View of Kirkland tower through window. (Hustler Multimedia)
The Data team distributed the 45-question survey from September 2025 to November 2025, sending the link to the Hustler Digest newsletter, the email addresses of the first-year class and through various other avenues.
Respondents were kept anonymous but required to sign in with their Vanderbilt email address and sign an honorarium confirming to be a member of the Class of 2029. All survey data is stored in a Vanderbilt Microsoft 365 account.
Questions dealing with sensitive topics included a “prefer not to answer” option. These questions include, “How many exclusive romantic relationships have you had before college?,” “Have you had sex?,” “Approximately what is your family's annual household income?,” and “Approximately how much will you owe in student loans post-grad?”
The survey received 208 responses out of a class of 1,620 — making up around 13% of the class. Results carry a ±6.3 percentage point margin of error at a 95% confidence level. All graphs and statistics in the project use survey data; demographics data was additionally checked against official university data.
Survey respondents could choose to enter their email in a separate form to be entered into a raffle for Vanderbilt merch. Forty-four respondents chose to enter the raffle.
Data analysis was completed using R. Data visualizations were created using Datawrapper. Web development was done using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
Are there any questions you were hoping to see on this survey but didn't? Email data@vandymedia.org!