Background

The NC State Alumni Survey of baccalaureate alumni who graduated from December 1990 through August 1993 sought among other things to identify the extent to which bachelor's alumni had already completed, were currently enrolled in, or were interested in graduate/professional programs of study. This report, the fifth in a series of reports on data gleaned from the survey, focuses on how all responding alumni (n = 3,179) described their current status with regard to graduate or professional study and their potential level of interest in enrolling in graduate or professional programs. Current residency of responding alumni was also explored, and alumni were asked to specify at which institution and in what discipline they had enrolled.

Current Status with Regard to Graduate or Professional Study

• Nearly one-third (32.1%) of responding alumni were currently enrolled in or had already completed graduate or professional study 2-4 years after graduating from NC State.
• Significant differences were found by ethnicity among respondents: a higher percentage of white (61.7%) than African-American (50.0%) or other minority (50.6%) respondents had not applied to graduate or professional school; a higher percentage of African-American (26.4%) and other minority (23.5%) than white (18.4%) responding alumni were currently enrolled in graduate or professional school; and a higher percentage of other minority (18.5%) than either white (13.0%) or African-American (12.9%) respondents had already finished graduate or professional study.
• Over time progressively fewer respondents indicated that they had not applied to graduate or professional schools (67.0% for 1990 graduates vs. 57.4% for 1993 graduates). This situation speaks to the increasing awareness among NC State alumni of the necessity of further education and of a potentially broadening market for graduate education among NC State alumni.
• By college or school, significant differences were also apparent. Respondents from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences displayed the highest graduate or professional study participation rate (44.4%), whereas respondents from the College of Management displayed the lowest rate (18.4%).
• By current employment status, of the 581 respondents currently enrolled in graduate or professional study, 53.2% describe themselves as students not seeking employment, but over one-third (n = 218, 37.5%) who were currently enrolled in graduate or professional study were also working full-time. As was noted in an earlier NC State Alumni Survey report ("Staying in Touch: What Alumni Services do NC State Alumni Value?" dated December 1996), respondents expressed a strong desire for graduate programs of study at NC State for working adults.

Level of Interest in Continuing Education through Graduate or Professional School

• Nearly one-third (32%) of respondents not currently enrolled in or already finished with graduate or professional study indicated high interest in further study.
• By gender, a significantly greater percentage of female respondents (35.6%) than male respondents (29.0%) expressed high interest in continuing their education through graduate or professional school.
• By ethnicity, among respondents not currently enrolled in or already through with graduate or professional study, African-American and other minority respondents were significantly more likely than white respondents to be highly interested in continuing their education through graduate or professional school.
• By college or school, significant differences were found among respondents not currently enrolled in or already finished with graduate or professional study. Respondents from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (n = 176, 40.7%) and the School of Design (n = 33, 47.1%) were more likely than respondents from other schools or colleges to be highly interested in continuing their education through graduate or professional school.
• Significant differences were also found among respondents by current employment status. Furthermore, 60% of those respondents who were moderately to highly interested in continuing their education through graduate or professional study were employed full-time, and would thus be more likely to be interested in programs of study that they could fit into their schedule as working adults.

Residency

• Of the 3,179 survey respondents, 84% were originally classified for tuition purposes as in-state students and 16% were classified as out-of-state or foreign students.
• Of the same survey respondents, 75% are currently residing in North Carolina and 25% reside out of state.
• Of the 408 responding alumni who had already finished with graduate or professional study, 280 (68.6%) resided in North Carolina and 128 (31.3%) resided elsewhere. Moreover, 128 of these respondents (31.3%) lived in the Triangle area.
• Of the 592 responding alumni who were currently enrolled in graduate or professional study, 408 (68.9%) resided in North Carolina, and 184 (31.1%) resided elsewhere. Furthermore, 180 (30.4%) of these currently enrolled respondents lived in the Triangle area.
• Of the 721 responding alumni who were neither a) currently enrolled in graduate or professional study nor b) already finished with a program of graduate or professional study, and who c) resided in the Triangle area, 227 (31.5%) expressed high interest in continuing their education through graduate or professional study. 198 (87.0%) of these 227 respondents were currently employed full-time.

Other Institutions Attended

• Over 29% of respondents who indicated that they had sought further graduate or professional education indicated that they had returned to NC State for a graduate or professional degree.
• Survey respondents are evidently gaining acceptance at highly selective institutions across the nation, from Stanford to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Six institutions accounted for nearly 50 percent of reported alumni graduate or professional study. All of these are in North Carolina: NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, East Carolina University, Duke University, Wake Forest University, and UNC-Charlotte.

Further Degrees Sought

• Survey respondents who had gone on for further graduate or professional study reported pursuing a wide variety of disciplines.
• Four disciplines (medicine, primary/secondary education, law, and business administration) accounted for 27% of all further degrees or programs in progress reported.
• Omitting the 19 alumni enrolled in fifth-year Bachelor of Architecture programs (2% of total), only 21 (2%) of alumni who had sought or completed postgraduate work were seeking or had completed a second bachelor's degree, associate degree, or certificate. Thus, it is evident that the overwhelming majority (96%) of degrees sought or completed by survey respondents are in fact at the graduate or professional level.

