FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) SHEET:
What does participating in the study entail?
How long will each survey take?
Do I have to take the whole survey at one time?
How long does the entire study last?
What is the point of the study?
Why is my participation important?
What kinds of questions are you going to ask me?
Why do you want to see my UCLA application
Why do you want to see my financial aid application?
Why do you need me to let you have access to my academic
records?
This information is really personal, how do I know that other people won't find
out about it?
How will I get my money?
How did you pick me for this study?
What if my friends want to be in the study?
Is it hard to do a survey on the internet?
What if I don't have a computer with fast or reliable internet
access?
Is this an official UCLA survey?
Are students at other universities doing studies like this?
Will I get to see the results of the study?
What's the difference between the "survey" component
and the "in-depth" component?
What's the difference between the "survey" component
and the "interview" component?
Is there anyone I can talk to in person about this study?
I still have more questions...
What does participating in the study entail?
The main thing we will ask you to do is take six surveys over the course of your UCLA career. You'll take the first one at the beginning of the fall quarter of your first year and the second one at the end of the spring quarter of your first year. You'll then take one survey each spring until you graduate. To compensate you for your time, we will pay you $20 for the first survey that you complete and $15 for each of the following five surveys that you complete (for the entering class of 2000, the compensation is $10 for the winter 2001 survey, $10 for the spring 2001 survey, and $15 for each subsequent survey).
The other thing we'll ask you to do is provide paper or electronic copies of three essays or papers that you wrote for your classes during the five-year duration of the study. We will ask for the first writing sample during your second quarter at UCLA. We will ask for the second writing sample during the third quarter of your second year. We will ask for the third writing sample during the third quarter of your fourth year. We will reimburse you for any printing or photocopying costs you incur.
We also hope that you will allow the admissions office, financial aid office, and registrar to give us access to your applications and academic records. Keep reading or click HERE for an explanation of why we want this information and how we will keep it confidential.
How long will each survey take?
The first survey is the longest one and it will take anywhere from one to two hours to complete it, but you can take it in two separate sittings. Subsequent surveys will be shorter than the first survey, and will last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.
Do I have to take the whole survey at one time?
No. When you reach the half-way point, you can submit your responses and exit the survey. You can then come back to take the rest of the survey within two weeks. When you come back to finish the survey, just go to the web page and click on the link that says "Click here if you've completed Part One of the first survey but still need to take Part Two".
How long does the entire study last?
It lasts for five years, or until you graduate from UCLA, whichever comes first. If you transfer or leave UCLA before you graduate, we will ask you to participate in a half-hour phone interview about the reasons you left. Basically, the goal of our study is to follow the same 800 students from the beginning of college until graduation.
What is the point of the study?
The point of the study is to understand how students' attitudes, values, perceptions,
and experiences influence their major choices, course-taking patterns, and academic
progress. Our ultimate goal is to improve college experiences for students like
you who enter UCLA or similar colleges in the future.
Why is my participation important?
We have sampled only 800 students from UCLA's first-year class, so your participation
is extremely important to us. We have tried to select students who represent
the diversity of UCLA's student body. If you do not participate, our research
will not be able to reflect the perspectives of a representative group of UCLA
students.
What kinds of questions are you going to ask me?
Click HERE to see a sample of questions in a web-based format that looks like the actual survey.
Why do you want to see my UCLA application?
As we mentioned in our invitation letter, the point of our study is to understand how students' attitudes, expectations, and experiences influence their major choices, course-taking patterns, and academic progress. In order to learn about these things, we first need to understand how students' prior educational experiences influence their experiences at UCLA. The first survey will ask you some questions about your prior schooling, but your college application provides a convenient summary of information about your high school experiences-the types of courses you took, your grades, your essay, and so on. Having this information is essential to helping us understand how students' high school experiences affect their college experiences. If you do not want us to obtain your college application, we will use the first survey to ask you about your high school courses and grades. If you do provide access to your application, however, we won't have to ask you to provide this information when you take the survey. No one except the study director will be able to link the information from your college application to your name or any other identifying information about you. We promise not to do anything that might compromise your privacy.
Why do you want to see my financial aid application?
