THOSE IN the business of assessing higher education usually leave out two important factors that can't be examined in a pencil-and-paper test: What students put into their college experience is closely related to what they get out of it. And college students are a pretty good judge of their own education.

A national campus survey is attempting to fill that vacuum. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE, or "Nessie") released last month its third annual report based on information from 135,000 students at 613 colleges and universities, 12 in Maryland.

NSSE isn't a test, and it's not an opinion poll. It's a voluntary survey offered to a cross-section of freshmen and seniors. Among the questions: How often do you write two or more drafts of a paper? How many hours a week do you spend preparing for class? How often do you go to class unprepared? Are faculty members available, helpful and sympathetic? How often do you do volunteer work? How often have you received prompt feedback from faculty on your academic performance?

This is strictly an academic survey; students aren't asked whether they engage in binge drinking or smoke dope. The results of the survey are used by the colleges and universities to improve programs.

"We don't look at outcomes per se," says George D. Kuh, who directs the project from Indiana University. "We look at processes. They're harder to describe in detail or to document, but they're important."

Put together with other indicators of quality in higher education, Kuh says, NSSE should be "like stepping into one of those three-way mirrors in a clothing store: You get perspectives from all sides on whether the programs fit."

When NSSE's 2002 results were released last month, the finding that made headlines was that students aren't doing enough homework. About 14 percent of full-time students who responded this year say they spend more than 25 hours a week preparing for class, about the number professors say is needed to do well in college. And 41 percent spend 10 or fewer hours each week on homework.

There were other disappointing results - 42 percent of freshmen and 26 percent of seniors never discuss ideas from their reading or classes with professors outside class - but there were promising findings, too: Eighty-seven percent of students rate their college experiences as "good" or "excellent," while 70 percent praise the quality of their academic advising.

Nearly everything about NSSE is voluntary, and that goes for schools reporting results to students, parents and alumni. Of the dozen Maryland schools participating, most give scant details on their Web sites, and a few don't even mention that they're part of the national survey.

Towson University, an exception, mentions the high points. "Most Seniors Have Learned a Lot Here," says the headline, reachable with a few clicks on Towson's Web site. In last year's survey, 81 percent of seniors said they had acquired a broad general education, 62 percent said they had gained greater understanding of themselves, and 57 percent said they had learned to analyze quantitative problems. In addition, half of Towson's freshmen and three-quarters of its seniors reported that they often participated in class discussions.

"It's an elegantly simple idea that students who study more learn more," says Kuh, "but then you apply it to a place like Towson, where many of the students may not have been top performers in high school. The challenge is to arrange a curriculum for that kind of student."

Many of the nation's highly selective colleges, including the Johns Hopkins University, don't participate in NSSE, which Kuh says has grown to where it surveys about half of all undergraduates attending four-year colleges. (A parallel survey of community college students reported this month that 32 percent of students work more than 30 hours a week, and 21 percent have children at home.)

The dozen Maryland participants are an eclectic lot, ranging from the state universities at College Park, Baltimore County, Eastern Shore and Salisbury to private schools such as Goucher and Loyola.

One selective school does post its NSSE results, warts and all. Students at the University of Virginia are high on their school's academic challenge but far from enthralled by their interaction with faculty.

That fits with a national finding that nearly two-thirds of freshmen and 47 percent of seniors never worked with professors on activities other than coursework. "In that area, there's work to be done," says Kuh.