Background

The NC State Alumni Survey of baccalaureate alumni who graduated from December 1990 through August 1993 sought among other things to identify the extent to which bachelor's alumni had already completed, were currently enrolled in, or were interested in graduate/professional programs of study. This report, the fifth in a series of reports on data gleaned from the survey, focuses on how all responding alumni (n = 3,179) described their current status with regard to graduate or professional study and their potential level of interest in enrolling in graduate or professional programs. Current residency of responding alumni was also explored, and alumni were asked to specify at which institution and in what discipline they had enrolled.

Sample

Data obtained from this survey represent the largest and most comprehensive effort in the history of NC State to gain feedback from alumni. The survey sample included 7,491 alumni. Three full mailings and a random telephone follow-up resulted in a 51.2% response rate, yielding 3,179 usable questionnaires.

Quality assurance

Data quality assurance steps taken yielded the following findings:

• Precision: The overall margin of error for items included in this report was extremely narrow at 1.9% (95% confidence level).
• Reliability: Individual item reliabilities were high (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.96).
• A telephone follow-up survey demonstrated that late (telephone) respondents did not think less of their undergraduate preparation than did earlier (mail) respondents; indeed, telephone respondents were significantly more positive (p = .05 or better) in their assessment of the education gained at NC State than were earlier respondents on several survey items.
• Significant differences were found between the population and obtained sample in proportion of gender, race, and college, but no differences were found by year of graduation. Though these differences were significant (p = .001), they were not of sufficient magnitude (i.e., 5% discrepancy or greater) to suggest that the obtained sample was appreciably different from the population of bachelor's graduates from 1990-1993.
• This report is therefore based on the conclusion that results obtained are both accurate and broadly representative of the population of NC State bachelor's graduates for those years. Further methodological information on this survey is available from University Planning and Analysis.

Survey findings in this report center around an analysis of two survey items: (1) current status with regard to graduate or professional study, and (2) level of interest in continuing education through graduate or professional school, if not currently enrolled or already completed. Separate analyses were conducted by gender, ethnicity, year of graduation, NC State school or college, and current employment status for each item. In a separate open-ended item, alumni were asked to specify at what institution they were enrolled or had already completed a graduate/professional degree as well as the academic discipline and degree sought or completed. Note: due to rounding error, percentages within tables may not always total 100 percent.

Clear trends are apparent by year of graduation, with a higher percentage of more recent graduates than older graduates still enrolled and a lower percentage of more recent graduates than older graduates having already finished. Most noteworthy is that a declining percentage of respondents over time indicated they had not applied to graduate or professional schools - a situation that speaks to the increasing awareness among NC State alumni of the necessity of further education and of a potentially broadening market for graduate education among NC State alumni.

By School or College

Concerning current status with regard to graduate or professional study, significant differences were found among alumni survey respondents by school or college (chisq. 161.3, 32 df, p = .001). These results are given below in Table 4.

Table 4. Current Status with Regard to Graduate or Professional Study by School or College.

Frequency Column percent	Have not applied	Have applied	Been accepted	Currently enrolled	Already finished	Total
Agriculture & Life Sciences	247 48.05	31 6.03	8 1.56	153 29.77	75 14.59	514 16.53
Design	61 55.45	6 5.45	3 2.73	9 8.18	31 28.18	110 3.54
Education & Psychology	153 52.94	11 3.81	7 2.42	79 27.34	39 13.49	289 9.29
Engineering	517 64.14	37 4.59	23 2.85	126 15.63	103 12.78	806 25.92
Forest Resources	58 67.44	3 3.49	4 4.65	14 16.28	7 8.14	86 2.77
Humanities & Social Sciences	383 59.47	36 5.59	14 2.17	105 16.3	106 16.46	644 20.71
Physical & Math Sciences	140 63.06	7 3.15	5 2.25	49 22.07	21 9.46	222 7.14
Textiles	89 71.77	6 4.84	4 3.23	15 12.1	10 8.06	124 3.99
Management	242 76.83	8 2.54	7 2.22	42 13.33	16 5.08	315 10.13
University Total	1890 60.77	145 4.66	75 2.41	592 19.04	408 13.12	3110 100.0

Table 4 provides at least two interesting insights into further higher education preparation of responding alumni. First, graduates of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences were the most likely to have participated in graduate or professional school. On the other hand, graduates of the College of Textiles and the College of Management were the least likely to have participated. Second, the percentage of responding alumni who were either currently enrolled in graduate or professional study or had already finished also varied substantially by college or school. To permit a visual comparison of this finding, Chart 2 appears below.

An examination of Chart 2 reveals the wide disparity by college or school in the percent of responding alumni who reported either current enrollment in graduate/professional school or prior completion of graduate/professional studies. The need for professional certification may drive the high graduate/professional study participation rates in the College of Education and Psychology and in the School of Design. However, respondents from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences displayed the highest graduate/professional study participation rate, whereas respondents from the College of Management displayed the lowest rate.

By Current Employment Status

A cross-tabulation of current employment status and current status with regard to graduate or professional study is highly relevant to researching the market for graduate and professional study among NC State alumni. Findings of this analysis are displayed in Table 5. Note that small cell sizes precluded testing for significance.

