All of the information collected by the Second-Year Student Assessment is available to you immediately in our secure, password-protected online dashboard, the Retention Data Center. There you will see the resulting reports revealing student motivation, needs, interests, and satisfaction, and you will find a wealth of data to guide your retention planning. You will learn which students need the greatest assistance and which campus services are most in demand, allowing you to make informed interventions.

The assessment includes 27 motivation questions and tracks motivational data across seven scales:

• Academic Confidence
• Commitment to College
• Engaged Learning
• Leadership
• Financial Security
• Transition
• Family Support

In addition, 13 items examine students’ satisfaction with their college experience, such as:

• Interactions with instructors, academic advisors, and other students
• Variety of majors, course availability, and academic challenge
• Availability of opportunities and activities related to major and career interests

The survey also closely examines student receptivity to assistance, examining not only each student’s current receptivity in 15 areas, but also the student’s levels of participation in these 15 areas during the previous year of college, providing information to strengthen second-year and first-year programs.

To help you focus and prioritize your campus outreach to sophomores, the Second-Year Student Assessment includes the following, informative, built-in reports:

• Summary and Planning Report: Offers a concise, summary picture of the needs of your sophomore class and/or transfer students to guide your retention planning. This cohort report summarizes all of the findings from the assessment, including motivation scales, receptivity, and institutional impression (satisfaction) items, and demographic items. The report identifies the usage of campus services and includes outreach lists with the names of specific students.
• Student Report: Offers a clear, non-technical explanation of each individual student’s motivational assessment, including the student’s strengths and areas that might benefit from attention. The report details the student’s receptivity to assistance in five key areas, alongside your institution’s specific sources of assistance. The student’s self-reported needs and interests serve as an immediate action plan.
• Advisor/Counselor Report: Provides a detailed, item-by-item breakdown of each student’s demographic information and motivational assessment, including strengths, needs, satisfaction, and receptivity to assistance.

The RMS Suite of surveys allow you to:

• Add up to 5 additional demographic items for analysis
• Secure access of reports to designated colleagues
• Add custom questions to your survey
• Customize narrative text that appears on the student report

You can create custom reports of your choosing using the dashboard’s robust tools. Also, you can customize the Student Report to include specific contact information (room numbers, phone numbers, etc.) to refer students to specific sources of assistance on your campus.

The survey is designed to be administered to incoming undergraduate, graduate, transfer, adult and online students at four-year and two-year institutions.