Developed through a collaboration between HERI and the Policy Center on the First Year of College at Brevard College, YFCY enables institutions to identify features of the first year that encourage student learning, involvement, satisfaction, retention and success, thereby enhancing first-year programs and retention strategies at campuses across the country.
About the Your First College Year Survey
- Evaluate student adjustment to college
YFCY includes several measures of adjustment during the first year of college, such as students' level of satisfaction with various aspects of campus life, institutional facilities, and student services; personal challenges that they face during their transition from high school to college; and feelings of personal success at the end of the first year.
- Assess students' academic experiences and achievement
The survey collects information on a number of academic experiences of first-year students, including classroom activities, academic engagement and disengagement, and interaction with faculty. Further, YFCY asks students to rate their overall academic capabilities as well as skills in specific intellectual areas and to report their first-year GPA.
- Collect information about extracurricular experiences
YFCY collects information on all aspects of student life including social commitments, study habits, volunteer and service work, student employment, residential life experiences, involvement in campus organizations, religious practices, and family obligations. Survey items provide information on both the quantity and quality of these experiences.
- Study specific first-year programs
Several questions on YFCY assess students' experiences with various campus programs such as orientation, honors courses, first-year seminars, remedial coursework, service learning opportunities, academic advising, and learning communities as well as interaction with campus advisors, counselors, and other support personnel.
- Examine student change
As a follow-up instrument, YFCY is designed to help institutions assess how their students have changed since entering college. When combined with CIRP Freshman Survey data, the YFCY serves as a longitudinal measure of students' cognitive and affective growth during the first year.
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YFCY Infographic
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Customizable YFCY Infographic
Our YFCY infographic is based on data from our YFCY survey. On the right side is the customizable version of the infographic. It can be customized to your institution's data. For more information on how to use our customizable infographic, click here
Schools participating in the YFCY receive an institutional profile, which includes your institutional results broken out by sex, full and part-time status, comparisons with other similar institutions, significance testing, effect sizes, CIRP Constructs and Theme reports, and a data file of your student responses. Schools using the YFCY as a post-test to the CIRP Freshman Survey will also receive a Longitudinal Profile, which can be used to assess growth and change over the first year of college.
See the online Your First College Year Survey in action
ADMINISTERING THE SURVEY
Administered anytime between March 1, 2013 and June 14, 2013.
The YFCY is conducted from March-June to facilitate surveying freshmen at the end of their first college year, and is offered as both a paper and a web survey. Our web portal (www.cirpsurveys.org) provides greater flexibility and ease of use when managing your survey administration.Traditionally a paper survey, the Your First College Year survey is also available as a web survey. The CIRP Web Portal (www.cirpsurveys.org) provides greater flexibility and ease of use when managing your survey administration
Web Survey Features
- HERI can send customizable email notifications (including reminders) to your students
- Customizable "Welcome" and "Thank you" Screens
- Upload your own additional questions
The Survey Instrument
Important Forms and Documentation
Administration Guidelines Necessary information for schools concerning the administration of the Your First College Year Survey- Survey Administration Checklist A one-page summary of administration responsibilities
- Survey Information Sheet Copy of the informed consent given to survey respondents
- UCLA IRB Approval Notice Copy of the current UCLA IRB approval
- Student Identifiers Information about using student identifiers
- Paying with Purchase Orders Important information about paying via Purchase Order
- Survey Shipping Form Use this form when you are sending forms back to the processing center
- HERI's Email Distribution Service Important information about how to prevent survey invitation and reminders from HERI being filtered out as bulk or junk mail.
Fees / Withdrawal Policy
| STANDARD COSTS |
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| Participation Fee | $825 | |
Processing Fee |
$3.25 per survey processed |
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| OPTIONAL COSTS |
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Customized Welcome and Thank You Pages |
FREE |
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Integrated additional questions |
$350 |
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Email distribution to students |
$375 |
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On-line Data Analysis |
$150 |
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Billing Policy
Upon registration, institutions are sent one bill for the participation fee. After each
institution completes their survey administration and returns the data for processing, the per-survey
processing fees are calculated and a second bill is sent to each institution for their respective
processing charges. Institutions are also billed separately for any Data Service Orders they may place,
and these bills are sent out after the completion and fulfillment of each Data Service Order.
Withdrawal Policy
You may cancel without penalty up to the time that the unique web log-in codes have been sent
to your institution, or distributed per your institution's direction.
If the web log-in codes have already been sent to your institution or distributed via HERI's
email distribution service to your intended survey participants, you will be charged a withdrawal
fee of $100. In addition, if HERI has provided any customized services at your request (e.g.,
incorporated on-line additional questions, etc), you will also be responsible for the full cost
of these services.