North Carolina State University
2004-2005 Graduating Senior Survey:
Introduction, Methods, and Student Demographic Profile
Introduction
This series of reports presents findings from the 2004-2005 Graduating Senior Survey at NC State. Students from eight of the nine undergraduate academic units who graduated in December 2004 or May 2005 (AY04-05) are included1. Survey topics include: student goals and intentions; academic environment and faculty contributions; campus climate; academic and non-academic services for students; NC State's contribution to student knowledge, skills and personal development; and student employment and involvement in extracurricular activities.
This introductory report describes the survey�s methodology and provides a demographic profile of survey respondents in comparison to AY04-05 graduates. Specifically, it compares the gender, race/ethnicity2, and academic unit of survey respondents with those characteristics of the AY04-05 graduates. A separate report, "2004-2005 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 Administration
Students planning to graduate in December 2004 or May 2005 were eligible to complete the Graduating Senior Survey. The web survey was available from the start of the fall semester in mid-August, 2004, until graduation in mid-May, 2005. Individual departments were responsible for informing their students about the survey and for following up with non-respondents. Departments typically connected the survey to the Application for Degree process. Those graduating with more than one major could complete a survey only for their primary major, as defined by university records. As in past years, several colleges and most academic departments took the opportunity to include a departmental "insert" survey along with the AY04-05 GSS to gather information more specific to their individual assessment needs. Students could complete an insert survey for each of their majors. Results from insert surveys are not available on the web, but are provided directly to the respective departments.
Respondents (Table 1)
Of the 3,654 students who graduated in Fall 2004 (N=1,301) or Spring 2005 (N=2,353), 61 percent (N=2,242) completed and returned usable surveys. Overall, spring graduates were more likely than fall graduates to complete the survey (64.9% vs. 55.0%).
The margin of error for the senior survey is low � under 1 percent (+0.8) at a 95 percent confidence interval. That is, if 77.4 percent of the respondents answered a question saying "yes, they would choose NC State again," we can be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 78.2 percent (77.4 + 0.8) and 76.6 percent (77.4 - 0.8) 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.
Table 1: Response Rate and Margin of Error by Semester
Semester |
Senior Class |
Survey Respondents |
Response Rate |
Margin
of |
December 2004 |
1,301 |
716 |
55.0% |
+/-1.6 |
May 2005 |
2,353 |
1,526 |
64.9% |
+/-0.9 |
Total |
3,654 |
2,242 |
61.4% |
+/-0.8 |
Gender and Race/Ethnicity (Table 2)
Women are slightly overrepresented among survey respondents. Women make up 46.3 percent of the senior class population, compared to 48.9 percent of the survey respondents. There are no significant racial/ethnic differences between the AY04-05 graduating senior population and survey respondents. White students account for 82.1 percent of the senior population, 9.6 percent are African American, and 8.3 percent are other minorities. Among survey respondents, 83.3 percent are white, 9.0 percent African American, and 7.7 percent other minorities.
Table 2: Demographics of the Graduating Senior Class and Survey Respondents
Racial/Ethnic
Group |
Senior Class |
Survey Respondents |
||||
Female |
Male |
Total |
Female |
Male |
Total |
|
White |
1,349 |
1,651 |
3,000 |
889 |
979 |
1,868 |
African American |
209 |
142 |
351 |
124 |
77 |
201 |
Native American |
7 |
11 |
18 |
4 |
8 |
12 |
Asian |
77 |
125 |
202 |
49 |
60 |
109 |
Hispanic |
47 |
32 |
79 |
31 |
19 |
50 |
Other |
1 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
Total |
1,690 |
1,964 |
3,654 |
1,097 |
1,145 |
2,242 |
Academic Unit (Table 3)
Table 3 shows enrollment of the AY04-05 graduating senior population and survey respondents by academic unit. With one exception, each college is accurately represented in the survey, with similar proportions of survey respondents and graduating class members. Due to a very low response rate, survey results for the College of Design are not representative of the graduating senior population and are therefore excluded from the survey population and all analyses.
Table 3: Classification by Academic Unit
Academic Unit |
Degrees Conferred |
Survey Responses |
Response Rate |
||
N |
% |
N |
% |
||
Agriculture and Life Sciences |
725
|
19.8% |
399
|
17.8% |
55.0% |
Education |
90
|
2.5% |
61
|
2.7% |
67.8% |
Engineering |
927
|
25.4% |
554
|
24.7% |
59.8% |
Natural Resources |
137
|
3.7% |
78
|
3.5% |
56.9% |
Humanities and Social Sciences |
960
|
26.3% |
627
|
28.0% |
65.3% |
Physical and Mathematical Sciences |
164
|
4.5% |
79
|
3.5% |
48.2% |
Textiles |
101
|
2.8% |
76
|
3.4% |
75.2% |
Management |
550
|
15.1% |
368
|
16.4% |
66.9% |
Total |
3,654 |
100.0% |
2,242 |
100.0% |
61.4% |
Analyses
The data obtained from survey respondents were analyzed using standard statistical methods4. These reports attempt to provide a level of detail that makes the data more accessible and interpretable to the 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.
Endnotes:
1. Due to a very low response
rate (5%), survey results for the College of Design are not representative of
the graduating senior population and are therefore excluded from all 2004-2005
Graduating Senior Survey reports. (back)
2. The
term "racial/ethnic" is used throughout these reports to recognize
the potentially blurred distinction between the individual terms. In application
materials students were requested 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)
3. A 95 percent confidence interval denotes the range of values
which contains the true population value in 95 out of 100 possible samples of
the graduating senior population. Additionally, margins of error for individual
questions are usually smaller than the given margin of error for the sample
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)
4. In analyses not presented in these reports, responses were
tested to determine whether there were significant differences between women
and men, between white, African American, and other minority students, and between
different colleges. Questions requiring categorical responses were analyzed
with chi-square tests, and 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 University Planning
and Analysis upon request. (back)