The good news is that 88 percent of Cornell undergraduates rate their educational experience at Cornell as "excellent" or "good," and 93 percent said they are "very satisfied" or "generally satisfied" with the overall quality of instruction, according to the 51 percent of undergraduates who in early April completed the Cornell PULSE (Perceptions of Undergraduate Life and Student Experiences) Survey, issued by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning.

For most satisfaction measures, 2011 results are on par with those reported in 2009, says Marne Einarson, assistant director of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning. Satisfaction, overall and with various aspects of the Cornell experience, remains high.

One challenge raised by the findings is that there has been a small uptick in dissatisfaction with "administration's responsiveness to student concerns" with 30 percent of respondents being "generally dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied"; this compares to 25 percent of survey respondents in 2009.

Other good news from the survey:

• Academic involvement seems to be on the upswing. More than three-quarters (77 percent) of students had participated in hands-on learning activities (e.g., lab work, experiments, projects) "often" or "very often." Compared with 2009, students reported more frequent involvement in intellectual discussions both within and outside the classroom.
• 92 percent of students agreed that "Faculty members are willing to talk with me individually," and 94 percent agreed that "Faculty members treat me fairly."
• Students continue to be involved in a host of co-curricular and extracurricular activities: 40 percent spent some time during "a typical week" participating in community service, and more than 80 percent were engaged in such extracurricular activities as student organizations and physical fitness. Eighty-five percent have had an internship or plan to do so before graduating; 57 percent have conducted or plan to conduct research with a faculty member.

Other challenges:

• Almost one-third (32 percent) of respondents were dissatisfied with academic advising.
• 57 percent of students disagreed that "There are enough late-night social activities at Cornell that don't involve alcohol."
• Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of students reported they had "often" or "very often" felt overwhelmed by all they had to do during the past school year.

Einarson said that Cornell will conduct more in-depth analysis of survey results over the summer and early fall, including comparing Cornell students' responses by sex, race, college and class year.

"We will receive data from other participating institutions later this summer; this will enable us to compare our results with those of our peer schools," Einarson said.

She added that more than 1,600 students provided open-ended comments about their Cornell experience, which will be coded for general themes this summer.