Some studies have suggested that students from lower-income families have different experiences on college campuses than other students because they have more financial stress and have to work more hours per week. We want to know whether that is the case at UCLA. In order to figure it out, we need an accurate estimate of your family's income, as well as the other demands on that income (such as other children in college). For students who applied for financial aid, the financial aid application provides this information most accurately. But, please be assured that we will not share this information with anyone ever.
Why do you need me to let you access to my academic records?
Of all the things we need you to provide, your academic records are the most important. As we've mentioned, the purpose of our study is to understand how students' experiences at UCLA influence their major choices, course-taking patterns, and academic progress. Your academic records will tell us about the majors and minors you've chosen and the changes you make, the courses you've enrolled in, dropped or completed, and the grades you've earned. Because we are interested in all these things, every quarter, obtaining the information from your academic records is much easier than requiring you to report it every time we ask you to fill out a survey. We have enough important things we want you to tell us on the survey that we don't want to waste your time by asking you to tell us the course number, course name, and grade of every class you've taken each quarter. However, if you do not allow us to obtain your records, we will have to ask you all this stuff on the survey since it is so central to our study.
This information is really personal, how do I know that other people won't find out about it?
We have put a lot of thought into the security procedures because we don't want you to decide not to participate because you are worried about your privacy. The only person who will have a key linking your study ID and password (which are at the bottom of the invitation letter you received) to your name or other identifying information is the Project Director, Meredith Phillips. She will keep this "linking" key in her locked office and will destroy it at the end of the study. Everyone else on the research team will only know you by your study ID. Therefore, when they see the data you provide on the survey they won't have any idea which UCLA student the data belong to. When the Project Director requests your UCLA application, financial aid application, or academic records, she will put your study IDs on these forms and cover up your name and all other identifying information before asking members of the research team to enter the data into the computer.
When you press the submit button on the web survey, not only will the data only be associated with your study ID and password (not with your name), but the data will also be encrypted using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. Originally developed by Netscape, SSL has been universally accepted on the World Wide Web for authenticated and encrypted communication between clients and servers. An encrypted SSL connection requires that all information sent between a client and a server to be encrypted by the sending software and decrypted by the receiving software, thus providing a high degree of confidentiality. All members of the research team will sign confidentiality agreements saying that they will not allow anyone else to access the data once it is on the server. And the data, identifiable only by the study IDs, will be kept on password protected computers which only members of the research team can access.
Because Prof. Meredith Phillips is the only person who will be able to link your study ID and password to your name, address, or other identifying information, she wants to make sure that you trust her to keep this information completely confidential. If you have any privacy concerns whatsoever, please call her on her direct line at (310) 794-5475 or email her at phillips@sppsr.ucla.edu. If you want to meet with her in person, just give a call or send an email to arrange a time.
We will compensate you $20 for the first survey and $15 for each of the subsequent surveys you complete (for the entering class of 2000, the compensation is $10 for the winter 2001 survey, $10 for the spring 2001 survey, and $15 for each subsequent survey). Once you have completed the survey and submitted it to us, the computer will generate a list of the STUDYIDs for which we have received surveys. Within 3 business days of submitting your survey, your money will be directly deposited into your Bruin Card account. If you prefer not to have your payment deposited into your Bruin Card account, you can pick it up at 4250 (4th floor) Public Policy Building, cubicle V, between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. If those hours don't work for you, you can email us to arrange a different time for you to pick up your money. Before you come to pick up your money, make sure that you have your STUDYID number with you (or memorized) so that we know that you took the survey.
How did you pick me for this study?
We used a stratified, random sampling procedure. First, we asked the registrar to provide us with a list of all incoming first-year students (identified only by a nonsense ID) with data on their gender, ethnicity, intended major, high school GPA, and total SAT scores. We then drew random samples from within these categories to make sure that all kinds of students were represented in the study. Because some types of students are underrepresented at UCLA, we heavily oversampled those students in order to make sure that our sample would be statistically adequate. We then sent our 800 sampled students' nonsense IDs back to the registrar and they provided us with contact information for those particular students. Even though we designed our sampling procedure carefully, we need a very high percentage of the sampled students to participate or our study won't be valid. Therefore, we really hope that you will decide to help us out and participate in the study.
What if my friends want to be in the study?
