This series of reports presents findings from the Fall 2011 Future Plans Survey conducted at NC State University. The survey is designed to collect specific information on students' plans following graduation, including detailed information on employment, graduate/professional school attendance, and participation in career-preparation activities while at NC State. This introductory report provides background on the project, which was administered for the first time in Fall 2010, and an overview of the research methods. A separate report, Fall 2011 Future Plans Survey: All Respondents, provides overall results, and the College Comparisons report provides results broken down by the college from which the respondent graduated. Select summaries on results by academic department within college are also available in the Department Summaries reports. Finally, a copy of the questionnaire is also available online.
Historically the CDC and the college career service offices used various means to collect information from NC State's seniors on their 'future plans' at the time of their graduation. While these diverse strategies provided useful information for some units, without a systematic, centralized process for collecting information it was difficult to get a good picture of the future plans for NC State graduates as a whole. In addition, rather than having individual units using their resources to collect information from their respective students, centralizing the project in UPA provided a more efficient and cost-effective mechanism for both administering the survey and providing reports on the results. To accomplish these objectives UPA developed and administered the pilot Future Plans Survey in Fall 2010. Based on experiences with and feedback on the pilot survey, the survey was revised for the Spring 2011 administration, and again slightly revised for the Fall 2011 administration.
UPA is solely responsible for preparing the survey for online administration, identifying the survey population and sending email invitations and reminders about the survey to students as appropriate, collecting and analyzing the data, and preparing and distributing reports on results.
The population for the December and May Future Plans Surveys are identified using NC State's Application for Degree file. All undergraduate students who have applied to graduate as of about five days prior to graduation day are included in the population. The online survey goes live about two weeks prior to graduation day, and is scheduled to close two to six weeks after graduation. (Given the winter holidays, the December survey has a longer post-graduation field time.) The Fall 2011 Future Plans Survey was in the field from December 7, 2011 through January 20, 2012, with commencement being held on December 17.
On December 7 all students who as of that day had applied to graduate were sent an email invitation from the director of the CDC. Email invitations were later sent to those who submitted their application for degree materials between December 8 and December 12. The first follow-up reminder email was sent from the director of the CDC to all non-respondents on December 12, and the second from individual career counselors in the CDC and the college career service offices to their specific constituents on December 15. On January 3, 2012 a third follow-up email reminder was sent from individual College Assistant Deans to the non-respondents from their respective colleges. The final reminder was sent from "NC State University," over the name of the Associate Director for Survey Research, to non-respondents on January 11, one week before the survey closed. Copies of the invitation and four follow-up reminders are available online. In addition to the emails sent by UPA, UPA also encouraged various administrators in the colleges and departments (e.g., Assistant Deans for Undergraduate Programs, College and Department Coordinators for Advising) to contact their students directly. Some students, therefore, might have received additional requests to participate in the survey.
College/School | Fall 2011 Graduating Class |
Percent of Population |
Survey Respondents |
Percent of Survey Respondents |
Response Rate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences | 273 | 18.9% | 134 | 15.5% | 49.1% |
College of Design | 14 | 1.0% | 11 | 1.3% | 78.6% |
College of Education | 38 | 2.6% | 20 | 2.3% | 52.6% |
College of Engineering | 310 | 21.5% | 202 | 23.3% | 65.2% |
College of Natural Resources | 112 | 7.8% | 65 | 7.5% | 58.0% |
College of Humanities and Social Sciences | 388 | 26.9% | 223 | 25.7% | 57.5% |
College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences | 42 | 2.9% | 21 | 2.4% | 50.0% |
College of Textiles | 65 | 4.5% | 47 | 5.4% | 72.3% |
Poole College of Management | 197 | 13.7% | 143 | 16.5% | 72.6% |
DUAP/First Year College | 2 | 0.1% | 1 | 0.1% | 50.0% |
Total | 1,441 | 100.0% | 867 | 100.0% | 60.2% |
For more information on the Fall 2011 Future Plans Survey
contact:
Dr. Nancy Whelchel, Associate Director for Survey
Research
Institutional Strategy and Analysis
Box 7002
NCSU
Phone: (919)
515-4184
Email: Nancy_Whelchel@ncsu.edu
Posted: April, 2012
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