link: our data
link: about the CIRP

link: about our graphs and tables
link: representativeness of CIRP samples at UNC Chapel Hill

About the CIRP

History of the Freshman Survey

UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute administers this annual survey under the project title of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), with support by the American Council on Education (ACE). This variously named instrument (we call it the "Entering First-Year Student Survey") is widely used; over 650 two and four year schools in the United States administer this survey annually. For more information on the Entering Freshman Survey, its history and development, see the webpage at UCLA.

A UNC-CH Tradition

The Entering Freshman Survey has been in use at UNC-CH since 1967. During Fall Orientation, the survey is administered to incoming students with the assistance of Orientation Leaders, Orientation Counselors and Academic Advisors (changes in fall 2000 led to this survey's being administered separately from advising; a substantial but temporary drop in the return rate was a natural consequence of this change). A complete profile of this data can be obtained in the Student Affairs Library, located in 110 Carr Building.

Data Reports & This Site

The tables generated for this site are derived from basic reports received by the Division of Student Affairs. The full database is provided to IRSS, and use of that data is coordinated through the Office of Institutional Research.

This site displays graphic summaries of data collected here at UNC-CH, including select results from isolated years and longitudinal analyses of the last five years. Also included are summaries of UNC-CH data from 1971 to 2000 (a report generated by CIRP). A complete profile can be obtained in the Division of Student Affairs Library, 110 Carr Building.  For more information on the Entering Freshman Survey, see the Higher Education Research Institute site at UCLA.

 

About Our Graphs & Tables

Thematized Data of 5-Year Period

  • most graphs and tables compare those populations between which lie the greatest difference:
    school: UNC-CH first-year students are compared with students at what CIRP defines as "other highly selective public universities"
    gender: females and males are compared; all data refers to first-year students at UNC-CH
  • questions represented here are 2-option questions unless otherwise noted; as a few of the questions on the CIRP require more than a "yes" or "no" response, graphics depicting such data usually represent a longitudinal look at each of the 3-5 responses (instead of the usual comparisons between gender or among schools)
  • The tables and graphs were constructed on a scale that should be viewable with most monitors and settings. Please contact Winston Crisp if you would like any graphs resized and sent to you for your own use.
  • most statistical percentages have been rounded for ease of interpretation, unless closeness of comparison benefits from showing decimal places.
  • if a question was not asked each of the 5 years under consideration, that year will not be represented in the graph
  • while each link does indeed lead to the intended information, you may need to scroll down to find the desired data.
  • a few of the queries represented here were conceived at UNC-CH for local use: the CIRP allows for 20 questions to be added each year, tailored by the university (most but not all of these are represented on this site). Please e-mail Winston Crisp for a list of those 20 questions for any fall since 1996.

Longitudinal Record of 30-Year Period

  • please contact Winston Crisp for printer-friendly Excel files of this 30-yr longitudinal data
  • this complimentary report was generated by CIRP to commemorate and collect three decades of data at UNC-CH
  • some responses have been consolidated/aggregated; note that these responses are also represented in a disaggregated format (see the bottom of each directory)

Representativeness of Annual CIRP Samples at UNC-CH

Gender / Race


Gender

 

Race



Statistics concerning "Total Class" can be found in tables constructed each fall entitled
"Distribution of Students by Level, Race, and Sex," located at the UNC-CH Statistical Fact Book site