The Survey of Entering Student Engagement is deepening community colleges’ understanding of students’ earliest collegiate experiences

Each fall, colleges across the country ask a perennial question: “How many new students did we enroll this fall?” Recruiting new students is essential to growing full-time equivalency (FTE) and increasing vital revenue streams. For community and technical colleges, however, the more daunting — and arguably more important — challenge is retaining students through completion of their educational goals. And as performance accountability pressures increase, the stakes for getting a grip on improving student persistence grow ever higher.

The Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), an initiative of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), asks critical questions about new students’ initial college experiences. SENSE data help institutions understand where students are thriving and where they are struggling, thus providing an additional tool for institutional improvement as colleges strive to increase student success and retain FTE.

Why Focus Up Front?

Nearly half of all U.S. undergraduates attend community and technical colleges. Among these are disproportionately high numbers of the nation’s undergraduate students of color — 46 percent of Blacks, 55 percent of Hispanics, 46 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 55 percent of American Indians, according to the American Association of Community Colleges — for whom community colleges are often the primary port of entry into higher education. Yet, if current enrollment patterns continue, only half the students who enter community colleges for the first time in fall 2008 will return for their second year, and little more than a third will complete a certificate or degree within six years. One key to improving entering student outcomes lies in understanding more about why these students persist at such low rates.