The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) is administered nationally by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and provides information about incoming college students’ background characteristics, high school experiences, attitudes, behaviors, and expectations for college. This is the second year WFU participated in the BCSSE, joining 105 other institutions in 2022.
The BCSSE was administered on paper by the Office of Institutional Research in August 2022 to all of the incoming first-year students (N = 1,370). A total of 902 students submitted responses, representing a 65% response rate (estimated margin of error \(\pm\) 3.4%). However, only 877 of these students could be verified using internal WFU data and are presented in the tables and charts below. The respondents were not representative of the class when comparing distributions across gender and race/ethnicity status. White female respondents were the most overrepresented (35% of the population versus 39% of respondents), while White male respondents were the most underrepresented (27% of the population versus 24% of the respondents). To address some concerns around nonresponse bias, all analyses were performed with post-stratification weights by race and gender.
First-year students at Wake placed high emphasis on several BCSSE scales including Importance of Supportive Campus Environment, Expected Discussions with Diverse Others, and Academic Preparation while comparing favorably to all institutions on most other scales. Nearly all respondents anticipated graduating from Wake and roughly two out of three indicated Wake being their first choice. Half reported that they know their intended major, with Underrepresented Minority students being more certain than White students.
For each item below, a statistical test for the difference between groups (e.g. gender) is performed. If the difference between groups is found to be statistically significant, this analysis reports non-negligible effect sizes in order to allow one to compare the magnitude of the difference. Each item that is found to have a difference between groups and indicates at least a small effect size is highlighted in the following colors. This report provides a summary of each section (e.g. BCSSE Scales Comparison) followed by the comparison within WFU first-year students by gender, race/ethnicity, first-generation status, and survey year. Please note all the preceding variables were identified for each participant using internal WFU data and each participant agreed to this process. (See here for more on survey analysis methodology.)
| Size | Criteria |
|---|---|
| Large Effect | >= 0.80 |
| Medium Effect | >= 0.50 |
| Small Effect | >= 0.20 |
Due to the large number of individual questions asked and the complexity of assessing specific areas of potential concern, BCSSE developed nine scale scores which group information gathered from numerous items into a more reliable, cumulative measure. BCSSE scale scores range from 0 to 60 and the mean scale score was then calculated for each student.
Wake Forest first-year students scored highest on Supportive Campus Environment (47.3), Discussions with Diverse Others (47.1), and Academic Preparation (44.1). In the following scales, WFU scored above the average of all participating institutions with at least a small effect:
First-year students at WFU in 2022 scored differently by gender with a small effect in the following scales:
White students and Underrepresented Minority (URM) students scored equally on almost all scales except for one (small effect size):
First-generation students and non-first-generation students scored equally on almost all scales, except for three (small effect size):
First-year students in 2020 differed from first-year students in 2022 by only one scale (small effect size):
Although less reliable than scales, individual questions may provide a closer look at specific issues and notable differences across groups. BCSSE consists of two types of items. First, the Respondent Profile presented students with items about their backgrounds and goals. Then, the Frequency Comparison questions asked the regularity with which students engaged in certain activities in high school and how much time they expect to engage in those same activities during their first year at WFU.
Among all WFU respondents,
Some overall highlights from these individual items include:
First-year students differed in response to several items by gender. For example, males indicated expecting to spend more hours per week participating in co-curricular activities than females (13.6 vs 11.6). In contrast, a higher proportion of females indicated expecting to often seek help with coursework from learning support services during the current school year (63% vs 52%).
White and URM first-year students differed in response to a few items. For example, White first-year students indicated expecting to spend more hours per week relaxing and socializing than URM first-year students (15.3 vs 13.6).
First-year students differed in response to several items by first-generation status. For example, first-generation students indicated expecting to spend almost twice as many hours per week working for pay than non-first-generation students (6.2 vs 3.5). In contrast, a higher proportion of non-first-generation students indicated expecting to often have discussions with people with religious beliefs other than their own during the current school year (89% vs 78%).
First-year students in 2020 and first-year students in 2022 differed in response to several items. For example, first-year students in 2022 on average took several more Advanced Placement classes in high school than first-year students in 2020 (9.6 vs 5.7). On the other hand, first-year students in 2022 anticipated spending more hours per week relaxing in college than first-year students in 2020 (14.7 vs 12.1).
The tables and charts below have built-in functionalities. See here to learn more about how to interact with these visuals.