A majority of respondents (61.7%) indicated they were employed during the academic year. One-fourth (24.8%) of the employed students worked an average of 20 or more hours per week. Thus, 15.3 percent of all sophomore respondents worked 20 or more hours per week during the academic year. Among employed students, 39.4 percent had jobs that were at least "somewhat related" to their academic major. Over 70 percent (71.3%) of those employed in jobs unrelated to their major said that this was "not by choice".

Sense of Belonging at NC State (Table 3-4)

More than 80 percent of respondents stated that it was "very" (42.2%) or "moderately important" (40.5%) to experience a sense of belonging at NC State. About one-fourth (25.8%) of respondents said they had that experience to a "great extent" and another 51.1 percent experienced it to "some extent".

There is a clear relationship between sophomores’ beliefs about the importance of feeling a sense of belonging at NC State and actually having that experience. In general, respondents who believed it was important to experience a sense of belonging while at NC State responded that they achieved that experience to at least some extent. Only 2.1 percent of respondents who thought it was "very important" to experience a sense of belonging did not experience it at all. Conversely, those who saw it as less important generally reported feeling less connected to NC State.

Involvement with Campus Activities (Table 3-5)

Sophomores were asked in which campus activities they were involved. Respondents were most likely to be involved in visual/performing arts/music groups (36.1%), honor/service/ professional fraternities/sororities (35.1%), and academic (Honors Program, etc.) groups (32.2%). Respondents were least likely to be active in organizations/clubs related to [their] major (4.4%), and residence hall council/IRC organizations (2.2%).

Overall Instruction and Education (Table 3-9)

Respondents were very pleased with the overall quality of instruction and education NC State. Over 80 percent rated NC State as "excellent" or "good" in these two areas. More than one-fourth (26.1%) of respondents said that the overall education they were receiving was "excellent".

Classroom Environment (Table 3-10)

A majority of respondents reported that during their time at NC State they had had at least one class that was too large to learn effectively, or had had an instructor whose spoken English was difficult to understand. Over one-third of respondents (36.3%) reported having had three or more classes that were too large to learn effectively. Twenty percent reported having had three or more classes where the instructor’s English was difficult to understand.

A majority of respondents gave positive ratings to faculty members’ contributions to their educational experience at NC State. When asked for a general evaluation of NC State’s instructors, 80.0 percent of respondents said either "excellent" (10.7%) or "good" (69.3%). More than 80 percent of respondents gave either "excellent" or " good" ratings to instructors for setting high expectations for students to learn (90.7%) and for encouraging students to devote sufficient time and energy to their coursework (85.7%).

Respondents were less positive about faculty-student interaction and teaching methods. More than one-third of respondents rated faculty members’ efforts to encourage student-faculty interaction (34.7%), and to develop opportunities for cooperative learning (34.5%) as either "poor" or "fair". The lowest ratings were given to how well faculty members care about [students’] academic success, with 37.8 percent of respondents giving a rating of "fair" or "poor".

This section first examines respondents’ perceptions of campus safety. This is followed by a discussion of respondents’ ratings of services available outside of the classroom and satisfaction with offices that serve students. Ratings ranged from 1 ("poor") to 4 ("excellent"). ‘Don’t know" and "did not use" responses are excluded from the analyses.

Respondents were asked to rate 31 specific services, divided into 7 categories: library, technology, career-related, academic advising, help labs and tutoring, new student orientation, and the campus bookstore. On average, the highest ratings were given to the library’s hours of operation (3.8), access to the internet (3.8), and access to databases and collections at the library (3.6). Lowest average ratings were given to services related to new student orientation, to the bookstore, to labs and tutoring services, and to those involving training (e.g., training to use the library, technology training classes, and access to trained staff for help with technology).

Library: Overall, respondents were most satisfied with library services. Average ratings were particularly high for hours of operation (3.8) with 80.1 percent rating them as "excellent". Ratings were lowest for training to use the library (2.8), with almost 10 percent of students saying such training was "poor".

Technology: Respondents also gave high ratings to technology services available on campus. Access to the Internet received the highest average rating (3.8) with 76.9 percent rating it as "excellent". Students gave the lowest average rating to access to trained staff for help (2.8).

Career-related Services: Various aspects of career-related services were consistently rated positively by respondents. Each of the five aspects asked about received an average rating between 3.1 and 3.3.

Academic Advising: Respondents also gave positive ratings to most aspects of academic advising. Each area received an average rating of near 3.0. The lowest average rating (2.9) went to sufficient time with advisor.

Tutoring and Help Labs: Respondents generally rated the tutoring and help labs for different skill areas positively. Labs and tutoring for math were most likely to be rated as "excellent" (32.5%) while those for reading were least likely to be rated as "excellent" (18.4%).

New Student Orientation: While still generally positive, respondents gave some of the lowest average ratings to various aspects of orientation for new students. Only one aspect, helpfulness of staff (3.1), had an average rating above 2.9. Only 16 percent or fewer rated the other aspects of new student orientation as "excellent".

Bookstore: Respondents gave the lowest average ratings to timely availability of course materials at the bookstore (2.7). Only 14.9 percent rated this service as "excellent".

This final section of the overview report focuses on respondents’ perceptions of how well NC State has contributed to their academic and personal development. First, it explores beliefs about the extent to which the university met their needs in general. This is followed by a discussion of how well respondents thought NC State contributed to their knowledge, skill, and personal development of general education, personal development, and world view goals.