Beginning Friday, all enrolled undergraduate Dartmouth students will be asked to fill out the Enrolled Student Survey, a 25-minute online questionnaire to be conducted at 31 colleges and universities. Questions cover topics ranging from how often students talk to their parents or guardians to their level of alcohol consumption.
The survey consists of nine parts. Eight sections are the same for all 31 colleges and one is specific to Dartmouth. Questions in the Dartmouth-specific portion include asking students to rate how supportive the campus climate is to minorities, whether or not the respondents have felt discriminated against, as well as how satisfied they are with their undergraduate experience as a whole.
The Office of Institutional Research will send e-mail messages to invite undergraduate students to take the survey, and may ask leaders of student organizations to encourage their members to participate. When this survey was conducted four years ago, fewer than 50 percent of students participated. The OIR hopes for a higher response this time.
"We do not offer materialistic prizes to fill out the survey," OIR Director Heather Kim said. "Instead we try to remind students of the importance of the survey. The more students speak out, the more chance of improvement."
The survey allows participating colleges the opportunity to compare the quality of their undergraduate education with that of other schools.
According to Kim, the last time the survey was conducted, Dartmouth performed well compared to its peers. It ranked very high on student satisfaction with the sense of community, availability of professors and the size of classes.
The survey also found that Dartmouth students interacted more frequently with faculty and participate in intellectual discussion outside of class more often than their peers at the other participating colleges.
According to Kim and Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson, the purpose of the survey is not just to receive positive feedback from the students, but also to identify areas upon which Dartmouth can improve.
"Any area that emerges where we get bad feedback we'd ask further questions and find out what's going on," Nelson said.
The survey is conducted through the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, an association of 31 highly selective private colleges and universities, including all eight Ivy League schools. The association collects data on admission, financial aid and costs for comparison.
