College Surveys
The Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research & Assessment coordinates the College's participation in institutional survey research. Many of our surveys are conducted with the coordination of consortia (e.g. COFHE) on behalf of all member institutions. Consortia surveys allow us to learn a lot about the population being surveyed, and also to compare our findings with those at our peer institutions1.
Vendor or consortium-coordinated survey instruments often give us the option of adding a few questions of our own to the end of the survey. The final set of questions is determined by the Institutional Effectiveness, Research & Assessment Advisory Group, based on College needs and priorities. If you have suggestions for areas to include in our "local" questions for an upcoming survey, please email the IR office.
If you are in need of information from one of our regular surveys, please contact the IR office. Information that is on hand will be shared with requestors as appropriate2.
Please note that all the links listed below are restricted to members of the Swarthmore community only. The files are in .pdf format, which requires Adobe Reader.
| Name | Brief Description | Recent Administration |
|---|---|---|
| Alumni | Survey of Alumni: at different periods out | Classes of 1979, 84, 89, and 94 surveyed in spring 2000. Class of 1999 surveyed in 2003 (AICUP). Classes of 1984, 89, 94, and 2000 surveyed in spring 2005. Classes of 1989, 1998, and 2004 surveyed in spring 2009. Classes of 1994, 1998, 2002, 2008, and 2012 surveyed in spring 2013. Classes of 1969, 1979, 1989, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2012, and 2016 surveyed in spring 2017. All classes surveyed in fall 2020. |
| ASQ | Survey of All Admitted Students, conducted in summer. | Annually, since 1992. |
| CIRP | Survey of First Year Students just before and during the 1st week of classes. | Annually, from 1971 - 2015. Biennially, on odd years, beginning with summer 2011, alternating with the Survey of New Students. |
| CHAS | The Consortium on High Achievement and Success (CHAS) Campus Climate Survey Assesses the climate for diversity | 50% sample of first-years; all of sophomores, juniors, and seniors. November 2009 |
| ESS | Enrolled Student Survey. Similar to CSEQ, asks about specific behaviors in addition to evaluations. | All enrolled students: Spring 2003; Spring 2007; Spring 2011; Spring 2013; Spring 2015. |
| NCHA | National Collegiate Health Assessment: Asks about health and wellness. | Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors: Fall 2008 and Fall 2013. |
| NSSE | National Survey on Student Engagement. Asks about behaviors reflecting student engagement in the learning process. | First-year students and seniors: Spring 2005; Spring 2008 |
| Parents Survey | Survey of Parents of Enrolled Students | Parents of first-year students, sophomores, and seniors in 1997. Parents of all current students: Winter 2002; Winter 2007; Winter 2012; tentatively, Winter 2016 |
| Senior | Biennial Survey of Graduating Seniors, conducted in their final spring semester. | Classes of 1994, 96, 98, 00, 02, 04... |
Populations Surveyed: This table presents, by entering class, populations that have been surveyed, and which instruments have been used.
Faculty and Staff Surveys: Describes survey research with faculty or staff in the last few years.
1Information about other institutions collected through consortia such as COFHE or HEDS are subject to strict confidentiality agreements. They may be used internally for planning purposes only, and so their distribution is carefully restricted.
2Information that requires substantial additional programming or analyses may require the approval of the Institutional Effectiveness, Research & Assessment Advisory Group.
