Family Weekend Evaluation Results

Respondent Information

• The survey was completed by 52 parents with responses split evenly between parents of first year students (55%) and other classes (45%).

• The vast majority of respondents (84%) drove to campus, and most return to Bucknell to visit their children fairly often (42% return to Bucknell between 4 and 6 times per year, and an additional 44% return to campus between 2-3 times).

• The small sample sizes make it difficult to draw any very specific conclusions, but some general themes did emerge.

Overall satisfaction

• A feeling of satisfaction with the overall Family weekend experience was nearly universal: 96% of respondents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that they were satisfied with Family Weekend. This high level of overall satisfaction was also reflected in the perception that the weekend provided a good variety of activities (94%) and a desire to return for future Family weekends (excluding seniors, 95% of respondents said that they expected to return next year).

• 87% of Parents’ Weekend attendees said that they learned something new about the University’s programs and facilities while on campus.

Specific events

• In general, Family Weekend attendees were very satisfied with nearly all events that they attended: the modal evaluation for nearly all events was “excellent.”

• The vast majority of concerns dealt with issues of crowd control rather than specific aspects of the events themselves. In many cases, events were so popular that parents complained about the venues in which they were held and the difficulty in gaining admission. One respondent’s summary: “If you could figure out to have more room at your special events and avoid ‘sold out’ it would be great!”

Priorities of Family Weekend Attendees

• Aside from visiting with their child (which obviously was important to all respondents), parents felt that the most important events were those that involved learning about Bucknell.

General Impressions

Planning for Future Family Weekends

Other Information