A new poll found nearly a quarter of female undergraduate students say they experienced sexual misconduct or assault as a college student.

The Association of American Universities (AAU) polled 150,000 students at 27 schools for one of the largest campus sexual assault surveys ever conducted. The results are in line with previous and recent polls suggesting one female student in every four to five experience some form of sexual misconduct during four years of college.

"It is shockingly bad, but it is the truth," Education Secretary Arne Duncan told The Washington Post. "It's just like gun violence. I'm shocked every day at the level of gun violence in this country. But it's the truth. We can either hide from that reality, or not."

The AAU surveyed students from member schools, with the exception of Dartmouth College. The rest of the school list included the entire Ivy League save for Princeton, Caltech, Case Western Reserve, Iowa State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, Texas A&M, and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as the universities of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota-Twin Cities, Missouri-Columbia, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Southern California, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin-Madison.

The Washington Post and Keiser Family Foundation released a similar survey in June, finding one in five college females to experience sexual misconduct and assault. That same month, the University of Michigan released a survey indicating 11 percent of all students experience a form of unwanted sexual contact, and 12 percent of its female students experience rape.

Such results backed up past studies and surveys that were the basis for President Barack Obama's campaign to curb campus sexual assault. Obama reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act in 2013 and The White House launched two publicity campaigns: one geared toward aiding sexual assault survivors, Not Alone, and one aimed at prevention, It's On Us.

"The leaders of our universities are deeply concerned about the impact of these issues on their students," Hunter Rawlings, the AAU's president, told The Post. "Their participation in this and other climate surveys is an important part of their efforts to combat sexual assault."

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