North Carolina State University
2009 First-Year Student Survey:
Introduction, Methods, and Student Demographic Profile
Introduction
This series of reports presents findings from the 2009 First-Year Student Survey at NC State. Each year since 1972, students entering in the Fall semester have been asked to participate in the survey. The survey is conducted during 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.
This introductory report describes the survey's methodology and 2009 first-year class. It compares gender, race/ethnicity1, and academic unit of survey respondents with the Fall 2009 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 in the Table of Contents. 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
The 2009 First-Year Student Survey was administered online between July 6, 2009 and September 7, 2009. During the week following their attendance at New Student Orientation during the summer prior to their first semester, students were sent e-mail invitations to participate in the survey. Those who did not attend summer orientation were also invited to participate. A total of 3,287 surveys were completed by enrolled and attending first-year students. This figure represents 68.8 percent of the 4,778 first-year students who were still enrolled in classes 10 days into the Fall 2009 semester.
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 high (68.8%) and the number of incoming students is large (4,778), the margin of error for these results is very low -- less than one percent (±0.5) at a 95 percent confidence interval. That is, if 35.9 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 35.4 percent (35.9 - 0.5) and 36.4 percent (35.9 + 0.5) 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)
Women were slightly overrepresented among survey respondents, making up 49 percent of survey respondents, but only 44 percent of the first-year population (Table 1). There are no significant racial/ethnic differences between the first-year students actually enrolled at NC State and those who responded to the survey.
Table 1: Demographics of First-Year Population and Survey Respondents
| Race/Ethnicity N % |
First-Year Population | Survey Respondents | Response Rate | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
| Asian American | 145 3.0% |
106 2.2% |
251 5.3% |
97 3.0% |
73 2.2% |
170 5.2% |
66.9% | 68.9% | 67.7% |
| Black / AfrAmer | 175 3.7% |
194 4.1% |
369 7.7% |
105 3.2% |
146 4.4% |
251 7.6% |
60.0% | 75.3% | 68.0% |
| Hispanic | 93 1.9% |
79 1.7% |
172 3.6% |
47 1.4% |
64 1.9% |
111 3.4% |
50.5% | 81.0% | 64.5% |
| White | 2,058 43.1% |
1,563 32.7% |
3,621 75.8% |
1,307 39.8% |
1,215 37.0% |
2,522 76.7% |
63.5% | 77.7% | 69.6% |
| Other / Unknown | 221 4.6% |
144 3.0% |
365 7.6% |
129 3.9% |
104 3.2% |
233 7.1% |
58.4% | 72.2% | 63.8% |
| Total | 2,692 56.3% |
2,086 43.7% |
4,778 100.0% |
1,685 51.3% |
1,602 48.7% |
3,287 100.0% |
62.6% | 76.8% | 68.8% |
Academic Units (Table 2)
Table 2 shows enrollment of first-year students and survey respondents by academic unit. The largest percentage of first-year students enrolled in the College of Engineering (28.0%), followed by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (17.4%) and First-Year College (16.7%). Enrollment figures were lowest for the College of Design (1.9%). The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is slightly overrepresented among survey respondents, while the Agricultural Institute is slightly undrerepresented.
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 a four-year baccalaureate degree.
Table 2: Classification by Academic Unit
| Academic Unit | First-Year Population | Survey Respondents | Response Rate |
Margin of Error |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | % | N | % | |||
| Agriculture and Life Sciences | 832 | 17.4% | 623 | 19.0% | 74.9% | 1.0 |
| Design | 89 | 1.9% | 63 | 1.9% | 70.8% | 3.6 |
| Education | 154 | 3.2% | 119 | 3.6% | 77.3% | 2.0 |
| Engineering | 1,336 | 28.0% | 897 | 27.3% | 67.1% | 1.1 |
| Natural Resources | 160 | 3.3% | 105 | 3.2% | 65.6% | 3.3 |
| Humanities and Social Sciences | 489 | 10.2% | 346 | 10.5% | 70.8% | 1.5 |
| Physical and Mathematical Sciences | 202 | 4.2% | 145 | 4.4% | 71.8% | 2.3 |
| Textiles | 191 | 4.0% | 130 | 4.0% | 68.1% | 2.7 |
| Management | 392 | 8.2% | 279 | 8.5% | 71.2% | 1.7 |
| First-Year College | 799 | 16.7% | 530 | 16.1% | 66.3% | 1.4 |
| Subtotal | 4,644 | 97.2% | 3,237 | 98.5% | 69.7% | 0.5 |
| Agricultural Institute | 134 | 2.8% | 50 | 1.5% | 37.3% | 8.7 |
| Total | 4,778 | 100.0% | 3,287 | 100.0% | 68.8% | 0.5 |
Academic Preparation (Table 3)
Table 3 presents academic preparation statistics for the 2009 first-year class and survey respondents. Survey respondents had slightly higher written SAT scores than the population as a whole. High school grade point average was also slightly higher among survey respondents.
Table 3: Academic Preparation of First-Year Class and Survey Respondents
| Academic Preparation Measure | First-Year Population |
Survey Respondents |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Verbal | 569.7 | 572.2 |
| SAT Math | 610.5 | 611.1 |
| SAT Written | 559.2 | 562.7 |
| SAT Total | 1739.4 | 1746.0 |
| High School GPA | 3.54 | 3.58 |
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 any number of the following categories: Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White. For analysis purposes, these categories were collapsed into "Asian American," "Black/African American," "Hispanic," "White," and "Other/Unknown." (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, Assistant Director for Survey Research
Office of Institutional Planning and Research
Box 7002
NCSU
Phone: (919) 515-4184
Email: Nancy_Whelchel@ncsu.edu
Posted: May, 2010
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