BCSSE Overview

BCSSE 2025 Overview

Two students outdoors reading a book together at Armstrong State University. — Armstrong State University

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, approximately 1.3 million new first-year, transfer, and older students at 605 institutions across the United States and Canada, have participated.

BCSSE collects data from entering first-year, 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 their 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 upcoming 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. There is also an optional winter administration for students entering after the December break. 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 2025, 79 U.S. institutions and 5 from Canada participated in BCSSE. Of those, 34 (40%) also administered NSSE in spring 2026, 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. In 2025, paper administration was discontinued, and all institutions administered the survey online. More than 57,000 entering first-year, 9,500 transfer, and nearly 800 older students completed BCSSE in the summer or early fall. The winter administration included survey responses from more than 300 entering first-year, transfer, and older students.

Many different types of U.S. institutions participated in BCSSE. Among them, 35% were classified as master’s colleges and universities, 38% as baccalaureate colleges, and 26% as doctorate-granting universities. 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 typically collect data from 50% to nearly 100% of their students. BCSSE 2025 respondents are profiled in Table 2. Percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

Most BCSSE respondents graduated from a public high school, with approximately two-thirds reporting grades of A− or higher in high school (Table 3). In addition, about 35% of respondents attended an institution with two or more friends. Approximately two-thirds of all respondents were attending their first-choice institution.

Table 1 Profile of BCSSE 2025 U.S. Institutions and All Bachelor’s-Granting U.S. Institutions
Institution Characteristics	BCSSE 2025 (%)	U.S.(%)
Carnegie Award Level Focus
Baccalaureate	38	54
Undergraduate/Graduate – Master’s	35	21
Undergraduate/Graduate – Doctor	26	26
Control
Public	48	31
Private	52	69
Undergraduate Enrollment
Fewer than 1,000	10	37
1,000–2,499	42	26
2,500–4,999	14	14
5,000–9,999	18	11
10,000–19,999	9	6
20,000 or more	8	5
Notes: Percentages are unweighted and based on U.S. postsecondary institutions that award baccalaureate degrees and are eligible to participate in NSSE. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. U.S. percentages are based on the 2024 IPEDS Institutional Characteristics data. For information on the Carnegie Classifications, see carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu.

Table 2 Profile of BCSSE 2025 U.S. Respondents: Demographic Characteristics (entering first-year students)
	Percentage of Respondents
Race/Ethnicity
Asian	9
Black or African American	14
Hispanic, Latina/o, Latine, or Latinx	18
Indigenous, American Indian, Native American, or Alaska Native	1
Middle Eastern or North African	1
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander	<1
White	49
Other	<1
International Student	3
HighSchool Graduation Year
2025	96
2024	3
2023 or earlier	<1
First-Generation Student
Up to some college	40
Associate's degree	7
Bachelor’s degree	27
Master’s, doctoral or professional degree	26
Financial Aid Recipient(Received any scholarship, grant, or student loan)	85
Notes: In Parental Education, “Up to some college” includes the response options “Did not finish high school,” “High school diploma or G.E.D.,” and “Attended college but did not complete a degree.”

Table 3 Profile of BCSSE 2025 Respondents: Other Characteristics
	Percentage of Respondents
High School Type
Public	85
Private, religiously affiliated	8
Private, not religiously affiliated	3
Home school	1
Other	1
High School Grades (Typical)
A- or higher	65
B or B+	30
B- or lower	5
Number of friends attending same institution
None	44
1	19
2	14
3 or more	21
Choice of institution
First	66
Second	25
Third or lower	9

Wondering how to use your BCSSE data?

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

BCSSE Overview

BCSSE 2025 Overview

Survey Administration and Respondents

BCSSE U.S. Respondents

Table 1: Profile of BCSSE 2025 U.S. Institutions and Respondents, and Bachelor’s-Granting U.S. Institutions and Their Students

Table 1

Profile of BCSSE 2025 U.S. Institutions and All Bachelor’s-Granting U.S. Institutions

Table 2: Profile of BCSSE 2025 U.S. Respondents: Demographic Characteristics

Table 2

Profile of BCSSE 2025 U.S. Respondents: Demographic Characteristics (entering first-year students)

Table 3: Profile of BCSSE 2025 First-Year Respondents: Other Characteristics

Table 3

Profile of BCSSE 2025 Respondents: Other Characteristics

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