#DearPOTUS report card: Did the president deliver what you wanted?

As a part of our #DearPOTUS project, we asked you to tell us what one thing you wanted from President Barack Obama in Tuesday's State of the Union address. You responded by the hundreds, sending us more than 90 photos, countless tweets and several (lengthy) emails.

We've been hard at work analyzing the responses and identifying the top issues you wanted President Obama to address. So did he deliver?

No issue resonated more with our online audience than surveillance and the National Security Agency, accounting for about 11 percent of all responses, the highest number for any given topic.

“Dear Mr. President, I want you to stop spying on me,” one viewer wrote. “Please.”

Almost eight months after Edward Snowden first disclosed top-secret documents on the NSA's surveillance program, described as the most significant intelligence leak since the Pentagon Papers, the Obama administration is beginning to address the questions and the backlash they have generated.

The president avoided spotlighting the issue heavily in his speech by giving a dedicated address on the subject earlier this month, announcing significant changes in how the government gathers and uses telephone records, and vowing to restrict intelligence agencies from gaining access to data and records. Though the president has insisted that there’s no evidence that the NSA abused its power in retrieving and using phone records, the White House’s review of how intelligence is collected post-Snowden has been seen as an anticipated step in pulling back the government’s surveillance, both domestic and abroad.

On Tuesday, the president used just 37 words in the 6,778-word State of the Union address on the topic. 

"That’s why, working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs," said Obama, "because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated."

Responses about student loans overwhelmed us in number and desperation. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been so surprising; more than 70 percent of the class of 2012 college graduates left school with debt, totalling an average of $29,400 per borrower, according to The Project on Student Debt. And these fresh diplomas are entering a job market where starting salaries have been slipping each year, now in the mid-$30,000s. Today, Americans owe more in student loans than on credit cards.

In his speech, Obama cited the significant student loan reforms, which were part of the 2010 Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, that are kicking in this year, such as reducing repayments to 10 percent of income. He also touted his plan to give "colleges more incentives to offer better value." The administration's proposed rating system for colleges and universities, which would include metrics like graduation rates, average debt burdens and graduate earnings, and then tie financial aid to the results, roused mixed responses in the higher education community. 

The president didn't say anything, however, on the topic of private student loans, which have far fewer protections than federal ones. He also didn't point to any effort to address the skyrocketing cost of college tuition. But he did add, vaguely, that he wants to work with Congress "to see how we can help even more Americans who feel trapped by student loan debt." 

Many of you told us you want President Obama to end U.S. drone strikes, operations he significantly expanded since taking office.

Under Obama, the CIA has launched six times the number of drone strikes in Pakistan than it did during the presidency of his predecessor, George W. Bush. In 2009, President Obama established and quickly expanded America's air war in Yemen, which included the first known targeted killing of a U.S. citizen living abroad in 2011. He also presided over the advent of the "signature" strike, in which groups of men believed to be militants associated with terrorist groups are targeted, but whose identities aren't always confirmed.

Though the civilian casualty rate per strike has decreased under Obama compared to Bush, more Americans are raising concerns about who is being targeted, who is being killed and the fallout on the ground.

Despite backlash from some corners, most Americans support the drone program. And with the exception of a struggling effort to gradually move the program from the purview of the CIA to the military, the president has not indicated any new effort to rein in the use of drones.

During Tuesday's speech, he defended limits he'd set on the strikes.

"So even as we actively and aggressively pursue terrorist networks -– through more targeted efforts and by building the capacity of our foreign partners -–America must move off a permanent war footing," the president said. "That’s why I’ve imposed prudent limits on the use of drones -– for we will not be safer if people abroad believe we strike within their countries without regard for the consequence."

As we reported in this in-depth account, a U.S. drone struck a wedding convoy in a remote part of central Yemen last month, killing 12 civilians. Did that strike meet those limits?

Many #DearPOTUS submissions called for the White House to focus on economic issues such as ensuring a living wage for workers, helping to create better jobs, shrinking income inequality and pursuing justice for the 2008 economic crisis. Several people affiliated with Restaurant Opportunities Centers United tweeted pictures pleading for a raise in the $2.13 minimum wage for tipped workers.

President Obama raised a few of those concerns Tuesday night. In fact, he took some leadership on the issue by announcing that he would be giving some employees a raise himself.

"I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour – because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you should not have to live in poverty," the president said.

However, John Anderson, a cook at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, told Joie Chen early Wednesday on America Tonight that the president's plan wouldn't help him or his coworkers. It will only help new hires.

In one of his more impassioned moments of the night, Obama also called on Congress to give other low-wage workers a raise.

"Today, the federal minimum wage is worth about 20 percent less than it was when Ronald Reagan first stood here. And Tom Harkin and George Miller have a bill to fix that by lifting the minimum wage to $10.10. It's easy to remember, $10.10. This will help families. It will give businesses customers with more money to spend. It does not involve any new bureaucratic program."

Several #DearPOTUS submissions we received expressed hostility toward the Trans-Pacific Partnership mega-deal in the works, and the potential threat it poses to American jobs. But in his speech, Obama seemed to pointedly counter those criticisms. 

"When 98 percent of our exporters are small businesses, new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia Pacific will help them create more jobs," he said. "We need to work together on tools like bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority to protect our workers, protect our environment, and open new markets to new goods stamped 'Made in the USA.'"

View more photos and how other Al Jazeera America viewers responded to Tuesday's address.