Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE)

• Vice Provost for Education

• All entering first-year students

• All entering first-year students

Administration Plan

• Triennial distribution beginning fall 2009, to coincide with the following spring administration of the NSSE

• The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE, pronounced “bessie”) measures entering first-year students’ pre-college academic and co-curricular experiences, as well as their interest in and expectations for participating in educationally purposeful activities during college. This instrument is designed as a companion to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).  In order to better understand the influence of college on student performance, it is important to collect information which allows us to measure and control for the educational engagement patterns students establish prior to enrolling at Carnegie Mellon.  This instrument also seeks to provide deeper understanding of the value students place on various aspects of student engagement common to the first year of college.

Source: http://nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm

Relationship to Other Instruments

• Our administration of the NSSE will allow for comparisons between high school and college engagement in academic activities. Administration of the FSSE (Faculty Survey of Student Engagement) will allow for comparisons between students’ and faculty perceptions of classroom activities. 

• The BCSSE administration distributes a full report of Carnegie Mellon’s responses which may be compared to national results. Participating institutions additionally have the option to select up to five grouping variables.  Carnegie Mellon will obtain results by class, college (or department within CFA), race, citizenship status, and cumulative QPA.

• The survey instrument and the aggregate Carnegie Mellon report will be available to the entire Carnegie Mellon Community through an authenticated link on the IR&A website.