National survey tracks growth of first-year students

How was your student’s first year of college?

If his or her experience was typical of the thousands of first-year students in a national survey, this first year was satisfying and your student grew in both knowledge and skills for research, problem solving and teamwork.

The study, conducted by a program of the Higher Education Research Institution (HERI) at UCLA, is designed to measure student development in the first year of college. It surveyed 31,337 first-year students at 408 four-year institutions in the spring of 2010. UC Davis was not among the survey sites.

Most students — 92 percent — reported growth in general knowledge and in a particular field of discipline. Three in four reported a stronger ability to think critically and problem solve. And almost two-thirds reported improvement in their ability to conduct research and work as part of a team.

Satisfaction and adjustments

Nearly 80 percent of students said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their overall first-year experience and expressed satisfaction with the overall quality of instruction and class size. About that same percentage found it “somewhat easy” or “very easy” to understand their professor’s expectations.

A lesser percentage (65 percent) found it somewhat or very easy to adjust to the overall academic demands of college, and 52 percent said they found it somewhat or very easy to manage their time effectively.

Study time and friends

Most students (79 percent) reported spending 11 hours or more a week attending class; however only 37 percent reported spending that amount of time or more doing homework.

Some of that time might have been spent making new friends; 79 percent of students surveyed said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their interactions with fellow students, and 72 percent said they were satisfied with the availability of campus social activities.

Most students who had high expectations of college (85 percent) were actually satisfied at the end of their freshman year, but even the 60 percent who had thought there was “no chance” of being satisfied with college were also pleased.

In other survey findings:

• 45 percent of students reported that they took a course directed at helping them with their adjustment to college life, and the same percentage took a first-year seminar designed to help them adjust to college-level academics;
• one in five respondents indicated that they enrolled in an honors or advanced course; and
• almost all students reported frequently or occasionally getting together outside of class to discuss course content or study with other students.

The Institute, which has conducted the survey every year since 2000, is based at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.

To read the full research brief : PDF