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North Carolina State University
2009 Baccalaureate Alumni Survey
Gender and Racial/Ethnic Comparisons of Undergraduate Educational Goals

This document reports survey data on gender and racial/ethnic differences in respondents' assessment of educational goals held by NC State. Survey results for all respondents are provided in "2009 Baccalaureate Alumni Survey: All Respondents." For information about the survey and analysis methods, see "2009 Baccalaureate Alumni Survey: Introduction, Methods, and Student Demographic Profile."


Undergraduate Educational Goals: Importance | Satisfaction | Impact of Undergraduate Education
Skills/Perspectives: Current Importance | Development
Teaching and Learning Technologies


Q NC State's Undergraduate Educational Goals

Importance for an Undergraduate Education
  Mean Rating
(based on a scale of 5="Very Important," 4="Important," 3="Moderately Important," 2="Limited Importance,"
1="Not Important")
NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Preparing for a career 4.74 4.80 4.68 4.76 4.75 4.64
Understanding my own abilities and interests 4.73 4.77 4.69 4.77 4.73 4.64
Ability to critically analyze/evaluate idea/information 4.67 4.70 4.64 4.66 4.67 4.70
Recognizing and acting upon ethical principles 4.60 4.67 4.53 4.62 4.60 4.58
Ability to use technologies/search strategies to access info 4.57 4.61 4.53 4.61 4.57 4.56
Valuing learning as a lifelong process 4.56 4.60 4.51 4.52 4.57 4.46
Ability to construct clear, precise, and accurate arguments 4.56 4.55 4.57 4.62 4.55 4.56
Ability to collect relevant data 4.52 4.54 4.50 4.51 4.52 4.54
Having tolerance for different points of view 4.45 4.61 4.29 4.68 4.43 4.49
Ability to understand current literature in my field 4.38 4.44 4.33 4.53 4.38 4.28
Developing and sustaining an active and healthy lifestyle 4.35 4.43 4.27 4.54 4.34 4.28
Understanding basic concepts in a broad range of disciplines 4.35 4.37 4.33 4.47 4.33 4.44
  NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Understanding issues and problems facing the world 4.29 4.45 4.13 4.52 4.27 4.32
Understanding diverse cultures/values 4.17 4.41 3.92 4.73 4.10 4.39
Understanding how science/technology influence society/everyday life 4.10 4.18 4.02 4.33 4.07 4.18
Ability to formulate/test hypotheses 4.06 4.02 4.09 4.06 4.05 4.13
Being involved in public and community affairs 4.04 4.26 3.82 4.37 4.02 3.98
Understanding the present as it relates to history 4.01 4.05 3.97 4.30 4.00 3.84
Understanding commonality of human problems through global perspective 4.00 4.21 3.78 4.45 3.94 4.22
Acquiring an awareness of new scientific knowledge/discoveries 3.94 3.96 3.92 4.07 3.92 4.09
Appreciating the humanities (e.g., literature, philosophy, religion, history, etc.) 3.84 4.00 3.68 4.18 3.80 3.91
Understanding issues associated with gender inequality 3.83 4.10 3.55 4.58 3.75 3.94
Understanding issues associated with racial inequality 3.82 4.06 3.57 4.66 3.73 3.95
Appreciating the arts (e.g., music, art, theater, etc.) 3.72 3.93 3.51 4.08 3.68 3.78
Applying social science methods to understand human behavior 3.70 3.87 3.51 4.07 3.65 3.81
View Frequency Distributions
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Satisfaction that Education Met Each Goal
  Mean Rating
(based on a scale of 5="Very Satisfied," 4="Somewhat Satisfied," 3="Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied," 2="Somewhat Dissatisfied,"
1="Very Dissatisfied")
NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Ability to collect relevant data 4.36 4.39 4.32 4.32 4.36 4.32
Ability to use technologies/search strategies to access info 4.36 4.36 4.35 4.38 4.36 4.25
Understanding basic concepts in a broad range of disciplines 4.36 4.37 4.35 4.35 4.37 4.22
Ability to critically analyze/evaluate idea/information 4.34 4.37 4.32 4.41 4.35 4.17
Having tolerance for different points of view 4.25 4.32 4.17 4.37 4.25 4.13
Recognizing and acting upon ethical principles 4.25 4.32 4.17 4.18 4.26 4.15
Valuing learning as a lifelong process 4.24 4.31 4.18 4.19 4.26 4.10
Ability to construct clear, precise, and accurate arguments 4.19 4.22 4.16 4.28 4.19 4.13
Ability to formulate/test hypotheses 4.17 4.20 4.15 4.10 4.17 4.26
Ability to understand current literature in my field 4.13 4.20 4.06 4.26 4.13 3.97
Understanding diverse cultures/values 4.13 4.23 4.04 4.16 4.13 4.15
Understanding how science/technology influence society/everyday life 4.10 4.14 4.06 4.13 4.10 3.99
  NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Understanding my own abilities and interests 4.07 4.11 4.03 4.10 4.09 3.89
Appreciating the humanities (e.g., literature, philosophy, religion, history, etc.) 3.99 4.11 3.87 4.08 3.98 3.99
Understanding the present as it relates to history 3.95 3.96 3.93 4.06 3.94 3.96
Acquiring an awareness of new scientific knowledge/discoveries 3.93 3.96 3.90 3.93 3.93 3.90
Understanding commonality of human problems through global perspective 3.92 4.00 3.84 4.02 3.91 3.90
Understanding issues and problems facing the world 3.92 3.96 3.88 3.97 3.93 3.77
Applying social science methods to understand human behavior 3.91 4.03 3.80 3.96 3.91 3.88
Understanding issues associated with racial inequality 3.90 3.98 3.83 3.82 3.91 3.88
Understanding issues associated with gender inequality 3.89 3.97 3.81 3.86 3.89 3.92
Developing and sustaining an active and healthy lifestyle 3.87 3.89 3.85 3.95 3.87 3.79
Preparing for a career 3.85 3.87 3.82 3.99 3.85 3.71
Being involved in public and community affairs 3.85 3.95 3.75 4.03 3.84 3.75
Appreciating the arts (e.g., music, art, theater, etc.) 3.81 3.93 3.69 3.99 3.80 3.74
View Frequency Distributions
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Q Impact of Undergraduate Education

