The survey provides space for institutions to add up to ten local option items. On most campuses students complete the survey during freshman orientation, in about sixty minutes. Institutions receive separate profile reports for part-time and transfer students. CIRP also offers the College Student Survey which is designed to measure the experiences of current and former college students. The survey includes items on college experiences, satisfaction with various aspects of the college environment, as well as information on student goals, aspirations, and values.
Institutions can add up to twenty supplemental questions for their own students.
Two reports are provided, the first being a longitudinal report for students who also took the freshman survey, and the other report for students who did not take the freshman survey. Each institution receives a complete tabulation of results by gender, together with national norms based on all participating institutions as well as institutions of similar type. Combined with data from the Freshman Survey, the College Student Survey is useful for campuses studying retention and degree completion, assessing student outcomes, and preparing for accreditation review. Extensive follow-up studies have been conducted to examine dropouts, campus protest, education and work, campus change, student development, and minority participation in higher education. A bibliography of reliability and validity studies is provided upon request.