Vice President for
Student Affairs

Purdue students are overwhelmingly positive about the programs and services on the West Lafayette campus. Seven out of eight students rate student services at least as good as they expect them to be. More than a third of students rate the campus “Great!” By contrast, only one out of eight students says the programs and services are not as good as they expect them to be. Nine out of 10 students are satisfied with Purdue overall.

This finding comes from the 2013 Purdue Student Satisfaction Survey, which 3,289 students completed during January and February. The survey asked about 109 specific services, programs, resources and facilities. Participating divisions included:

• Bursar’s Office
• Center for Career Opportunities
• Division of Financial Aid
• Division of Housing and Food Services
• The Graduate School
• International Students & Scholars
• Office of the Dean of Students
• Purdue Bands & Orchestras
• Purdue Convocations
• Purdue Musical Organizations
• Purdue Police
• Purdue University Student Health Center
• Recreational Sports and Fitness
• Purdue ROTC Programs
• Registrar’s Office

The chart shows the pattern of responses. Thirty-five percent say the programs they rated are “Great!” An additional 53% say those programs are “As good as they expect.” Eleven percent say they programs are “Not as good as they expect.” Only 2% say the programs are “Bad!” These are the combined values for all programs and services. The ratings for each program vary, though every single program evaluated get more favorable than unfavorable ratings.

The new Recreational Sports Facility received some of the highest ratings from students. The survey came at the time that many students were visiting the facility for the first time, and their enthusiasm shows. Seventy percent of respondents rated the new fitness equipment “Great!” ironically, the lowest rating in the entire survey also occurred for recreational sports facilities. Four popular 3rd Street tennis courts were removed last summer and their loss caused a “Bad!” rating of 12.1% for tennis facilities. Rec Sports has plans to build new courts to replace those that were lost.

Previous student satisfaction surveys at Purdue have been used to steer policies to better student services. The the 2013 survey will be no different. Analysts in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs are crunching the data, which combines student ratings with other demographic and opinion values. At a series of meetings underway now, those analysts are presenting the data and telling the story that students created by taking the survey. The survey results will also be shared with Purdue Student Government.

More findings from the 2013 Student Satisfaction Survey will be published here and the full dataset will soon be available on this page.

Best regards and BOILER UP!

Prizes

	2 Prizes - One of two iPad minis
	$10 Discount for every $20 spent Coupon to all Students Completing the Survey
	2 Prizes - International Students and Scholars Trip
	6 Prizes - 3 Pairs of Tickets to the 2013 PMO Christmas Show
	1 Prize - 1/2 hour ride on the Boilermaker Special
	4 Prizes - Complementary Lunch or Dinner
	12 Prizes - Large 1-topping Hot Box Pizza
	3 Prizes - Culver's Value Baskets
	1,137 Prizes - Chicken Sandwich
	28 Prizes - Free Appetizer Coupons
	10 Prizes - $15 Gift Cards
	417 Prizes - 10% off Coupons
	10 Prizes - $5 Gift Certificates
	3 Prizes - $5 Gift Certificates
	10 Prizes - Free Appetizers
	2 Prizes - $50 Gift Certificates
	4 Prizes - $50 Gift Certificates
	20 Prizes - 10 free Burritos; 10 free Chips & Guacamole
	2 Prizes - $25 Gift Certificates
	1 prize - 2 tickets for Vijay Iyer Trio
	1 prize - 2 tickets to any Lafayette Symphony Orchestra performance during March, April or May
	6 prizes - 2 tickets for Alice Wonders
	500 prizes - 10% off coupons

The Satisfaction Survey is a collaborative effort of the following offices: Vice President for Student Affairs, Housing and Food Services, Graduate School, Registrar’s Office, Bursar’s Office, Financial Aid Office, Purdue Police Department, and International Students and Scholars.  Read the blog article “Purdue Listens to Students” to learn how Purdue University made improvements in programs and services resulting from the 2010 Student Satisfaction Satisfaction Survey. 

Questions? If you have any questions about the Purdue Student Satisfaction Survey, please address them to vpsa@purdue.edu. Put “student survey” in the subject line of the message.

Survey Sample

The Purdue Student Satisfaction Survey will be distributed to a sample of currently enrolled Purdue students. The sample consists of 4,000 graduate students and 8,000 undergraduate students. Under-represented minorities will be oversampled in both the graduate and undergraduate samples. The graduate student sample contains 403 under-represented minority students and 3,597 non-URM students. The undergraduate sample contains 1,976 URM students and 6,024 non-URM students. Over-sampling of under-represented minority students is done to ensure a sufficient number of responses from these small student populations. All student groups will be proportionately and fairly represented in the final, published data.

Taking the survey

In pre-tests, people have been completing the Purdue Student Satisfaction Survey in 10-12 minutes. You might take longer than that if you write a lot of comments, or if you are involved in an unusual number of campus programs. The survey is designed to ask only about programs and services that the respondent has experienced. So you may not see the same questions (or the same number of questions) as someone else.

Your participation is voluntary. Usually you may skip a particular question if you don’t want to answer it. A response is required in only a few questions. You may do part of the survey at one time, and then return to complete it later.

Confidentiality

Your responses to the Purdue Student Satisfaction survey are confidential. You will never be identified as one of the respondents. Your individual responses will never be published or shared with any one. Only one person (the survey administrator) will see your individual responses, and he will aggregate all responses and then delete the individual identifiers (names and PUID numbers) before distributing the data to various Purdue University divisions and offices.  

Your chances of winning a prize

More than 1,700 prizes will be given away in the Purdue Student Satisfaction Survey. Based on our estimate of the number of responses, you have a one-in-six chance of winning a prize worth $5 or more. You have a one-in-2400 chance of winning the mini tablet computer device. And you are guaranteed to win a $10 discount coupon redeemable at University Spirit bookstore.

You can be eligible for a prize even if you don’t complete the survey

If you want to be included in the prize drawing but do not want to  respond to the Purdue Student Satisfaction Survey, just send a letter to the Office of Vice President for Student Affairs, Purdue University, Schleman Hall of Student Services, 475 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2050. State in the letter that you want to be included in the Purdue Student Satisfaction Survey prize drawing, and include your name, your campus address, and your PUID number.