North Carolina State University
2000 Sophomore Student Survey:
Executive Summary
(Report No. 1)

Survey Methods

• NC State conducted its annual survey of sophomore students during the spring 2000 semester. Eligible students had completed 45-59 credit hours, with at least 30 at NC State.
• Sixty-eight percent of Sophomores completed the survey on the World Wide Web. Another 4 percent completed paper and pencil copies distributed by their academic advisors. The combined response rate was 72.2 percent.
• Respondents did not differ from the sophomore student class in gender, race/ethnicity, or college.
• The margin of error for the survey is about 1.0 percent for all respondents, and about 4 percent for small subgroups (e.g., African Americans).

• Almost 90 percent of respondents plan to complete their degree at NC State. African American respondents, however, were less likely than whites to say they would definitely choose to attend NC State if they could start over (56.6% vs. 72.3%).
• About 15 percent of respondents (15.3%) were employed and working 20 hours per week or more, and 46.4 percent were employed and working less than 20 hours per week. Almost 40 percent of employed respondents (40.8%) were working in jobs related to their major. African American students were somewhat more likely than whites to be employed and to be working in jobs not directly related to their major. However, employed African American and white respondents reported working similar numbers of hours.
• The vast majority of students who feel it is important to experience a sense of belonging to NC State said they have that experience to at least some extent (85.0%).
• About one-third of respondents said they participate in visual/performing arts/music groups (36.1%), an honor/service/professional fraternity or sorority (35.1%), and academic (Honor Programs, etc.) groups (32.2%). For the most part participation in the activities asked about reflects the racial distribution at NC State. However, half of those saying they participated in Union activities board/student media were African Americans, and another 32 percent were from other minority groups. In comparison, just 1.8 percent of respondents who said they participated in the student judicial board were African American. Students from non-African American minority groups were especially underrepresented in organizations/clubs related to major, residence hall council, intramural/recreational sports/club teams, and student government.

• While respondents were generally satisfied with issues related to diversity at NC State, on average African Americans and other minority respondents were less satisfied than whites. Overall, 92.8 percent of all respondents somewhat or strongly agreed that NC State is committed to helping minorities succeed, and three-fourths agreed somewhat or strongly that NC State leadership fosters diversity on campus. However, one-third of African American respondents, compared to only 4 percent of white respondents disagreed that NC State is committed to helping minorities succeed. African Americans were also twice as likely as whites to disagree that NS State leadership fosters diversity on campus (45.7% vs 22.3%).

• Of the different student groups asked about, respondents were most likely to say the campus is most supportive of men, women, and African Americans, and least supportive of gay and lesbian students. However, white respondents were consistently more likely than African Americans to say the campus is "very supportive" of the different groups asked about, especially for "African Americans" (37.8% vs 18.0%). Women were more likely than men to say the campus is "very supportive" of women.

• Over two-thirds of respondents (69.2%) said the intellectual environment on campus was either "strong" or "very strong." Over 80 percent said the overall quality of instruction (80.7%) and their overall education at NC State (86.8%) was either "good" or "excellent".
• Over one-third of respondents (36.3%) said that during their time at NC State they had had 3 or more classes which had been too large to learn effectively, and 20.0 percent said they had had 3 or more classes in which the instructor’s spoken English was difficult to understand.
• A majority of respondents rated faculty’s contribution to their educational experience as at least "good" in all areas asked about. Respondents gave highest average ratings for setting high expectation for students to learn and for encouraging students to devote time to coursework. Lowest ratings were given to faculty caring about your academic success. Women general gave faculty higher ratings than men, except for developing opportunities to learn cooperatively with other students, for which men gave higher ratings. African American respondents gave lower ratings than whites to faculty setting high expectations for you to learn, respecting diverse talents and ways of learning, and caring about your academic success and welfare.

• Over three-fourths of respondents (76.5%) felt the campus has taken sufficient steps to ensure their physical safely. Women were just slightly more likely than men to say that this has not been done (8.8% vs. 4.7%)
• Overall, sophomore respondents were most satisfied with library and technology services, and least satisfied with new student orientation services and the bookstore. However, training services to use both the library and campus technology were also given relatively low ratings.
• For non-academic services, the highest ratings were given to campus health services and extra-curricular activities and the lowest ratins to campus food services. African Americans gave notably higher average ratings than whites to opportunities to develop leadership skills.

• About one-third or more of respondents said NC State had met their needs for intellectual growth (41.5%), personal growth (36.6%), and career training (31.9%) "very well."
• On a scale of 1 ("not at all") to 4 ("very much"), NC State’s contribution to 29 of 35 knowledge, skills and personal development goals was rated 3.0 or higher on average. In general goals related to general education and personal development received higher ratings than goals related to students' world view. With few exceptions, women and African Americans gave consistently higher ratings than men and whites, respectively, to NC State's contribution to their development of all goals.
• Almost two-thirds of respondents (63.0%) said NC State had contributed "very much" to developing computer skills, and 61.7 percent said the university had contributed "very much" to helping them develop their independence and self-reliance.
• 40 percent of respondents said NC State had contributed "very little" or "not at all" to advancing their appreciation of the arts (41.3%). Almost 30 percent said NC State had contributed "very little" or "not at all" to their exercising public responsibility (28.8%).

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