  Mean Rating
(based on a scale of 5="Agree," 4="Tend to Agree,"
3="Neither Agree nor Disagree," 2="Tend to Disagree," 1="Disagree")
NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
NC State experiences helped ability to acccess/use info in profession 4.40 4.42 4.38 4.45 4.41 4.24
NC State experiences/courses encouraged creative/innovative thinking 4.34 4.37 4.30 4.32 4.35 4.15
NC State education prepared me to be competitive with grads from other institutions 4.33 4.30 4.36 4.34 4.35 4.03
NC State foreign language courses helped me gain appreciation for other cultures 3.85 3.99 3.69 3.93 3.83 3.91
NC State physical educ course(s) positively influenced current exercise/health 3.63 3.60 3.65 3.69 3.61 3.76
View Frequency Distributions
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Q Skills/perspectives gained through courses/experiences

Current Importance
  Mean Rating
(based on a scale of 5="Very Important," 4="Important," 3="Moderately Important,"
2="Limited Importance," 1="Not Important")
NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Skills/perspectives gained through research/internship/co-op/student teaching 3.68 3.77 3.59 3.80 3.65 3.87
Skills/perspectives gained through community service/service learning 3.02 3.30 2.74 3.44 2.96 3.26
Foreign language skills 2.45 2.55 2.35 2.71 2.40 2.84
Skills/perspectives gained through study abroad experience 2.21 2.36 2.06 2.23 2.19 2.47
View Frequency Distributions

Skill Development
  Mean Rating
(based on a scale of 5="Excellent," 4="Good," 3="Average," 2="Fair," 1="Poor")
NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Skills/perspectives gained through study abroad experience 4.11 4.28 3.89 3.97 4.13 4.02
Skills/perspectives gained through research/internship/co-op/student teaching 4.01 4.08 3.95 4.06 4.01 4.05
Skills/perspectives gained through community service/service learning 3.84 3.96 3.69 4.00 3.82 3.89
Foreign language skills 2.82 2.83 2.81 2.97 2.77 3.27
View Frequency Distributions
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Teaching and Learning Technologies

Q Impact of Teaching and Learning Technologies at NC State
  Mean rating
(based on a scale of 4="A great deal," 3="Some," 2="A little," 1="Not at all")
NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Improved ability to use info from internet, books, journals, etc. 3.53 3.59 3.48 3.61 3.54 3.40
Improved ability to use skills/technogies of field 3.44 3.46 3.42 3.46 3.44 3.33
Improved ability to answer questions in field 3.42 3.43 3.40 3.42 3.42 3.31
Improved ability to solve problems in field 3.39 3.38 3.40 3.34 3.40 3.28
Improved ability to use methods/rsrch in field 3.28 3.34 3.23 3.33 3.29 3.17
View Frequency Distributions
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Q Distance education or online courses taken while at NC State
NC State distance educ/online courses taken while undergraduate NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
None 56.0% 54.1% 58.0% 55.3% 55.9% 58.2%
1 16.0% 15.9% 16.1% 14.7% 16.4% 12.4%
2-3 21.6% 22.6% 20.5% 20.8% 21.4% 24.9%
4-6 4.9% 5.8% 3.9% 6.6% 4.9% 2.8%
7-10 0.9% 1.2% 0.6% 1.5% 0.8% 1.7%
More than 10 0.6% 0.4% 0.9% 1.0% 0.6% 0.0%
Total (N) 2,583 1,301 1,282 197 2,209 177


Q Satisfaction with distance education or online courses
Satisfaction with variety of distance educ/online courses offered by NC State NCSU Women Men AfAm White Other
Mean Rating 3.90 3.94 3.85 4.08 3.89 3.82
Very satisfied 30.6% 32.7% 28.2% 41.7% 29.6% 29.6%
Somewhat satisfied 43.0% 41.9% 44.2% 36.9% 43.6% 42.3%
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 14.3% 13.9% 14.9% 11.9% 14.6% 14.1%
Somewhat dissatisfied 9.7% 9.8% 9.7% 7.1% 10.1% 8.5%
Very dissatisfied 2.3% 1.8% 3.0% 2.4% 2.1% 5.6%
Total (N) 1,067 563 504 84 912 71
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For more information on the 2009 Baccalaureate Alumni 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, 2009

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