Survey Says ... Every year, a new class of undergraduate students joins the Willamette community. What are their interests, ambitions and priorities? What do they want to do at Willamette — and afterward? A survey provides interesting clues. BY TINA OWEN
For more than five decades, new Bearcats have joined thousands of other high school graduates in completing a survey the summer before they begin their new lives as college students. The CIRP (Cooperative Institutional Research Program) Freshman Survey, administered by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, collects information that provides a snapshot of what students are like before they experience college. So far, over 15 million students at over 1,900 institutions have participated in the survey. The wealth of data on student demographics and attitudinal trends provides important
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information for higher education policymakers and college administrators and faculty. At Willamette, the information is used to establish a baseline and understand changing demographic trends. Among other things, the survey examines academic preparedness, expectations of college, interactions with peers, demographic characteristics, and student values and goals. The results provide an intriguing glimpse into how students — and society — have changed over time. Drawing on data from 1972 to 2016, the latest year with reported results, here’s what the survey says about Willamette students.