North Carolina State University
Fall 1998 Survey of Baccalaureate Alumni
and
Fall 1998 Employer Survey:
Introduction, Methods, and Alumni Demographic Profile

 

Introduction

This series of reports presents findings from the Fall 1998 Survey of Baccalaureate Alumni and the associated Employer Survey. The surveys were conducted between mid October 1998 and early 1999. Information was gathered from alumni who received bachelors’ degrees between December 1993 and August 1996, i.e., alumni were surveyed between two and four and one-half years after they graduated. They were asked about their employment and further education, their preparation in and need for various skills and abilities, and their employment search. The graduates’ employers also rated their preparation in and need for various skills and abilities, and gave information about the employing firm and the employee's position.

This introductory report describes the survey methods and provides a demographic profile of survey respondents in comparison to the population of NC State baccalaureates. Specifically, it compares gender, race/ethnicity1, academic unit, and graduation year of survey respondents with all those who received bachelor's degrees between December 1993 and August 1996. A separate report, "Fall 1998 Survey of Baccalaureate Alumni: All Respondents," focuses on each individual topic in the alumni survey, while "Fall 1998 Employer Survey: All Respondents" focuses on the individual topics in the employer survey. Tables reporting results by gender, race/ethnicity, and college are available on the World Wide Web.

Survey Methods

Respondents

The sample included alumni who received bachelor's degrees between December 1993 and August 1996, and for whom the Office of University Advancement had current addresses. Random samples were taken from the six largest departments2, and all eligible alumni from other departments were included (n=8,333 out of 10,684 graduates). After 3 full mailings and a telephone follow-up survey, a total of 3,141 completed alumni surveys were returned for a 37.7 percent response rate (3,141 out of 8,333).

In the alumni survey employed respondents were asked to provide employer contact information. The employer survey was mailed to supervisors of all employed alumni respondents who provided such information (n=570 out of 2,850 employed alumni respondents). After two full mailings, 416 supervisors of alumni had returned completed surveys. Thus, while 73 percent of contacted employers responded to the survey, this only represents 14.6 percent of the supervisors of all employed respondents (416 of 2,850).

Analyses

The data obtained from survey respondents were analyzed using standard statistical methods3. These reports attempt to provide a level of detail that makes the data more accessible and interpretable to the reader. 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 alumni survey is low – just over one percent (1.2%) at a 95 percent confidence interval. That is, if 54.0 percent of the respondents said they value career planning and placement assistance services for alumni, we can be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 52.8 percent (54.0 - 1.2) and 55.2 percent (54.0 + 1.2) if all alumni graduating between December 1993 and August 1996 had responded to the survey4. The margin of error for the employer survey is higher (+4.25%) because the response rate is lower. In addition, because the margin of error increases as the sample size decreases, 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 December 1993-August 1996 Graduates, the Final Sample, and Survey Respondents

The following sections compare demographic characteristics of the full population of eligible alumni, the final sample of alumni (which excluded those with unknown addresses and those not in the samples from the six largest departments), and those who actually responded to the survey. Overall there are no demographic differences between the full population and the final sample of respondents. However, there are demographic differences between those who responded to the survey and those who did not.

Those responding to the survey vary significantly from the full population on gender, race/ethnicity, and the college from which they graduated, but not the year in which they graduated. In general, there are slightly more whites and women among the survey respondents than among the full population of graduates. In addition, alumni from PAMS and Textiles are slightly overrepresented among respondents, and those from Engineering and Management slightly underrepresented. The differences, however, are not great enough to imply that the survey results would be appreciably different for the full population of bachelor's graduates from December 1993-August 1996. These reports are therefore based on the assumption that the results obtained are broadly representative of the population of NC State bachelor's degree recipients between December 1993 and August 1996.

Gender and Race/Ethnicity (Tables 2-1 and 2-2)

Women made up about 40 percent (40.1%) of those who received a bachelor's degree from NC State between December 1993 and August 1996, but almost 45 percent (44.9%) of those responding to the survey. Similarly, while 87.3 percent of the graduates in the survey population were white, 91.3 percent of survey respondents were white. African Americans are slightly underrepresented in the results, making up 5.3 percent of survey respondents, but 7.4 percent of the alumni population.

