Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), United States, 2025 (ICPSR 39835)

Version Date: Jul 9, 2026

Principal Investigator(s):
Linda Garcia, University of Texas at Austin

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39835.v1

Version V1 ()

  • V2 [2026-08-03]
  • V1 [2026-07-09] unpublished

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Additional details may be in the Version History or Data Collection Notes fields of the study metadata.

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Summary

This data collection contains the results of the Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), managed by the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) at The University of Texas at Austin. The survey provides community and technical colleges with insight into students' earliest college experiences during the first weeks of the academic term. SENSE collects and analyzes data on institutional practices and student behaviors that influence early momentum, academic transitions, and longer-term student outcomes. These data help colleges understand the "front-door" experience, identify early barriers, and strengthen institutional practices that support student success.

Citation

Garcia, Linda. Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), United States, 2025. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-07-09. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39835.v1

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, the data files in this collection are restricted from general dissemination. To obtain these restricted files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2025

Data Collection Notes

  1. For additional information on the Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) study, please visit the SENSE website.
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Study Purpose

The Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) is the key survey instrument developed by the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) to assess how entering students experience community college during their earliest weeks.

Study Design

The survey is designed to be administered starting in the fourth week of each participating college's fall academic term.

SENSE is available via the following modalities:

  • In randomly selected classrooms
  • Fully online

Distribution of survey links depends on modality:

  • In-class: Using either paper survey instruments or through an online survey
  • Fully online: Survey links emailed, texted, delivered through the Learning Management System (LMS), or distributed via any other method preferred by the college.

Sample

The survey can be administered in a stratified random sample of courses that meet in-person and are likely to enroll a high proportion of entering students (first level reading/writing/math courses, student success courses, and developmental education courses). ESL courses and courses that enroll a majority of high school students were excluded from the sampling frame.

Unlike the in-class version of the survey, online administration did not rely on sampling. The online survey was distributed via e-mail or any other method preferred by the college to all survey-eligible students 18 and over who are new to the college and are enrolled in any credit-bearing or developmental education courses. Colleges were asked to exclude the following students from survey participation:

  • Under 18
  • Not enrolled in any credit-bearing or developmental education (dev-ed) courses
  • Incarcerated
  • Enrolled in lowest-level ESL courses
  • For colleges that offer baccalaureate degrees, enrolled exclusively in upper-level courses (junior and senior)

For more information on sampling, please see the "Project Methodology" section of the P.I. metadata documentation file.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Entering students at participating U.S. community and technical colleges who are:

  • New to the college
  • Enrolled in at least one credit-bearing or developmental course
  • 18 or older
  • Not incarcerated
  • Not in dual-credit (greater than or equal to 50 percent HS) or lowest-level English as a Second Language (ESL) courses only
  • Not enrolled exclusively in upper-level courses

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The survey includes items that elicit information from students about:

  • Their first impressions of the college
  • Intake processes such as admissions, registration, assessment, placement, orientation, and financial aid
  • How they spend their time as they begin college
  • How they assess their earliest relationships and interactions with instructors, advisors, and other students
  • What kinds of work they are challenged to do
  • How the college supports their learning in the first few weeks
  • Other topics

Response Rates

For SENSE 2025 (Year 2025 data only), colleges with paper survey responses had an overall completion rate of 43 percent while colleges with online survey responses had an overall completion rate of 26 percent.

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Original Release Date

2026-07-09

Version History

2026-07-09 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Weight

SENSE survey weights were derived from both enrollment status and gender identity, and the same weighting scheme is applied to both paper and online survey responses. In the customized dataset, the weight variable is labeled IWEIGHT. This variable SHOULD be applied when generating estimates intended to represent the overall student population. However, weights SHOULD NOT be used when analyzing results by enrollment status and/or gender identity, as these characteristics are already incorporated into the weighting design.

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