Our response rate should be viewed in the context of similar prior US studies. A 2000 meta-analysis identified 68 US web surveys of college populations with a mean response rate of 39.6% (Cook et al., 2000). Similar studies published since report a range of cooperation rates including 21.5% in 2000–2001 (Sax et al., 2003), 27.9% in 2005 (Jans and Roman, 2007) and especially 2011 data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (Nsse, 2011) which, with 636 colleges and universities used a web-survey, had an overall response rate of 34%. We were able to identify only one study with a response rate superior to that obtained in this study (79.5%); however, that project focused only on a target group of on-campus freshman. Thus, our total response rate of 57% at our first wave and ~70% overall compares quite favorably with those obtained in other similar efforts.
