Just what makes for a really good undergraduate experience? Rankings in magazines are based mostly on what students were like when they started college - their entrance exam scores or high school class rank. The rankings also emphasize what institutions have - numbers of faculty members, library books, computer terminals, and so forth. Oddly enough, what matters most to student learning - what they do with the resources their school provides - gets little attention. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) focuses on the things that are really important to a high quality undergraduate education: what students do and what they say about their experience (NSSE press release, 2002).

Quick Facts about the NSSE:

• The NSSE is designed to obtain, on an annual basis, information from scores of colleges and universities nationwide about student participation in programs and activities that institutions provide to enhance learning and personal development.

• Oklahoma State University freshmen and seniors participated in this survey in 2000, the inaugural year of the survey. OSU participated in the survey again in the spring of 2002 and most recently in the spring of 2005. The 2005 NSSE Report was completed in November 2005.

• Survey results are intended to provide an estimate of how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending college. The survey items represent empirically confirmed "good practices" in undergraduate education. That is, they reflect behaviors by students and institutions that are associated with desired outcomes of college.

• The NSSE is an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts and is administered and coordinated by the Indiana University Center for Post Secondary Research & Planning under the direction of Dr. George D. Kuh.