North Carolina State University
2008 First-Year Student Survey:
Introduction, Methods, and Student Demographic Profile
Introduction
This series of reports presents findings from the 2008 First-Year Student Survey at NC State. Each year since 1972, students entering the Fall semester have been asked to participate in the survey. The survey is conducted during the New Student Orientation sessions held during the summer months prior to the start of the semester. Students entering into all 11 undergraduate academic units, including the Agricultural Institute and the First Year College, are included. Part of this survey contributes to the University of North Carolina Office of the President's (UNC-GA) system-wide efforts to evaluate institutional performance.
This introductory report describes the survey's methodology and 2008 first-year class. It compares gender, race/ethnicity1, and academic unit of survey respondents with the Fall 2008 first-year student population, and presents academic preparation statistics for first-year students. Reports with gender and racial/ethnic comparisons, as well as comparisons between colleges and departments within colleges, are available on the Web. In each report, summary statistics are presented for each survey topic, including student background characteristics, the application process, educational intent and interests, and goals for undergraduate education.
Survey Methods
Respondents
A total of 4,234 usable surveys were completed by enrolled and attending first-year students during New Student Orientation sessions. This figure represents 88.1 percent of the 4,804 first-year students who were still enrolled in classes 10 days into the Fall 2008 semester. No significant differences were found between respondents and the first-year class with respect to gender, race/ethnicity and college.
Analyses
The data obtained from the first-year orientation sessions were analyzed using standard statistical methods. 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 non-African American minority students, and between respondents of different colleges2.
Because the response rate is very high (88.1%) and the number of incoming students is large (4,804), the margin of error for these results is very low -- less than one percent ( +0.2) at a 95 percent confidence interval. That is, if 28.0 percent of the respondents say they were "very certain" of their college major, we can be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 27.8 percent (28.0 - 0.2) and 28.2 percent (28.0 + 0.2) if all first-year students had responded to the survey3. The margin of error increases as the sample size decreases, so 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.
These reports attempt to provide a level of detail that makes the data more accessible and interpretable to the novice data user. 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 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.
Demographics of the First-Year Class and Survey Respondents
Gender and Race/Ethnicity (Table 1)
There are no significant gender or racial/ethnic differences between the first-year students actually enrolled at NC State and those who responded to the survey (Table 1). Women make up 45.5 percent of the first-year population and 45.6 percent of the survey population. Among the first-year student population, 78.9 percent are white, 9.4 percent are African American, and 11.6 percent are non-African American minorities. Among survey respondents, 80.2 percent are white, 8.3 percent African American, and 11.5 percent non-African American minorities.
Table 1: Demographics of First-Year Population and Survey Respondents
| Race/Ethnicity N % |
First-Year Population | Survey Respondents | Response Rate | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women | Men | Total | Women | Men | Total | Women | Men | Total | |
| White | 1,672 34.8% |
2,120 44.1% |
3,792 78.9% |
1,498 35.4% |
1,896 44.8% |
3,394 80.2% |
89.6% | 89.4% | 89.5% |
| African American | 257 5.3% |
193 4.0% |
450 9.4% |
216 5.1% |
136 3.2% |
352 8.3% |
84.0% | 70.5% | 78.2% |
| Native American | 12 0.2% |
19 0.4% |
31 0.6% |
7 0.2% |
15 0.4% |
22 0.5% |
58.3% | 78.9% | 71.0% |
| Asian | 127 2.6% |
149 3.1% |
276 5.7% |
104 2.5% |
139 3.3% |
243 5.7% |
81.9% | 93.3% | 88.0% |
| Hispanic | 47 1.0% |
72 1.5% |
119 2.5% |
42 1.0% |
62 1.5% |
104 2.5% |
89.4% | 86.1% | 87.4% |
| Other | 71 1.5% |
65 1.4% |
136 2.8% |
62 1.5% |
57 1.3% |
119 2.8% |
87.3% | 87.7% | 87.5% |
| Total | 2,186 45.5% |
2,618 54.5% |
4,804 100.0% |
1,929 45.6% |
2,305 54.4% |
4,234 100.0% |
88.2% | 88.0% | 88.1% |
Academic Units (Table 2)
Table 2 shows enrollment of first-year students and survey respondents by academic unit. There are no significant differences between the first-year student population and survey respondents in terms of college of enrollment. The largest percentage of first-year students enrolled in the College of Engineering (28.5%), followed by First-Year College (17.7%) and the Collge of Agriculture and Life Sciences (17.2%). Enrollment figures were lowest for the College of Design (1.8%). Respondents from the Agricultural Institute have been excluded from the analyses presented in this series of reports so that responses reflect the views and circumstances of students pursing baccalaureate degrees.
Table 2: Classification by Academic Unit
| Academic Unit | First-Year Population | Survey Respondents | Response Rate | Margin of Error | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | % | N | % | |||
| Agriculture and Life Sciences | 825 | 17.2% | 726 | 17.1% | 88.0% | ±0.4 |
| Design | 86 | 1.8% | 76 | 1.8% | 88.4% | ±1.3 |
| Education | 157 | 3.3% | 142 | 3.4% | 90.4% | ±0.8 |
| Engineering | 1,370 | 28.5% | 1,237 | 29.2% | 90.3% | ±0.3 |
| Natural Resources | 144 | 3.0% | 122 | 2.9% | 84.7% | ±1.4 |
| Humanities and Social Sciences | 480 | 10.0% | 425 | 10.0% | 88.5% | ±0.5 |
| Physical and Mathematical Sciences | 186 | 3.9% | 170 | 4.0% | 91.4% | ±0.6 |
| Textiles | 164 | 3.4% | 136 | 3.2% | 82.9% | ±1.4 |
| Management | 408 | 8.5% | 351 | 8.3% | 86.0% | ±0.7 |
| First-Year College | 849 | 17.7% | 784 | 18.5% | 92.3% | ±0.3 |
| Subtotal | 4,669 | 97.1% | 4,169 | 98.4% | 89.3% | ±0.2 |
| Agricultural Institute | 135 | 2.8% | 65 | 1.5% | 48.1% | ±6.3 |
| Total | 4,804 | 100.0% | 4,234 | 100.0% | 88.1% | ±0.2 |
Academic Preparation (Table 3)
Table 3 presents academic preparation statistics for the 2008 first-year class and survey respondents. There are no significant differences between the first-year class and survey respondents in terms of high school grade point average or standardized achievement test scores.
Table 3: Academic Preparation of First-Year Class and Survey Respondents
| Academic Preparation Measure | First-Year Population |
Survey Respondents |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Verbal | 568.0 | 570.5 |
| SAT Math | 605.2 | 608.5 |
| SAT Written | 558.7 | 561.1 |
| SAT Total | 1732.1 | 1740.3 |
| High School GPA | 4.16 | 4.18 |
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. 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 Duncan's multiple comparison procedure. Complete results are available from UPA on request. (back)
3. A 95 percent confidence interval denotes the range of values that contains the true population value in 95 of 100 possible random samples of the first-year student population. The margin of error given in the text is conservative since it was calculated assuming a 50/50 response distribution for all questions. Margins of error for individual survey items are likely to be even smaller because response distributions are rarely symmetrical. (back)
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: March, 2009
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