Table 5. Current Status with Regard to Graduate or Professional Study by Current Employment Status.

Frequency Row percent Column percent	Full-time	Part-time	Unemployed and seeking	Unemployed not seeking	Student not seeking employmt.	Total
Have not applied	1744 92.72 69.15	61 3.24 46.56	21 1.12 41.18	47 2.50 83.93	8 0.43 2.43	1881 60.89
Have applied	133 91.10 5.27	2 1.37 1.53	4 2.74 7.84	2 1.37 3.57	5 3.42 1.52	146 4.73
Been accepted	64 86.49 2.54	4 5.41 3.05	2 2.70 3.92	1 1.35 1.79	3 4.05 0.91	74 2.40
Currently enrolled	218 37.52 8.64	49 8.43 37.40	3 0.52 5.88	2 0.34 3.57	309 53.18 93.92	581 18.81
Already finished	363 89.19 14.39	15 3.69 11.45	21 5.16 41.18	4 0.98 7.14	4 0.98 1.22	407 13.18
Total	2522 81.64	131 4.24	51 1.65	56 1.81	329 10.65	3089 100.0

To permit a visual comparison of the employment status of currently enrolled respondents, Chart 3 appears below.

Of the 581 respondents currently enrolled in graduate or professional study, it is apparent from Chart 3 that while 53.2 percent describe themselves as students not seeking employment, over one-third (37.5%) who are currently enrolled in graduate or professional study also work full-time. As was noted in an earlier NC State Alumni Survey report ("Staying in Touch: What Alumni Services do NC State Alumni Value?" dated December 1996), respondents expressed a strong desire for graduate programs of study at NC State for working adults.

As another indicator of market demand, a 1994 study conducted by the Office of Adult Credit Programs and Summer Sessions (entitled "A Survey of Lifelong Education Students' Needs and Expectations") found that 25.9% of the 539 Lifelong Education respondents were interested in pursuing graduate degree programs at NC State. The majority of these respondents (52.2%) intended to take most of their classes during evening hours, and 70.4 percent of respondents planned to attend NC State on a part-time basis only. The greatest demand was for graduate programs in Engineering (n = 33, 23.6% of demand); Management (n = 29, 20.7% of demand); and Education and Psychology (n = 31, 22% of demand).

By Current Employment Status

Further analysis of alumni interest in furthering their education through graduate or professional study was conducted by current employment status. Significant differences by employment status were found among respondents who were not currently enrolled in or already finished with graduate or professional study.(chisq. 37.3, 12 df, p = .001). These results are presented in Table 10.

Table 10. Level of Interest in Continuing Education Through Graduate or Professional Study by Employment Status.

Frequency Row percent Column percent	Full time	Part time	Unemployed and seeking	Unemployed not seeking	Student not seeking employment	Total
Not interested	193 88.13 9.96	12 5.48 18.18	4 1.83 15.38	10 4.57 19.61	0 0.00 0.00	219 10.45
Low interest	478 94.84 24.68	16 3.17 24.24	3 0.60 11.54	6 1.19 11.76	1 0.20 6.25	504 24.05
Moderate interest	661 93.89 34.12	20 2.84 30.30	8 1.14 30.77	13 1.85 25.49	2 0.28 12.50	704 33.59
High interest	605 90.43 31.23	18 2.69 27.27	11 1.64 42.31	22 3.29 43.14	13 1.94 81.25	669 31.92
Total	1937 92.41	66 3.15	26 1.24	51 2.43	16 0.76	2096 100.00

Results displayed in Table 10 show that 60% of those respondents who were moderately to highly interested in continuing their education through graduate or professional study were employed full-time, and would thus be more likely to be interested in programs of study that they could fit into their schedule as working adults. These findings reinforce similar results presented in Table 5.

Thus, in the aggregate, it appears that a net out-migration of approximately 9% exists among responding alumni. However, a deeper analysis reveals the complexity of these migration patterns.

• Among alumni originally classified as in-state, 82% are currently residing in North Carolina and 18% reside elsewhere.
• Among those respondents who were originally classified as out-of-state or foreign, 38% are currently residing in North Carolina and 62% have moved elsewhere.

Several additional analyses of residency status are relevant concerning the status of responding alumni with regard to graduate or professional study.

• Of the 408 responding alumni who had already finished with graduate or professional study, 280 (68.6%) resided in North Carolina and 128 (31.4%) resided elsewhere. Moreover, 128 of these respondents (31.3%) lived in the Triangle area.
• Of the 592 responding alumni who were currently enrolled in graduate or professional study, 408 (68.9%) resided in North Carolina, and 184 (31.1%) resided elsewhere. Furthermore, 180 (30.4%) of these currently enrolled respondents lived in the Triangle area.
• Of the 721 responding alumni who were neither a) currently enrolled in graduate or professional study nor b) already finished with a program of graduate or professional study, and who c) resided in the Triangle area, 227 (31.5%) expressed high interest in continuing their education through graduate or professional study. 198 (87.0%) of these 227 respondents were currently employed full-time.