted to compensate for oversampling and for different response rates over academic majors.

How Students Were Contacted

Students were contacted on several occasions during the 2002 NSSE administration. The following table shows the date and form of contact (e.g., letter, email) for each occasion:

Response Rates by Class Level

The following table lists CU-Boulder response rates by class level. The overall response rate for CU-Boulder was 34%, which was somewhat lower than that of the 2000 NSSE administration (40%). Information about why this decrease might have occurred is provided in the introduction to the NSSE results.

Response Rates by Class Level and Demographic Subgroup

The following table contains CU-Boulder response rates by class level and demographic subgroup:

*See note for the following table of response rates, by academic major within college.

It can be seen that, regardless of class level, CU-Boulder females responded to the survey at a higher rate than did males (46% vs. 33% for freshmen; 36% vs. 27% for seniors, respectively). White freshmen responded at higher rates than did racial/ethnic minority freshmen (40% vs. 33%, respectively), whereas the converse occurred for seniors (35% for racial/ethnic minorities; 30% for Whites).

Response Rate, by Academic Major Within College

Response rates over academic majors at CU-Boulder ranged from 18% (Economics) to 50% (Electrical and Computer Engineering); these are listed, for seniors only, in the following table. In the 2000 NSSE administration, response rates ranged from 18% (English) to 85% (Aerospace Engineering).

*Problems with the sample and respondent files, subsequent to the selection of the sample, prevented exact matching back to the population file, resulting in some observations having missing values for some demographic variables.

Scales

The scales used in the 2002 analyses are similar to those used in 2000. However, because some items used in the 2000 NSSE administration differ from those in the 2002 administration, the 2000 and 2002 scales differ somewhat. For example, a question about examinations differed considerably in 2000 and 2002 and was therefore not included in the 2002 cognitive skills scale, even though it was included in the 2000 cognitive skills scale. All scale scores for 2000 participants were recalculated using 2002 methods for the changes over time analyses. Therefore, the results for 2002 will not necessarily match those previously posted for the 2000 analysis. To view a table containing item numbers and names for each item within each of the scales, see NSSE Item Numbers and Variable Names, by Scale.

CU-Boulder NSSE 2002 Main Page

Last revision 02/05/03

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