The survey was created and administered by the Consortium on the Financing of Higher Education (COFHE), which is based at MIT. It is an association of the presidents "of 31 highly selective private colleges and universities ... including all of the Ivies, large schools nationwide like Stanford, Northwestern, Rice, Duke, small colleges including Williams, Pomona, and Carleton, and women's colleges like Wellesley and Smith," said Anthony Broh, COFHE's director of research.
The goal of this survey is the same as COFHE's general goal, which is to "help with planning and policy at our member institutions," Broh said.
"Students at twenty-eight of the COFHE institutions are all being asked to complete this same survey. You will be able to give us your assessment of your academic experiences, campus resources, campus life and your personal growth while at Amherst. Your responses will help the administration and faculty to identify student concerns and improve the quality of life in all its aspects at Amherst," said Mager, who also acts as the College's representative to the COFHE advisory committee, in his descriptive email to the student population.
Forty-two percent of the student body at the College had responded as of yesterday.
"Five or six schools have closed, and there are a dozen or so still in the field," said Broh. The survey is not being administered to the students at all of the institutions simultaneously due to differences in academic calendars.
"We had a 66 percent response rate at one of the other schools. There is one now at 65 percent ... At institutions on the low end [of responding students] almost half are completing the survey," said Broh. "I am, quite frankly, thrilled with the response rate."
"College students are bombarded with things in their email ... It's hard to get people's attention," said Harrison Gregg, associate director of institutional research at the College. "We had hoped to get a little more [of a response by this point]."
"Some Harvard students assumed the survey was a trick because though the message was signed by [Dean of the College Harry R.] Lewis, the sender's email address belonged to Barbara B. Carroll, director of the Office of Instructional Research and Evaluation. And the email directed students to an MIT website," according to The Harvard Crimson.
For nearly three decades COFHE has collected and analyzed data from its member institutions. "It was started for studying financial aid, but has broadened a bit in its interests," said Gregg.
The group focuses on undergraduates. It creates and administers surveys for specific groups involved in college life, including enrolled students, parents, and alumni. Institutions select the other members with which they would like to be compared. "Amherst usually chooses Williams, Swarthmore, and maybe Carleton or Wesleyan," said Gregg.
Broh does not expect the upcoming change of the College's president to have a great effect on the College's participation in COFHE. "Most schools are clamoring to get into this consortium ... Amherst played a large role in starting COFHE 29 years ago," said Broh. "I think it's important to get benchwork information like this right before a new president comes in to [be able to accurately measure] changes in the future."