Tips for Attaining a High First-Destinations Survey Knowledge Rate

To maximize First-Destinations Survey (FDS) data-collection results, schools need to proceed at a steady pace, starting before graduation and extending to the survey deadline. The survey lead should find a balance of responsibilities and fit in FDS outreach, inquiry, and research when they are likely to get the best results, while adhering to the timeline for surveying and obtaining FDS data, which is within six months post-graduation.

This means schools would complete data collection by December 31 of each year. Schools then submit their data to NACE beginning in January and continuing until the end of April each year, giving schools time to analyze and clean their data before reporting their template to NACE.

Schools that have attained high FDS knowledge rates—the percentage of the graduating class for whom an outcomes destination is known—shared some of their strategies for doing so:

• Personalize your outreach—Outreach should not seem like an impersonal, mass solicitation. Explaining why FDS is important to each graduating class—for example, by creating short videos to embed into emails—promotes participation, as well.
• Listen to students—Get to know your students and what they enjoy, what they like to do, and where they hang out, then use that information to literally meet them where they are. Forge personal relationships.
• Be intentional—At every career center event—career fairs, classroom presentations, senior celebrations, and more—reach out to students to see if they have any updates with their job hunt. Complement this with electronic outreach via text message or push notifications and additional in-person outreach by, for instance, visiting dorms and setting up tables on the quad, in the student center, or outside the dining hall.
• Piggyback off other events—For example, further enhance outreach efforts by attending the graduation check-in process to follow up with students who have not responded. Better yet, if possible, try to have FDS completion made a requirement for cap and gown pick up.
• Simplify the process—Streamline the number of questions—asking the bare minimum on the FDS—and make it as simple as possible to try to prevent students from being overwhelmed by the task. Then, if possible, have students answer other questions in conversations and during meetings to fill in gaps.
• Feature students who have reported their outcomes on social media—Include an area on the FDS survey for students to submit a photo and provide details about where they're going and what they're doing. Then, feature their photo and outcomes on social media and on your website. Accept and report other updates as students decide on their first destinations.
• Collaborate with others on campus— Encouraging faculty to incorporate FDS completion into their curriculum or class activities can leverage existing academic structures for better engagement.
• Understand that it’s hard to track down students after they leave campus—Once they're gone, they're gone. Hoping that new graduates keep the same phone number, check their email, or update their information on social media is very unreliable, so it's very important to try and gather as much information as possible before they walk across the stage at graduation. You may have more luck emailing students at their non-college email addresses even when they are still on campus, but definitely once they depart.
• Report and use the data—The survey team can use FDS data to create an annual report that is shared with the president, board of trustees, and on the career center’s website, maybe even as an interactive dashboard open to all. In addition, the team can create a printout of the key data to be handed to families of incoming students during tours. Other uses include providing tailored data to students during meetings and career center programming, and to use in subsequent FDS campaigns. 

NACE’s First Destinations for the College Class of 2024 report examines what happened to 2024 graduates—from associate to doctoral degree graduates—within six months of graduation. The academic year for the Class of 2024 ran July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. Participating colleges and universities collected data through December 2024 for those who graduated in that timeframe. Overall, 363 institutions provided their outcomes data to NACE from January 6, 2025, through May 14, 2025. In total, the graduating classes of these reporting institutions represent approximately 823,500 graduates, including 571,500 at the bachelor’s degree level. To our knowledge, this represents the most comprehensive view of graduate outcomes currently available for the Class of 2024. The First Destinations for the College Class of 2024 report is available on NACEWeb.