NSSE Special Analysis Product Information
A benefit of participating in the NSSE project is the option to request a “Special Analysis.” Special analyses allow for more detailed comparisons between your students and those attending other institutions. This site provides basic information on our special analysis options, so please review before submitting a request.
Available Reports
Report Variations & Related Instructions
Submitting a Request
Cost
Delivery Date
Other Surveys
Paying for Special Analyses
Contact Information
Request Special Analysis
There are two types of special analysis reports, and they are based on the standard reports NSSE produces. These present information by first-year and senior class standing:
Means & Frequency
(To see a sample report, click here)
Note: Reports based on data prior to 2003 will be delivered in raw, unformatted SPSS output.
Benchmark
(To see a sample report based on 2004 or earlier year data, click here; for a sample of the report based on 2005 and more recent year data, click here)
Information from earlier Benchmark reports, such as standardized scores, engagement index and decile report information are no longer available (for an explanation, see the first page of the Benchmark report based on 2005 data above).
Report Variations & Related Instructions
You can answer a number of different questions via special analysis by redefining your population (e.g., selecting only business majors) and/or changing the composition of the comparison groups (e.g., selecting only private master's institutions). The following describes two popular special analysis requests, including general instructions for submitting any request.
How does the college experience at my institution compare to this other set of institutions?
The majority of special analyses ask for existing reports to reflect new selected peer group(s). A selected peer group must contain at least six institutions. Because each report has three reference groups, one can choose three different peer groups. If only one new peer group is used, one's Carnegie group and NSSE's national norms group would be used as default comparison groups. Institutions choose selected peer groups based upon a variety of factors such as the level of similarity on key institutional characteristics, who they aspire to be, who they compete against for admitting students, and geographical proximity. When submitting a request, a query tool is provided to help identify a peer list based upon such things as admissions selectivity, public-private status, and Carnegie classification.
To see a complete list of NSSE participants over the years from which to choose a peer group, click here. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, peer groups should consist of institutions from the same administration year as your own. Combining multiple years' worth of data to define your institution's population or a peer group is problematic, as survey questions change over time and therefore limit the amount of information that could be provided. In the event that multiple-years of NSSE data must be combined for an analysis, an extra charge is incurred because of the additional complexity associated with combining multiple years of NSSE data.
How does a particular type of student at my institution compare to similar students at other institutions?
Institutions very often want to know how particular students on campus engage in educationally beneficial practices, whether they are Honors students, students from particular academic majors/schools or those that have participated in a special orientation program. Many times information from the existing NSSE dataset can be used to redefine the institution and reference group population. For instance, if an institution wanted to compare particular types of Engineering students to other similar students across the country, all they would need to do is identify what specific NSSE majors should be used and inform NSSE (click here for a complete list of majors). In other cases, NSSE will not have the pertinent information upon which to identify certain sub-populations for an analysis, thus necessitating that an institution provide an appropriate identifier during the population file submission process (if needed, contact your Project Team for more information about this) or a separate file with both the relevant identifier and unique NSSE identification variable. Note that these types of analyses often warrant a close look at the actual or potential number of respondents from any particular sub-group in order to confirm that potential findings can be generalized to a larger population.
The above questions overlap with other potential analyses. For instance, state systems and consortia have requested special analyses that help them compare themselves to relevant peer groups. These examples are provided to help institutions think creatively about what can be done with their data.
Keep in mind that special analyses are for comparing your students with those of other institutions in some shape or form. They are not meant for intra-institutional analyses – i.e., comparing one group of your students with another. These types of analyses are best left for campuses to address with their Institutional Research office or a faculty member with the requisite skills.
Requesting a special analysis requires institutional contacts to use the on-line form that was specifically developed for this purpose. Once all information has been entered into the on-line form and submitted, a NSSE staff member will contact the requester with any follow-up questions, expected delivery date and estimated costs. In order for work to begin, written agreement that the terms are acceptable (usually through e-mail) from the requester must be received by NSSE. Click here to submit a request.
Typical special analyses cost approximately $375. If both Means-Frequency and Benchmark reports are requested, the total cost would be $750. There are additional fees associated with expedited deliveries, locally-administered survey analyses, multiple-year analyses, and reports that require the merging of special identifiers (i.e., Honors or First Year Experience program participant identifiers).
Standard delivery time is approximately 6 weeks from the point that all report details (e.g., cost, delivery date, etc.) have been finalized and the institutional contact has confirmed in writing that the terms are acceptable. Expedited delivery is usually possible but could significantly change the cost of the analysis (i.e., an analysis that would typically cost $375 might be $750 depending upon the current work load at NSSE). The Coordinator for Special Analyses will review each expedited delivery request individually to determine a reasonable expected delivery date and cost.
Although the information presented on this Web page is NSSE focused, other survey projects besides NSSE offer special analysis services. If interested in a special analysis for another survey project, send an e-mail to nsse@indiana.edu describing your needs and an appropriate staff member will reply with relevant information. Additional information about FSSE special analysis options is available here:
http://fsse.iub.edu/html/FSSE_Special_Analysis_Information.cfm
Other more sophisticated analyses and reports using NSSE data are possible but are generally negotiated and processed through the NSSE Institute.
Once reports have been completed and delivered, an invoice will be sent to the requester. The requester's contact information is collected through the on-line form referenced above.
Any questions about this process should be sent to nsse@indiana.edu.
Please contact your NSSE Client Service Team to inquire about special analysis: