North Carolina State University
1999 Graduating Senior Survey:
Introduction, Methods, and Student Demographic Profile
Introduction
This series of reports presents findings from the 1999 Graduating Senior Survey at NC State. Students from all nine undergraduate academic units who were graduating in Spring 1999 are included.
This introductory report describes the survey’s methodology and provides a demographic profile of survey respondents in comparison to the spring 1999 graduating class. Specifically, it compares gender, race/ethnicity 1, and academic unit of survey respondents with the spring 1999 graduating senior population. A separate report, 1999 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 1999 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 in mid-January. Other students were given the survey packet during the spring semester through other methods, such as in a required senior seminar or during an exit interview.
Of the 1,896 spring 1999 baccalaureate graduates 957 completed and returned usable surveys, for a 50.5 percent response rate. Another 155 students returned surveys but are not included either because the student who had applied to graduate did not actually graduate (n=109), or gave incomplete information (n=46).
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 – under two percent (1.6%) at a 95 percent confidence interval. This is, if 74.4 percent of the respondents said they would choose NC State again, we can be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 72.8 percent (74.4 - 1.6) and 76.0 percent (74.4 + 1.6) 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 43 percent of the senior class populations, compared to 43.7 percent of the survey respondents. White students account for nearly 87 percent of the senior population, 6.5 percent are African American, and 6.8 percent are other minorities. Among survey respondents, 87.6 percent are white, 6.0 percent African American, and 6.4 percent other minorities.
Racial/Ethnic Group N % |
Senior Population |
Survey Respondents |
||||
Women |
Men |
Total |
Women |
Men |
Total |
|
White |
696 |
948 |
1644 |
369 |
469 |
838 |
African American |
61 |
62 |
123 |
26 |
32 |
58 |
Native American |
4 |
9 |
13 |
2 |
7 |
9 |
Asian |
39 |
48 |
87 |
18 |
23 |
41 |
Hispanic |
13 |
16 |
29 |
3 |
8 |
11 |
Total |
813 |
1083 |
1896 |
418 |
539 |
957 |
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 to graduating
class members. However, due to their unusually high response rate, College of Management students (75.8% response rate)
are slightly over-represented in the sample. The College of Humanities and Social Sciences on the other hand, is
slightly underrepresented because of a relatively low response rate among its seniors (33.1%).
Academic Unit |
Senior Class |
Survey Respondents |
Response Rate |
||
N |
% |
n |
% |
||
Agriculture and Life Sciences |
408 |
21.5% |
192 |
20.1% |
47.1% |
Design |
78 |
4.1% |
26 |
2.7% |
33.3% |
Education & Psychology |
119 |
6.3% |
41 |
4.3% |
34.5% |
Engineering |
405 |
21.4% |
182 |
19.0% |
44.9% |
Forest Resources |
103 |
5.4% |
67 |
7.0% |
65.0% |
Humanities and Social Sciences |
296 |
15.6% |
98 |
10.2% |
33.1% |
Physical and Mathematical Sciences |
93 |
4.9% |
65 |
6.8% |
70.0% |
Textiles |
117 |
6.2% |
76 |
7.9% |
65.0% |
Management |
277 |
14.6% |
210 |
21.9% |
75.8% |
Total |
1896 |
100.0% |
957 |
100.0% |
50.5% |
For more information on the 1999 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: April 2000
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