2008 Woodie Awards
Orientation Survey a Success
Yossi Davis
Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Over the past several weeks, the Yeshiva's new Office of Institutional Research, directed by Ariel Fishman, conducted a survey of first year students who attended orientation. The goal of the survey was to determine the opinions of students from both Wilf and Beren campuses regarding their feelings about the orientation. Each student was sent an online survey through their YU e-mail address. Through this survey, YU administrators were able to get feedback, both qualitative and quantitative, on how to better run future orientation programs.
The message conveyed by the Office of University Life Presidential Fellow Evan M. Koller was that orientation turned out to be a great success and that the survey was responses were highly useful. Of the nearly 300 first-time students at the Wilf Campus, 80 responded to the survey: approximately 26%. Of the 300 first-time-on-campus students at the Beren Campus, close to 115 students answered the survey: roughly 38%.
The survey used a rating system of 1 to 6 to evaluate how informative or enjoyable events, such as campus tours, the trip to the Yankee game, and faculty workshops, were. Some highly rated events and qualitative categories were the barbeque and faculty friendliness, which, according to the Office of Institutional Research, peeked administrators' interests. Female students liked the barbecue, while male students loved it.
However, there was also some negative feedback as well. Although the overall survey population felt that the faculty was very friendly, students who are not from among the top ten YU feeder high schools gave lower scores to this aspect. Some of the female participants commented that the orientation packed too much into the three days that were allotted, and that perhaps more time was necessary. They felt that there was too much information presented all at once, and that some of the programs overlapped and interfered with each other. Also, some MYP students commented that the orientation could have catered more to MYP students, with more Torah learning opportunities.
This was the first ever survey conducted by the Office of Institutional Research. Plans for the survey began this past summer, when Vice President for University Life Hillel Davis decided that the results could be a useful tool to help improve YU's programs. The Office plans to conduct similar surveys after all major YU events.
The message conveyed by the Office of University Life Presidential Fellow Evan M. Koller was that orientation turned out to be a great success and that the survey was responses were highly useful. Of the nearly 300 first-time students at the Wilf Campus, 80 responded to the survey: approximately 26%. Of the 300 first-time-on-campus students at the Beren Campus, close to 115 students answered the survey: roughly 38%.
The survey used a rating system of 1 to 6 to evaluate how informative or enjoyable events, such as campus tours, the trip to the Yankee game, and faculty workshops, were. Some highly rated events and qualitative categories were the barbeque and faculty friendliness, which, according to the Office of Institutional Research, peeked administrators' interests. Female students liked the barbecue, while male students loved it.
However, there was also some negative feedback as well. Although the overall survey population felt that the faculty was very friendly, students who are not from among the top ten YU feeder high schools gave lower scores to this aspect. Some of the female participants commented that the orientation packed too much into the three days that were allotted, and that perhaps more time was necessary. They felt that there was too much information presented all at once, and that some of the programs overlapped and interfered with each other. Also, some MYP students commented that the orientation could have catered more to MYP students, with more Torah learning opportunities.
This was the first ever survey conducted by the Office of Institutional Research. Plans for the survey began this past summer, when Vice President for University Life Hillel Davis decided that the results could be a useful tool to help improve YU's programs. The Office plans to conduct similar surveys after all major YU events.
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