Display 0461:  Freshman Class -- Self Image

From The CIRP Freshman Study*
Percent of Freshman class seeing themselves as "above average" in traits, skills, & abilities.**

 

1995

1998

1999

2000

 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Trait/Skill/Ability

 SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA SSU USA
Drive to achieve 70   73 65 70 66 73 67 73 67 75 66 70 68 76 66 77 66 72 65 80 70
Intellect. self-conf 67   70 54 72 56 72 58 71 56 69 58 70 57 71 53 75 56 71 55 76 56
Cooperative 62   63 68 70 70 73 68 67 69 67 69 71 72 72 66 73 68 74 69 70 70
Social self-confid. 63   68 49 68 50 68 55 70 55 65 53 65 53 71 53 68 53 67 53 70 55
Leadership ability 59   59 55 67 57 67 55 61 56 63 55 59 58 63 57 64 57 61 55 68 57
Understand others 72   60 62 65 62 67 64 62 63 60 64 65 65 54 59 64 62 64 64 67 64
Understanding self *** *** 64 53 71 54 74 57 66 56 66 55 65 56 68 49 70 53 71 54 66 55
Academic ability 33   36 57 52 59 49 49 52 50 57 56 54 57 57 53 56 53 60 52 63 52
Competitiveness 54   57 54 55 54 60 51 55 52 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 62 57
Creativity 48   52 52 52 54 53 55 56 55 58 56 52 58 59 53 61 54 59 55 61 54
Physical health 64   56 55 53 54 62 52 49 50 56 52 48 54 53 48 54 51 56 50 59 51
Spirituality *** *** 56 43 57 43 62 47 46 39 50 38 55 37 49 35 52 37 52 34 59 39
Emotional health 55   52 52 58 53 57 49 47 50 53 50 50 52 51 47 55 48 53 50 57 50
Writing ability 29   32 41 44 43 40 38 40 37 43 41 47 40 47 39 43 39 48 40 48 38
Computer skills *** *** *** *** 44 31 43 31 41 32 43 36 42 39 45 36 46 38 44 39 44 42
Math ability 26   32 39 35 39 39 33 38 33 43 36 37 35 43 35 40 34 45 33 42 31
Religiousness *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 36 29 38 28 40 28 38 30 41 31 40 26 *** ***
Public speak ability 32   35 31 33 33 30 33 35 32 35 33 38 34 36 30 33 32 32 31 36 32
Artistic ability 19   23 28 27 27 21 28 33 30 31 30 25 29 29 26 34 27 30 27 30 27
Persistence *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 57 56 61 57 53 58 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Risk Taking *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 44 42 43 44 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Popularity 44   43 38 37 38 39 38 43 38 46 37 38 38 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Initiative *** *** *** *** 55 49 54 45 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Athletic Ability *** *** 43 41 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Stubbornness 35 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Cynicism 15   *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

*** Item was removed from or added to the survey instrument this year, so responses were not collected.
**   Items are sorted in order of SSU Frosh's strongest self-image in latest year surveyed.
*     During fall terms, SSU participates in a national study of college freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA, known as the "CIRP Freshman Survey".  A survey instrument, inquiring about over 300 issues, is administered by faculty in SSU's Freshman orientation course during the first two weeks of class.  Completed survey instruments are returned to UCLA for processing and findings are returned to SSU's Office of Institutional Research & Planning, which, in turn, reports the findings to University stakeholders for planning purposes.  Accordingly, all findings are based on students' self-reported data.

In a typical year, nearly 500 institutions and a quarter million students contribute to the study nationally.  At SSU, approximately 332 freshmen (on average) participate annually; typically this has been about half the freshman class.   Results are not always exactly comparable across institutions and years because different institutions survey their students differently in different years and the sample responding is not technically a scientifically random one.  But the study has been on-going for over 30 years and the number of participants is sufficiently large that results are generally considered highly reflective of the whole freshman class, nationally.