Everyone who was invited to be in the study was randomly selected (from a stratified population) to statistically represent the in-coming class. So, in order to add people to the study, we need additional information about them so that they don't get confused with the randomly sampled students. Please have anyone who wants to participate but didn't receive an invitation call or email us for more information about how to become part of the sample.
Is it hard to do a survey on the internet?
We have tried to design the survey so that it is as easy as possible. Click HERE to see what an internet survey looks like. What's good about an internet survey is that you can take it any time of day or night, from any computer with a web browser. Plus, we've designed the survey so that you can stop in the middle and then return later to finish it. We've tested out the survey as best we can to make sure it works. We have also added HELP buttons to questions that might be confusing. Clicking on the HELP buttons won't make you lose your place in the survey-they'll just open up an additional box with helpful information. Also, if you ever have any questions while filling it out the survey, you can email or call us and we'll respond to you ASAP. Finally, if you're worried about knowing how to take an internet survey, you can take the survey at a computer in our research space in the Public Policy Building where a member of the research team will be on hand to help you if you have difficulties. Just email us at uclastudy@soc.ucla.edu or call us at (310) 206-7638 (campus extension x67638) if you'd like to set up a time to use the computer in our research space to take the survey.
What if I don't have a computer with fast or reliable internet access?
You can use a computer in a lab on campus, in the libraries, or in our research space in the Public Policy Building. Check out http://computerlabs.clicc.ucla.edu for a list of the campus computer labs, their hours, and who can use them. If you'd like to set up a time to use our computer to take the survey, please email us at uclastudy@soc.ucla.edu or call us at (310) 206-7638 (campus extension x67638) .
Is this an official UCLA survey?
Yes and no. The Principal Investigator of the study is Meredith Phillips, who is an assistant professor of policy studies and sociology at UCLA. However, monetary support for the study comes from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. And no administrators or professors at UCLA (besides Phillips) will ever have access to any of the information provided by you.
Are students at other universities doing studies like this?
Yes. Students at 35 selective colleges and universities around the country began participating in a similar study in the fall of 1999. Our study will complement this national study by asking some different questions, using a web-based format rather than a telephone interview, and focusing in-depth on students at a large, diverse, California university.
Will I get to see the results of the study?
Yes…eventually. Because it is a multi-year longitudinal study, we won't have final results for about 6 or 7 years. We do, however, expect to write several articles based on results from the first couple of years of the study. We will provide links to these results and articles via the UCLA study homepage. Also, once we have completed the study, we expect to write a book about it. We hope to be able to make copies of the book available to participants. Again, we promise that nothing we report in writing or speech will reveal any individually identifiable information about the participants in this study.
What's the difference between the "survey" component and the "in-depth" component?
From the 800 students who participate in the "survey" component, we plan to sample 100 students who will take a different web-based survey during Winter Quarter every year they are at UCLA. This "in-depth" survey will ask more detailed questions about how students spend their time and ask them to describe their feelings and experiences at UCLA in detail (there will be more short-answer and essay questions than on the regular survey, which is largely multiple-choice). As with the larger "survey" component, students will receive $10 for each "in-depth" questionnaire they complete. If you think you might be interested in participating in the "in-depth" component of the study, make sure you leave that box checked on the consent form when you submit it.
What's the difference between the "survey" component and the "interview" component?
From the 800 students who participate in the "survey" component, we plan to sample 20 students who will participate in three interviews during their first year at UCLA and two interviews each year thereafter. We will also ask them to let us "hang out" with them one weekday and one weekend day each year. The interview will focus on students' experiences at UCLA (in their classes, with their friends, in clubs or sports, and so on). Each interview may last as long as two hours. Students will receive a $30 gift certificate to the UCLA store for their participation in the interview component the first year, and a $20 gift certificate for their participation in each subsequent year. If you think you might be interested in participating in the "interview" component of the study, make sure you leave that box checked on the consent form when you submit it.
Is there anyone I can talk to in person about this study?
Naomi Hsu, a recent UCLA graduate and the Study Director, is available to meet with you to explain everything and answer any questions you may have. You can contact her by email at uclastudy@soc.ucla.edu or by phone at (310) 206-7638 (campus extension x67638).
I still have more questions...
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