While administrative data tracks academic outcomes, surveys are often essential for understanding community college students’ decision-making, expectations, and experiences. This report addresses recruitment and retention challenges common in multi-wave survey research by describing lessons learned from administering a four-wave study to over 4,500 first-time community college students across California, Ohio, Maryland, and Texas. By implementing a broad range of recruitment strategies—including classroom visits, emails, text messages, phone calls, thank you notes, and gift cards—the authors achieved a 36% response rate in Wave 1 and maintained high response rates among these initial respondents in subsequent waves, with 61% participation in Wave 2, 64% in Wave 3, and 58% in Wave 4.
Emails proved to be the most heavily used access point, with data showing that email subject lines noting a financial incentive drove the highest initial response rates. In-person classroom visits served to boost early participation and initial sample representativeness, while multi-channel strategies—like phone reminders and automated gift cards—helped sustain engagement over time. The report offers several recommendations for other researchers undertaking longitudinal survey work with community college students. These include using multi-channel outreach, emphasizing financial incentives, conducting initial in-person visits, and mitigating technical hurdles.