Table 2-1: Gender of Alumni Population, Sample, and Survey Respondents

Gender Group
N
%
Alumni
Population
Sample
Survey
Respondents

Women

4,271

40.1%

3,419

41.0%

1,410

44.9%

Men

6,377

59.9%

4,915

59.0%

1,731

55.1%

Total

10,648

100.0%

8,334

100.0%

3,141

100.0%

Table 2-2: Race/Ethnicity of Alumni Population, Sample, and Survey Respondents

Racial/Ethnic Group
N
%
Alumni
Population
Sample
Survey
Respondents

White

9,297

87.3%

7,337

88.0%

2,867

91.3%

African American

793

7.4%

592

7.1%

167

5.3%

Native American

51

0.5%

41

0.5%

10

0.3%

Asian

379

3.6%

275

3.3%

73

2.3%

Hispanic

128

1.2%

89

1.1%

24

.8%

Total

10,648

100.0%

8,334

100.0%

3,141

100.0%

Academic Unit (Table 2-3)

Table 2-3 shows the college from which primary degree was received for the December 1993 through August 1996 alumni class, the final sample, and the survey respondents. Most colleges are generally accurately represented in the survey, with similar proportions of survey respondents and graduating class members. The differences that exist can generally be attributed to the sampling rather than to extensive variations in the response rates of colleges. For example, 27.6 percent of the population were from the College of Engineering. Only a sample of alumni from its three largest departments, however, were included in the final survey sample, and thus College of Engineering alumni made up only 26.1 percent of those in the final sample. The proportion of all respondents from the College of Engineering accurately reflects this sampling (26.2%). Similarly, including only a sample of Business Management students reduced the proportion of College of Management students from 12.7 percent in the population to 11.0 percent in the sample. With their slightly lower response rate, Management alumni represented 10.4 percent of all respondents. On the other hand, the combination of relatively high response rates and being slightly overrepresented in the sample gave the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the College of Textiles slightly larger proportions of their alumni among survey respondents.

Table 2-3: Academic Unit of Alumni Population, Sample, and Survey Respondents

Academic Unit
N
%
Alumni
Population
Sample
Survey
Respondents
Response Rate
(N Survey Resp/N Sample)

Agriculture and Life Sciences

1,710

16.0%

1,382

16.6%

490

15.6%

35.5%

Design

349

3.3%

308

3.7%

109

3.5%

35.4%

Education & Psychology

667

6.3%

574

6.9%

228

7.3%

39.7%

Engineering

2,940

27.6%

2,176

26.1%

823

26.2%

37.8%

Forest Resources

352

3.3%

305

3.7%

127

4.0%

41.6%

Humanities and Social Sciences

2,185

20.5%

1,710

20.5%

619

19.7%

36.2%

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

602

5.6%

522

6.3%

225

7.2%

43.1%

Textiles

493

4.6%

437

5.2%

192

6.1%

44.0%

Management

1,350

12.7%

920

11.0%

328

10.4%

35.7%

Total

10,648

99.9%

8,334

100.0%

3,141

100.0%

37.7%

Graduation Year (Table 2-4)

There are no differences between the alumni population, the sample, and survey respondents with respect to the academic year in which they received their bachelor’s degrees. About one-third graduated in each of the academic years included in the survey.

Table 2-4: Graduation Year of Alumni Population, Sample, and Survey Respondents

Graduation Year
N
%
Alumni
Population
Sample
Survey
Respondents

1993-94

3,714

34.9%

2,911

34.9%

1,095

34.9%

1994-'95

3,550

33.3%

2,782

33.4%

1,057

33.6%

1995-96

3,384

31.8%

2,641

31.7%

989

31.5%

Total

10,648

100.0%

8,334

100.0%

3,141

100.0%

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Endnotes:
1. 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)
2. These departments sampling percentages were: Business Management (65.3%), Civil Engineering (86.0%), Communication (73.6%), Electrical Engineering (73.7%), Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (76.3%), and Zoology (81.9%). No significant differences in results were found in analyses comparing unweighted data with data weighted to account for this sampling. Results reported here are based on unweighted data reflecting the actual number of respondents. (back)
3. 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 Office of Institutional Planning and Research upon request. (back)
4. 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. Margins of error for individual questions are usually even 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)

 


For more information on the Fall 1998 Survey of Baccalaureate Alumni and Fall 1998 Employer 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: September, 2000

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