Fall 2002 Freshman Survey Office of Institutional Effectiveness Palm Beach Community College March 2003 Palm Beach Community College Fall 2002 Freshman Survey President Dennis P. Gallon, Ph.D. District Board of Trustees William B. Howden, Chairperson David Talley, Vice Chairperson Susan K. Baumel, Esq. James L. Watt, Esq. Carolyn L. Williams Minal Weaver, Student Trustee Vice President of Academic Affairs Sharon A. Sass, Ph.D. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness Seymour Samuels, Ed.D., Director Helen Shub, Senior Research Analyst Jeffrey M. Nowak, Research Analyst Sandra Livingston, Administrative Assistant Dean of Enrollment Management Scott MacLachlan Prepared by: Jeffrey M. Nowak Palm Beach Community College Office of Institutional Effectiveness 4200 Congress Avenue Lake Worth, Florida 33461 Table of Contents Introduction........................................................................................................................................................................1 Methodology.......................................................................................................................................................................2 Discussion...........................................................................................................................................................................3 Results .................................................................................................................................................................................6 Student intentions......................................................................................................................................................6 Satisfaction with PBCC services ..............................................................................................................................8 Overall impression .................................................................................................................................................. 14 Likelihood to recommend PBCC........................................................................................................................... 15 Advertising awareness ........................................................................................................................................... 16 Influences.................................................................................................................................................................. 17 Application to other institutions ......................................................................................................................... 18 Media awareness...................................................................................................................................................... 22 Internet usage........................................................................................................................................................... 26 Additional commentary ......................................................................................................................................... 27 Demographics and Classification ............................................................................................................................... 28 Appendix ‘A’: Open-ended Responses....................................................................................................................... 32 Appendix ‘B’: Tabular Data .......................................................................................................................................... 36 Appendix ‘C’: Invitations .............................................................................................................................................. 55 Appendix ‘D’: Survey Instrument................................................................................................................................ 58 ½i¾ Introduction During the Fall 2002 term, Palm Beach Community College enrolled more than 29,000 students, more than 20,000 of whom are credit and/or college preparatory students. Among these students were a number of first-time-in-college, or FTIC, students—new students who are experiencing college-level classes for the first time. During any given Fall term, PBCC may register up to 3,000 of these students, who have no first-hand standard of comparison to judge PBCC among other colleges. In other words, PBCC is providing these students with their first impression of college life. The Freshman Survey was designed to gain a greater understanding of the habits, opinions and first impressions of these first-time-in-college students. A pilot study was conducted among selected classes during the Fall 2001 term, and from that, the methodology was developed. The final version of the survey was administered for the first time after mid-term of the Fall 2002 term. This report presents the results of Palm Beach Community College’s Fall 2002 Freshman Survey. The scope of the study involved many areas, including, but not limited to, the following: • Area of study • Satisfaction with PBCC services • Advertising awareness • Factors influencing decision • Interest in other colleges • Media usage • Internet usage ½1¾ Methodology Subjects The sample for this study was all Fall 2002 first-time-in-college Palm Beach Community College students who declared themselves to be seeking a degree or vocational certificate. A total of 2,481 students were identified for contact. Materials The questionnaire for this study was developed cooperatively by the PBCC Office of Institutional Effectiveness and the Dean of Enrollment Management, with some input from other areas, including College Relations and Marketing and the College’s grant development manager. Both a hard copy and an online version were created. The online version was developed using Perseus Survey Solutions software and deployed to PBCC’s web servers. The hard copy version of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix ‘D’ on page 58. Procedure Subjects were split into two categories – those who supplied the College with email addresses and those who did not. Those with email addresses were targeted to take the online version, while those with no email address on record were designated to receive a hard copy to be returned in a business-reply envelope. A total of 1,164 subjects with email addresses were identified. The Dean of Enrollment Management sent these students an email on October 28-29, 2002, inviting them to take the survey at a supplied Internet address. The hard copy version was mailed to the remaining 1,317 subjects on October 24, 2002. Approximately 30 hard copies were returned as undeliverable. The Dean reported that 349 emails also were eventually returned as undeliverable. Of these, 278 were sent a hard copy follow-up in early November. Due to delays in receiving email non-delivery notices, the remaining sample did not receive a hard-copy. After adjusting for the change in delivery method for some subjects due to invalid email addresses, a final total of 815 subjects received emails, while 1,565 received hard copies. Therefore, the final sample is 2,380. In total, 73 students completed the survey online, while 174 returned hard copies, for a total of 247 completed questionnaires and an overall response rate of 10.4%. Since those receiving a hard copy were invited to take the survey online if they desired, an accurate response rate by delivery method cannot be determined. However, given the number of returns and number of contacts by method, it can be determined that the online response rate can be no greater than 9.0%, while the hard copy response rate is no less than 11.1%. The data from both the online and hard-copy versions were imported into SPSS for the purpose of tabulation and analysis. Responses were analyzed by the campus at which the respondent plans to take most of his or her classes. Due to the low response from the Belle Glade campus, an analysis of that campus was not included in the Results section of this report, but it is included in the tabular data, which can be found in Appendix ‘A’ on page 32. A copy of the invitation email and letter can be found in Appendix ‘C’ on page 55. ½2¾ Discussion One of the main purposes of this report is to gauge the opinions and habits of those students for whom PBCC is providing their first college experience. As that is the case, it must also be understood that these students have no standard of comparison. Furthermore, since these are first-time-in-college, or FTIC, students who had been at the college for less than three months, it should be assumed that their feelings could change over time, as they get closer to their graduation from PBCC. While formulating a methodology whereby students have no standard of comparison may seem faulty on the surface, one could argue that it is easier to gauge students’ satisfaction with the College and its services, because students’ experiences at other institutions will not interfere with their experiences at PBCC. In some respects, it may yield a more accurate measure of satisfaction and effectiveness. In other words, someone native to PBCC may be satisfied with the appearance of the campus, and therefore, rate it highly. On the other hand, a student for whom PBCC is not their first college, may look at the appearance and feel that it is nice, but perhaps not as nice as that of another college. Student satisfaction