BCSSE Overview

The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE, pronounced “bessie”), a companion survey to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), was launched in 2007. Since then, nearly one million first-year entering students, as well as thousands of transfer and older students at 540 institutions across the United States and Canada, have participated.

Two students reading. — Armstrong State University

BCSSE 2019 Overview

In 2019, BCSSE updated the survey to include entering transfer and older students. For entering first-year students, BCSSE collects data about their high school academic and co-curricular experiences, as well as their expectations for participating in educationally purposeful activities during the first college year. For transfer and older students, BCSSE collects information about prior educational experiences, important entering characteristics, as well as their expectations for participating in educationally purposeful activities during the college year.

BCSSE administration usually takes place prior to the start of fall classes and is designed to be paired with a NSSE administration in the spring to provide an in-depth understanding of first-year student engagement. Faculty, advisors, administrators, researchers, and others can use BCSSE data independently or in combination with NSSE data for program development, institutional assessment and improvement, and related purposes.

In fall 2019, 137 U.S. institutions and 4 from Canada participated in BCSSE. Of those, 91 (65%) also administered NSSE in spring 2020, allowing comparisons of incoming students’ prior experiences and expectations with their actual experiences during the first year.

Survey Administration and Respondents

BCSSE is administered locally by campus officials who facilitate the online administration or distribute the paper survey. In 2019, 109 institutions (77%) used the online survey, 25 (18%) used the paper survey, and 7 (5%) used a combination of the two. More than 86,000 entering first-year, 7,000 transfer, and 1,000 older students completed BCSSE in the summer or early fall. The winter administration included 473 entering first-year students, 721 transfer students, and 75 older students. Students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico completed BCSSE.

Many different types of U.S. institutions participated in BCSSE. Among them, 48% were classified as master’s colleges and universities, 34% as baccalaureate colleges, and 18% as doctorate-granting universities (Table 1).

BCSSE institutions generally reflect the diversity of U.S. bachelor’s-granting institutions with respect to Carnegie Classification, public or private control, and undergraduate enrollment (Table 1).

BCSSE U.S. Respondents

BCSSE is locally administered, so sampling schemes and data collection methods vary across participating institutions. Most institutions sample their entire incoming first-year population and collect data from 50% to nearly 100% of their students. BCSSE 2019 respondents are profiled in Table 2.

Most BCSSE respondents graduated from a public high school, with more than half earning grades of A− or higher in high school (Table 3). In addition, about 39% of respondents attended an institution with two or more friends. About two thirds of all respondents attended their first-choice institution.

Table 1: Profile of BCSSE 2019 U.S. Institutions and Respondents, and Bachelors-Granting U.S. Institutions and Their Students
Institution Characteristics	Institutions (%)		Students (%)
	BCSSE	U.S.^a	BCSSE	U.S.^a
Carnegie Basic Classification
Doctoral Universities (Very high research activity)	2	8	17	30
Doctoral Universities (Higher research activity)	9	8	19	16
Doctoral/Professional Universities	4	9	6	10
Master's Colleges and Universities (Larger programs)	28	21	31	26
Master's Colleges and Universities (Medium programs)	14	12	8	6
Master's Colleges and Universities (Smaller programs)	9	8	3	3
Baccalaureate Colleges—Arts & Sciences Focus	21	15	10	4
Baccalaureate Colleges—Diverse Fields	14	19	4	5
Control
Public	40	36	69	67
Private	60	64	31	33
Undergraduate Enrollment
Fewer than 1,000	12	22	2	2
1,000–2,499	41	31	18	9
2,500–4,999	11	17	6	11
5,000–9,999	15	15	20	19
10,000–19,999	13	8	30	22
20,000 or more	8	7	25	37
Notes: Percentages are unweighted and based on U.S. postsecondary institutions that award baccalaureate degrees and belong to one of the eight Carnegie classifications in the table. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. U.S. percentages are based on the 2018 IPEDS Institutional Characteristics data. For information on the Carnegie Foundation’s 2018 Basic Classification, see carnegieclassifications.iu.edu

Table 2: Profile of BCSSE 2019 First-Year Respondents: Demographic Characteristics
Demographic Characteristics	Percentage of Respondents
Gender Identity
Man	39
Woman	60
Another gender identity	<1
Preferred not to respond	<1

Racial/Ethnic Identification
American Indian or Alaska Native	<1
Asian	7
Black or African American	8
Hispanic or Latino	13
Middle Eastern or North African	1
Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Isl.	<1
White	57
Multiracial	13
Other	<1

International Student	5

High School Graduation Year
2016 or earlier	<1
2017	1
2018	2
2019	97

First Generation Student ^a	40
Financial Aid Recipient^b	86
Notes: Includes respondents from U.S. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. a. No parent (or guardian) holds a bachelor’s degree. b. Received any scholarship, grant, or student loan.

Table 3: Profile of BCSSE 2019 First-Year Respondents: Other Characteristics
Other Characteristics	Percentage of Respondents
High School Type
Public	86
Private, religiously affiliated	10
Private, no religiously affiliated	4
Home school	<1
Other	<1
High School Grades (Typical)
A/A+	42
A-	19
B+	18
B	14
B-	3
C+ or lower	3
Number of friends attending the same institution
None	43
1	18
2	14
3 or more	25
Choice of institution
First	66
Second	25
Third or lower	9
Notes: Includes respondents from U.S. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

Wondering how to use your BCSSE data?

Visit the Working with BCSSE Data page for illustrative recent examples.

BCSSE Overview

BCSSE 2019 Overview

Survey Administration and Respondents

BCSSE U.S. Respondents

Table 1: Profile of BCSSE 2019 U.S. Institutions and Respondents, and Bachelor’s-Granting U.S. Institutions and Their Students

Table 2: Profile of BCSSE 2019 First-Year Respondents: Demographic Characteristics

Table 3: Profile of BCSSE 2019 First-Year Respondents: Other Characteristics

Wondering how to use your BCSSE data?

Evidence-Based Improvement in Higher Education resources and social media channels

RELATED SITES