The Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis (IPA) of the University of California, Merced collaborated with the Division of Student Affairs to launch three undergraduate surveys in the first year of operations at the new campus: the New Undergraduate Survey (NUS), administered to all new freshmen and transfers in fall 2005; the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), administered in spring 2006 to all undergraduates who were enrolled in fall 2005 and continued in spring 2006; and the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), administered to all undergraduates enrolled in spring 2006. The results of these surveys are summarized here. Compared to the NSSE benchmark institutions, UC Merced freshmen rated their entire educational experience significantly lower on average and were much less sure that they would attend UC Merced if they could start over again. Similarly, according to the UCUES survey, UC Merced freshmen were somewhat less likely than other UC freshmen to say they still would choose to enroll at their current campus (77 percent versus 84 percent); however, UC Merced was not the lowest of the nine campuses, and it is clear from all three surveys that the newness of the campus helped draw students to it, though the comparative disadvantage in terms of breadth of social and recreational activities and academic offerings led some of them to reconsider their pioneering impulses. (Contains 6 notes.)