Missouri State has been using the Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE, pronounced ‘Bessie’) for years as a way to learn where our students are coming from, what their high school experience was like, and what they expect from their college experience. In recent years, the survey has increasingly become useful as an advising tool as well, with student respondents each getting an advising report that highlights their experiences, interests, and needs.

With this summer’s Student Orientation, Advisement, and Registration (SOAR) sessions, Assessment worked with the staff and student leaders who keep the events running through the summer to encourage incoming students to complete the BCSSE survey so that we could have an individual report that would help guide conversations with their advisors, mentors, and faculty.

With the encouragement of those dedicated SOAR leaders, nearly 90% of incoming students completed the survey, blowing away previous response rates! Given the survey’s increased emphasis on improving the student experience as well as telling the university about our incoming students, it will be one more way for Assessment’s goal of doing well by doing good.