Institutional Research Surveys

Fordham's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) assists programs, departments, and units with local surveys upon request. Surveys are an optimal tool for collecting information when interested in self-reported knowledge, attitudes and perceptions, or behaviors and practices. The OIRA adopts good practices in survey research, such as reliable and valid survey instrument construction; confidentiality; survey administration that seeks to minimize bias, optimize the quality of useful data, and reduce survey fatigue; and the provision of understandable and useful information. If you would like assistance with any aspect of survey construction, administration, or research, please email [email protected] and we would be happy to assist.

Before creating your own survey, consider whether data from one of the surveys routinely administered at Fordham would serve your purposes. Every year, the Division of Student Affairs administers the following surveys:

Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) Surveys

The Freshman Survey
The CIRP Freshman Survey is administered to incoming first-year students before they start classes at our institution. The survey collects extensive information that allows for a snapshot of what our incoming students are like before they experience college.

Your First College Year
Your First College Year is a survey designed to provide comprehensive information on the academic and personal development of first-year college students, such as persistence, adjustment, and other first-year outcomes. Further, YFCY was designed as a follow-up survey to the annual CIRP Freshman Survey and allows for longitudinal research on the first year of college.

College Senior Survey
The College Senior Survey (CSS) collects valuable information about academic, civic, and diversity outcomes as well as college experiences to measure the impact of college. Although the CSS can be used as a stand-alone instrument, when used in conjunction with the CIRP Freshman Survey (TFS) or the Your First College Year Survey (YFCY), the CSS generates valuable longitudinal data on students' cognitive and affective growth during college.

First Destination Survey of Undergraduate Postgraduate Outcomes

Each year, the Office of Career Services reaches out to every member of the previous year's graduating class to find out where they landed and to offer their assistance if needed. For the Class of 2023, they were able to confirm the "first destinations" of 91% of the graduates (an exceptionally high knowledge rate), and 89% of the graduates whose outcomes were confirmed was employed, continuing their education, or engaged in public service or other meaningful endeavors within six months of graduation. The average starting salary for the Class of 2023 was $68,000.

For more information on the First Destination Survey or to learn the outcomes for a particular undergraduate major or minor, please reach out to the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) at [email protected] for assistance.