• NC State conducted its annual survey of sophomore students during the spring 2002 semester. Over 76 percent (76.4%) of eligible sophomores responded. The margin of error for the results is very low (+0.6 at the 95% confidence level).

• With few exceptions, results from the 2002 Sophomore Survey are more positive than those from the 2000 Sophomore Survey.

• 90 percent of respondents reported that they plan to continue their education at NC State. About 90 percent of respondents also said that NC State is satisfying their goals for intellectual growth (90.1%), rated the overall education they were getting at NC State as good or excellent (89.4%), and rated the intellectual environment as strong or very strong (89.4%).

• Ratings for NC State's contribution to respondents' growth in various aspects of personal development and in having a broad world view generally increased from those given in the 2000 Sophomore Survey, while ratings for general education goals declined. As in past years, in the current survey NC State's contribution to respondents' development of technical and analytic skills was rated more positively than its contribution to their growth in communication skills and a broad world view.

• Almost three-fourths of respondents gave positive ratings to the overall quality of instruction at NC State. Ratings for faculty members' contribution to various aspects of student learning were slightly more positive than they were in the 2000 survey. In the current survey respondents gave highest ratings for faculty members setting high expectations to learn and encouraging devoting time and enegry to coursework.

• White respondents' opinion that NC State leadership fosters diversity on campus has grown increasingly more positive since the question was first asked on the 1998 Sophomore Survey, while ratings from African Americans' have held fairly steady since the 1999 survey. In the current survey Whites were three times more likely than minority respondents to strongly agree that NC State leadership fosters diversity on campus (34.5% vs 10.7% [African Americans] and 11.3% [other minorities]). Whites were also much more likely than African Americans and other minority respondents to strongly agree that NC State is committed to helping minorities succeed (44.2%, 13.1%, and 21.8%, respectively). It is important to note that student responses to these questions in the current survey were not affected by widespread discussion of a classroom incident at NC State during the Spring 2002 semester, as the vast majority of respondents had completed the survey prior to the incident and following activities.

• Similar to past years, almost 60 percent of respondents said they were employed during the academic year, with 23 percent of them working 20 or more hours per week. About 40 percent of employed respondents were working in jobs related to their academic major.

For more information on the 2002 Sophomore Student Survey contact:
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: October, 2002

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