North Carolina State University
2000 Graduating Senior Survey:
Introduction, Methods, and Student Demographic Profile
(Report No. 2)

 

Introduction

This series of reports presents findings from the 2000 Graduating Senior Survey at NC State. Students from all nine undergraduate academic units who were graduating in spring 2000 are included.

This introductory report describes the survey�s methodology and provides a demographic profile of survey respondents in comparison to the spring 2000 graduating class. Specifically, it compares gender, race/ethnicity1, and academic unit of survey respondents with the spring 2000 graduating senior population. A separate report, "2000 Graduating Senior Survey: All Respondents," focuses on each individual survey topic. Tables with gender and racial/ethnic comparisons, as well as comparisons between colleges are available on the web.

Survey Methods

Respondents

Students planning on graduating in the spring of 2000 were eligible to complete the survey. Most students were given the survey packet by their major academic department as part of the "Application for Degree" process either during the fall semester 1999 or in January 2000. Other students were given the survey packet through other methods, such as in a required senior seminar or during an exit interview.

Of the 2,041 spring 2000 baccalaureate graduates 1,290 completed and returned usable surveys, for a 63.2 percent response rate. Another 186 students returned surveys but are not included either because the student who had applied to graduate did not actually graduate (n=154), or gave incomplete information (n=32).

Analyses

The data obtained from survey respondents were analyzed using standard statistical methods2. These reports attempt to provide a level of detail that makes the data more accessible and interpretable to the novice user. A primary purpose is to highlight patterns found in responses to related question items or between comparison groups. Such consistencies among items or between groups are usually more important for understanding the data than are the sizes of the differences between individual pairs of ratings or ranks or, to some extent, whether the differences are statistically significant. While some individual small differences might actually be statistically significant, they may not be substantively meaningful. On the other hand, when even relatively small differences yield consistent patterns within a similar series of questions, the results are potentially more telling.

The margin of error for the senior survey is low � +1.0% at a 95 percent confidence interval. That is, if 75.7 percent of the respondents said they would choose NC State again, we can be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 74.7 percent (75.7 - 1.0) and 76.7 percent (75.7 + 1.0) if all graduating seniors had responded to the survey3. The margin of error increases as the sample size decreases, so statements for various subgroups, such as the separate figures reported for whites and African Americans, are less precise than statements based on the total sample.

Demographics of the Senior Class and Survey Respondents

Gender and Race/Ethnicity (Table 2-1)

There are no significant gender or racial/ethnic differences between the actual graduating senior class and those seniors who completed surveys. Women make up about 45.9 percent of the senior class populations, compared to 48.3 percent of the survey respondents. White students account for 84.8 percent of the senior population, 8.2 percent are African American, and 7.0 percent are other minorities. Among survey respondents, 87.1 percent are white, 6.7 percent African American, and 6.2 percent other minorities.

Table 2-1: Demographics of the Graduating Senior Class

and Survey Respondents

Racial/Ethnic Group

N

%

Senior Population

Survey Respondents

Women

Men

Total

Women

Men

Total

White

774
37.9%

957
46.9%

1731
84.8%

531
41.6%

593
46.0%

1124
87.1%

African American

90
4.4%

77
3.8%

167
8.2%

48
3.7%

38
3.0%

86
6.7%

Native American

4
0.2%

6
0.3%

10
0.5%

2
0.2%

3
0.2%

5
0.4%

Asian

50
2.4%

42
2.1%

92
4.5%

31
2.4%

22
1.7%

53
4.1%

Hispanic

18
0.9%

23
1.1%

41
2.0%

11
0.8%

11
0.8%

22
1.7%

Total

936
45.9%

1105
54.1%

2041
100.0%

623
48.3%

667
51.7%

1290
100.0%

Academic Unit (Table 2-2)

Table 2-2 shows enrollment of the spring graduating senior class and survey respondents by academic unit. Most colleges are accurately represented in the survey, with similar proportions of survey respondents and graduating class members. However, due to their unusually high response rates, College of Engineering and College of Management students (74.3% and 79.4% response rates, respectively) are slightly over-represented in the sample. The College of Humanities and Social Sciences and College of Natural Resources on the other hand, are slightly underrepresented because of relatively low response rates among their seniors (46.4% and 42.5%).

Table 2-2: Classification by Academic Unit

Academic Unit

Senior Class

Survey Respondents

Response Rate

N

%

n

%

Agriculture and Life Sciences

405

19.8%

229

17.8%

56.5%

Design

94

4.6%

49

3.8%

52.1%

Education & Psychology

136

6.7%

103

8.0%

75.7%

Engineering

494

24.2%

367

28.4%

74.3%

Natural Resources

113

5.5%

48

3.7%

42.5%

Humanities and Social Sciences

332

16.3%

154

11.9%

46.4%

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

81

4.0%

55

4.3%

67.9%

Textiles

95

4.6%

54

4.2%

56.8%

Management

291

14.3%

231

17.9%

79.4%

Total

2041

100.0%

1290

100.0%

63.2%


Endnotes:
1. The term "racial/ethnic" is used throughout these reports to recognize the potentially blurred distinction between the individual terms. In application materials, students were asked to identify themselves using the following categories: Caucasian, African American or Black (not of Hispanic origin), Native American Indian or Alaskan, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Hispanic (Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish origin or culture, regardless of race). For analysis purposes, these categories were collapsed into "White," "African American," and "other minorities."(back)
2. In analyses not presented in these reports, responses were tested for significant differences between women and men, between white, African American, and other minority students, and between the different colleges. All questions requiring categorical responses were analyzed using chi-squared tests, and all questions with numerically coded responses were analyzed with either T-tests or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's multiple comparison procedure. Complete results are available from UPA on request.(back)
3. A 95 percent confidence interval contains the true population value in 95% of the possible samples of a given size from the population. Margins of error for individual questions are usually even smaller than the overall margin of error because the variance of proportions in each survey item is almost always less than the 50/50 figure used in calculating the confidence interval. Thus, the margin of error given is conservative.(back)

For more information on the 2000 Graduating Senior Survey contact:
Dr. Nancy Whelchel, Associate Director for Survey Research
Office of Institutional Planning and Research
Box 7002
NCSU
Phone: (919) 515-4184
Email: Nancy_Whelchel@ncsu.edu

Posted: May 2001

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