The 2011 Survey
In January 2012, data from the 2011 Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey were downloaded for analysis. At that time, 1,009 institutions of higher education and 177 precollege schools had provided complete data. The tables also refer to a core group of respondents—institutions that responded to both the 2011 and 2010 surveys. In 2011, there were 936 core higher education institutions and 149 core precollege institutions.
The 1,009 higher education institutions analyzed are divided into types of institutions. The classification system is described below. The higher education analysis includes data from 214 research/doctoral institutions, 332 master’s institutions, 250 baccalaureate institutions, 49 specialized institutions, and 164 associate’s institutions.
Some institutions were classified after the analysis or had no classification. Those institutions appear in the data pages and, in some cases, appear in sorted list. For example, Deep Springs College, which participated in the survey for the first time 2011, appears in sorted lists and in the data pages. It was classified as a private associate’s college after the original data were analyzed, and its data are not part of the core study or in the tables in the Survey Results section of the publication.
The 177 precollege institutions that replied to the 2011 survey comprise 162 private schools, 14 Seventh-day Adventist academies, and one public school. The public school is the North Carolina School of Science and Math. It is a two-year (11th and 12th grade), residential public school that shares many characteristics with private schools. It has a separately incorporated foundation that is responsible for advancement and that has been submitting a VSE survey since 2008. It is included in the overall analysis and data pages, but not in the breakdowns by type of private school. Data from Seventh-day Adventist schools are shown separately in the publication and data pages.