Image credit: Andrew Brodhead

A major spring effort kicked off this week—the annual Frosh and First-Year Transfer Survey, conducted by the office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE). Survey questions explore a range of topics, including students’ academic experiences, social experiences, sense of community, advising, choosing courses and majors, and plans for one’s remaining years at Stanford.

Frosh and first-year transfers each received a personal survey link in a May 17 email from Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Sarah Church. Students who complete the survey will be automatically entered in a drawing for one of 50 gift cards, each worth $50.

“Understanding the undergraduate experience at Stanford, both within and beyond the classroom, is critical,” Church said. “Survey results annually help VPUE, as well as faculty and staff leaders across the university, make informed decisions about our first-year program offerings and the ways in which we can better support our undergraduates during their first year at Stanford and throughout their educational journey.”

Survey results also help shape the experiences of current students. For example, prior survey respondents reported that several majors required accelerated course sequences starting in the first year. This created barriers for students who arrived without AP credit or advanced study in key subjects and left others with little time for exploration. In turn, the university has since worked on improving access to majors with several efforts underway, including the implementation of a unit cap that aims to ensure greater accessibility so students coming into Stanford without advanced preparation can complete their choice of major in four years.

Individual student responses are confidential and handled exclusively by VPUE’s Assessment and Program Evaluation (A&PE) team, said Julie Remold, director of evaluation. Remold said the team cross-references each response with current data on housing type, athlete status, courses taken to fulfill requirements, and other student records data. Findings enable the team to create presentations and dashboards that inform decision-making around undergraduate offerings at Stanford.

“This is one of my team’s favorite annual projects,” said Remold. “Not only do student responses inform decision-making among Stanford leadership on the undergraduate experience, but these insights also help the university make immediate improvements to the first-year experience that will benefit those students about to join our community. Students who share their feedback truly pay it forward in a meaningful way.”

The Frosh and First-Year Transfer Survey closes on June 7. Remold added that any frosh or first-year transfer who cannot find a May 17 email from Vice Provost Sarah Church in their inbox should report the missing invitation to her at remold@stanford.edu.