Table of Contents

This report presents findings from three years of data on NC State's graduating senior survey. The survey was administered to all NC State seniors planning to graduate during the respective spring semesters. Seniors were asked to evaluate their NC State experiences in terms of educational outcomes, satisfaction with services, and campus climate. This report compares responses for similar questions over a three-year period, 1995-1997.

Standard statistical procedures were used to test for significant differences by year. Categorical data was analyzed using chi-square tests, and numerically coded data was analyzed using one-way analysis of variance with Duncan's multiple comparison procedure. Statistical tests were assessed at the .01 probability level. The obtained samples of graduating seniors were similar across years. Chi-square analysis revealed that the samples in each year did not differ significantly from the total population in terms of race or gender, but differences were found by academic unit each year.

The survey underwent revisions each year. A few questions and response options were altered slightly and the location of some questions were moved within the survey from one year to the next; these revisions may have affected the results of the trend analysis. Additionally, while this report analyzed differences by year, the non-significant findings also deserve attention. This report summarizes the major trends and uses tables to display the findings for each year.

Goals and intentions

This section displays seniors' primary goal for attending NC State and the extent to which they feel they accomplished their goals. Across years, over three-fourths of respondents felt they had fully accomplished their primary goal for attending NC State.

Respondents were also asked to reconsider their educational choices. If seniors could begin again, would they choose to attend NC State? Would they choose the same major field of study? Across years, nearly 90% of respondents said they would attend NC State again, and nearly 80% said they would choose the same major again.

Employment and co-op experiences

This section displays seniors' employment and co-op experiences while attending NC State. For all three samples, roughly 80% of respondents reported being employed while attending NC State. Of these students, over 60% worked part-time and about 40% held jobs that were unrelated to their major. Less than a fifth of all respondents had co-op experiences, but for those who did, over half reported that the co-op helped them obtain employment.

Plans after graduation

This section displays seniors' plans following graduation. At the time of survey administration, approximately one-fourth of each year's respondents had accepted positions of employment or were continuing in current positions. The surveys were administered several months prior to graduation and this figure may underestimate actual post-graduate employment levels.

Several trends were apparent. Across the years, for those seniors who knew they had employment as of the time of the survey, over 90% had accepted full-time positions, over 80% had accepted permanent positions, and over 70% had positions that were directly related to their degree.

Academic Advising

This section displays seniors' assessment of their academic advising experiences at NC State. More detailed academic advising questions were asked in 1995 and 1996. Across years the highest satisfaction was for required academic planning and the lowest was for career advising. The global advising measure indicates that nearly 70% of students in each of the three years were moderately to very satisfied with their academic advising experience.

Student Services

This section displays satisfaction ratings for numerous services offered to students at NC State. The ratings on five services changed significantly across years. Of these significant differences, two were substantively large: both financial aid services and personal safety on campus increased almost eight percentage points over the three-year period.

Established Goals for Undergraduate Education

Seniors also rated NC State's contribution to areas that have been established by the University as goals for undergraduate education. The highest rated items are ability to critically analyze ideas and information, ability to function as part of a team, and ability to plan and carry out projects independently. Seniors rated NC State's contribution lowest on understanding the present as it relates to history, and commitment to personal health and fitness. There were no statistically significant changes across years.

Attitudes and Values

A third area under knowledge, skills, and personal development was attitudes and values. Across years, seniors rated NC State's contribution highest for developing a tolerance for divergent views. The lowest item across years was advancing your appreciation of the arts. Two of the items differed significantly across years: both exercising public responsibility and community service and appreciating racial and sexual equality decreased in 1996 and then increased in 1997. However, this effect may be due to the fact that more questions relating to these areas were asked in 1996 than in 1995 and 1997. In general, senior's ratings of NC State's contribution to their attitudes and values has been notably lower than that of technical skills and the established goals for undergraduate education.

Reading Indicators

Reading indicators provided another measure of seniors' general education. Respondents were asked to rate how frequently they read newspapers and news magazines as well as more leisurely reading such as novels and literature. Of those seniors reading at least once a month, each year about 85% read the news while roughly 60% read for leisure. Both items differed significantly across years.

Cultural appreciation

Two survey questions asked respondents about the impact of NC State on their cultural appreciation. Respondents were first asked if they had made new friends with people from different countries or cultural backgrounds at NC State. Across all three years, over 70% of respondents agreed or tended to agree with this statement. For the smaller number of respondents who had taken foreign language courses (n~500), each year over half indicated that these courses helped them gain an appreciation of other cultures. For both questions, there were no significant differences by year.

Global growth indicators

Finally, another general education outcome is provided by indicators of global growth. For the areas of intellectual growth, career training, and personal growth, seniors were asked to rate how well NC State met their needs on a four-point scale ranging from "poorly" to "very well." The highest item across years was intellectual growth, and the lowest item was career training. There were no significant differences by year.

Across all years, about half of respondents said that NC State met their intellectual growth needs very well, and roughly 40% indicated that NC State met their needs adequately. In meeting career training needs, each year over one-fourth of respondents rated NC State as doing very well. On the measure of personal growth, each year over 40% of respondents indicated that NC State did very well in meeting these needs.