Frequently Asked Questions

Which campuses are eligible to participate in ACREO?

All four-year colleges and universities are welcome and eligible to participate. There are no baseline requirements in terms of having living learning programs on your campus: We've designed ACREO to be revealing for institutions with all types of residential environments.

What is the commitment expected from participating campuses?

Campuses must commit to administering the ACREO instrument at the time agreed upon with the ACREO team. The survey is generally administered during the Spring term. In terms of human resource commitments, institutions need to designate a person/department to provide the student contact and institutional data. Institutions should also plan to commit to promoting the survey. In terms terms of additional financial resources, institutions will need to provide their own incentives for survey participation. Institutional dedication to successful survey implementation will help assure strong survey response rates.

What if we're not sure if our school's programs fit that definition?

Please contact us! We recognize and admire the huge diversity of residential program designs around the country and want that diversity represented in ACREO. And because the survey measures what students experience, we're able to capture comparable data even from seemingly dissimilar programs.

We have multiple kinds of residential environments on our campus - can one administration of the survey assess all of them?

Absolutely. The survey flexibly measures the student experience in any type of residential environment – even off-campus – in a way that breaks down the idiosyncrasies of each program into the important components (faculty interactions, staff interactions, peer interactions) and the important outcomes (sense of belonging, intent to persist, career attitudes, etc.).

What kind of data about my campus will we receive if we participate?

Each campus will receive an institutional dataset and reports. Consortium participants receive an additional consortium dataset and report.

What kind of incentives can be provided to encourage student response?

Each campus is encouraged to design and implement a customized incentive program, within the IRB guidelines. We’re happy to help you craft an incentive plan based on best practices for survey responses. The cost of incentives are not included in the participation fee.

What kinds of support will the ACREO research team provide to help ensure successful administration?

Each institution will be assigned a dedicated contact person from the study team to help with administration set up and troubleshoot. This designated contact will provide resources to help you successfully implement the study as well as assist with any administration issues or concerns you may have.

What is the required sample for each campus?

Sample size is variable by campus. The study team is aware of the number of surveys given to college students and is sensitive to the survey schedule and sampling preferences of each campus. Larger sample sizes will help institutions capture more robust data, allowing for greater analysis flexibility with the final data set. Smaller institutions are encouraged to use census sampling, whereas larger institutions can use a simple random sample.

Are there additional customizations a campus can purchase?

Institutions can add several customizations, which are described above. Principal Investigator Laura Dahl is also available for customized consultations at an additional fee.

Where has ACREO survey been administered?

The study has been, and will be, administered to a diverse and representative sample of colleges and universities, which allows for national benchmarking. Our current sample includes over 20,000 students from 22 institutions, public and private, urban and rural, from New York to New Mexico.

What does the ACREO measure and how is the survey constructed?

ACREO is a student survey designed to help institutions assess the efficacy of their residential programs. Based on Astin’s (1993) I-E-O model, ACREO measures a range of items to capture students’ input characteristics, environmental experiences (e.g. residential events, academic decisions and behaviors), and outcomes (student characteristics after college participation). 

Input Variables:

• Demographic information

• Residential status (e.g. LLP participant, off-campus housing, etc.)

Environmental Variables:

• Residential Environment’s Influence on Major: Students report the extent to which interactions with peers, faculty, and staff in their residential environment encourages or discourages them in their pursuit of their major. 

• Discussed Learning Experiences with Peers: Students report the frequency of discussions about something learned in class with other students outside of class. 

• Discussions with Diverse Peers: Students report how often the had discussions with peers who had different religious beliefs, political opinions, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, and personal values.

• Discussed Sociocultural Issues with Peers: Students report the frequency of discussions about diversity and major social issues as well as discussions with students who have different values and/or hold different religious worldviews.

• Major-Related Support System: Students report the extent to which they have access to peer role models and professional mentors who are supporting them in their major as well as the extent to which they feel supported in their major by family.

• Campus Climate: Students report their perception of the campus climate for race, sexuality, nationality, religion, gender, and mental health by rating their perceived faculty attitudes, perceived interactions between students from various subpopulations, and general campus commitment to support specific student populations. 

• Faculty Interaction: Students report the frequency of discussions with faculty about personal problems, career ambitions, and other non-course-related topics as well as assignments or extra assistance regarding course content. Students who indicated there were faculty affiliated with their residential environment are asked about interaction with both the residential faculty and faculty generally.

• Co-curricular Engagement: On-campus students report the frequency of participation in events associated with their residential environment, including multicultural programming, cultural outings, and career workshops. All students are asked about their co-curricular programming engagement during their general college experience.

• Peer Network: Students describe the relationships they have with other students in their residential environments, including if they have friends with whom they can study, have intellectual discussions, and who are from diverse backgrounds.

• Supportive Residential Environment: Students report their perceptions of how other students in the residential environment support each other both socially and academically as well as general satisfaction with the environment.

Outcome Variables:

• Academic Confidence: Students report their confidence in their ability to persist in their major, excel in their major, complete their major with a B average, persist to graduation despite various obstacles, reach academic goals (e.g. overall B average; graduation with honors), and stay at their current institution.

• Major Persistence Intention: Students report their plans to persist in their major and commitment to graduating from their major.

• Career Attitudes: Students report their confidence in their ability to get a job as well as their perception of how graduating will influence landing a job, getting a good salary, doing meaningful or satisfying or exciting work, and doing work that utilizes skills from their major. 

• Critical Engagement: Students report their attitudes toward critical thinking habits of mind, such as questioning a professor, disagreeing with texts, arguing with people, exploring new ideas, and critically analyzing different points of view. 

• Integrative Learning: Students report the extent to which they integrate what they’re learning by applying it to the real world, reflecting on how they’re learning it, putting it in context, connecting it with a personal experience, and extrapolating abstract ideas from concrete observations.

• Intention to Innovate: Students indicate how effective they think they are in identifying new opportunities, developing a strategy to direct their and others’ efforts in the direction of realizing new opportunities, acquiring resources necessary to realize a new opportunity, and creating a new entity to take advantage of new opportunities. 

• Campus Engagement: Students report the extent to which they are involved with some kind of community, including volunteering for the community and working to make the community better; students also reported on self-efficacy in terms of their impact on community.

• Campus Sense of Belonging: Students report the extent to which they feel comfortable in, are a part of, are committed to, are supported in, and are accepted on campus. 

• Mental Health: Students report if they struggled with depression, stress, and/or anxiety as well as if they would reach out for help for mental health concerns.

• Bystander Intervention Knowledge: Students indicate their level of familiarity with sexual assault and bullying prevention strategies and resources.

• Bystander Intention to Report: Students indicate how likely they are to report sexual misconduct or bullying if they or a peer are the victim.

Astin, A. W. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. Jossey-Bass.