North Carolina State University
2010 Sophomore Student Survey:
Introduction, Methods and Student Demographic Profile

Introduction

This series of reports presents findings from the 2010 Sophomore Survey conducted during the spring semester 2010 at NC State University. Eligible sophomores had completed 45-59 credit hours, with at least 30 at NC State. Students from all 10 undergraduate academic units, including the First-Year College, were included in the study.

This introductory report describes the survey methods and compares survey respondents to the survey population on gender, race/ethnicity¹, and academic unit. A separate report, 2010 Sophomore Student Survey: All Respondents, focuses on each individual survey topic. Links to tables with gender and racial/ethnic comparisons, as well as comparisons between colleges, are available online via the 2010 Sophomore Survey: Table of Contents.

Survey Administration

Respondents (Table 1)

Students who had completed 45-59 credit hours, with at least 30 at NC State by the beginning of spring semester 2010, were eligible to complete the Sophomore Survey.  The online survey was available from January 28 until May 15, 2010. All students in the survey population were sent an email inviting them to participate in the survey. As incentive, all students who submitted the survey online by February 1 were entered into a drawing in which one respondent was randomly selected to receive $50. In addition, all students who submitted the survey online by February 22 were entered into a drawing in which fifteen respondents were randomly selected to each receive a $25 credit to their All-Campus card. Students not completing the online survey by February 22 received a paper copy of the questionnaire from their advisors during the spring advising period. Students living on campus who had not completed the survey by April 26 were sent another copy of the paper survey (and a letter including a link to the web survey). Those students who completed the survey between February 22 and May 15 were entered into a final drawing in which three respondents were randomly selected to each receive a $25 credit to their All-Campus card. Non-respondents were sent up to three follow-up email reminders and one postcard reminder.

Of the 2,516 eligible sophomores, 39.7 percent (998) returned usable surveys — 881 online and 117 paper — yielding a margin of sampling error of ±1.9 points at a 95 percent confidence interval. That is, if 56.6 percent of respondents say they "strongly agree" that they made the right decision to attend NC State we can be 95 percent sure that the true figure would be between 54.7 percent (56.6 - 1.9) and 58.5 percent (56.6 + 1.9), had all eligible sophomores responded to the survey ². 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.

Table 1: Comparison of Online and Paper Respondents

Sophomore Population	Survey Respondents			Response Rate	Margin of Sampling Error
	Web	Paper	Total
2,516	881	117	998	39.7%	±1.9

Demographics of the Sophomore Class and Survey Respondents

Gender and Race/Ethnicity (Table 2)

There were no significant gender or racial/ethnic differences between the spring 2010 sophomore class and survey respondents. Women made up about 49 percent of the sophomore population and about 52 percent of survey respondents. The racial/ethnic breakdown of survey respondents closely mirrors that of the sophomore population. Among survey respondents, about 79 percent were white, 9 percent were Black/African American, 5 percent were Asian American, and 2 were percent Hispanic. About 5 percent of respondents were either multiracial or preferred not to report their race/ethnicity.

Table 2: Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Sophomore Class and Survey Respondents

Race/Ethnicity N %	Sophomore Population			Survey Respondents			Response Rate
	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Total
Asian American	61 2.4%	70 2.8%	131 5.2%	27 2.7%	27 2.7%	54 5.4%	44.3%	38.6%	41.2%
Black / African American	96 3.8%	128 5.1%	224 8.9%	36 3.6%	50 5.0%	86 8.6%	37.5%	39.1%	38.4%
Hispanic	43 1.7%	23 0.9%	66 2.6%	17 1.7%	6 0.6%	23 2.3%	39.5%	26.1%	34.8%
White	1,016 40.4%	933 37.1%	1,949 77.5%	377 37.8%	406 40.7%	783 78.5%	37.1%	43.5%	40.2%
Other / Unknown	59 2.3%	87 3.5%	146 5.8%	22 2.2%	30 3.0%	52 5.2%	37.3%	34.5%	35.6%
Total	1,275 50.7%	1,241 49.3%	2,516 100.0%	479 48.0%	519 52.0%	998 100.0%	37.6%	41.8%	39.7%

Note: Survey respondents are included in figures for the Sophomore Class

Academic Units (Table 4)

Table 4 presents enrollment of sophomore students and survey respondents by academic unit. Sophomore enrollment figures were highest for the Colleges of Engineering (24.4%) and Agriculture and Life Sciences (21.7%) and lowest for the Colleges of Design (2.3%) and Physical and Mathematical Sciences (2.8%). Students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences were underrepresented among survey respondents, with CALS students representing 22 percent of the sophomore class and only 15 percent of survey respondents. Design and First-Year College students were also underrepresented among survey respondents. The Colleges of Education, Engineering, and Humanities and Social Sciences were slightly overrepresented among survey respondents.

Table 4: Classification by Academic Unit

Academic Unit	Sophomore Population		Survey Respondents		Response Rate	Margin of Sampling Error
	N	%	N	%
Agriculture and Life Sciences	546	21.7%	151	15.1%	27.7%	±5.8
Design	57	2.3%	7	0.7%	12.3%	±32.5
Education	121	4.8%	67	6.7%	55.4%	±5.3
Engineering	614	24.4%	308	30.9%	50.2%	±2.8
Natural Resources	111	4.4%	38	3.8%	34.2%	±10.5
Humanities and Social Sciences	450	17.9%	211	21.1%	46.9%	±3.6
Physical and Mathematical Sciences	71	2.8%	24	2.4%	33.8%	±13.2
Textiles	104	4.1%	34	3.4%	32.7%	±11.3
Management	307	12.2%	126	12.6%	41.0%	±5.1
First-Year College	135	5.4%	32	3.2%	23.7%	±13.2
Total	2,516	100.0%	998	100.0%	39.7%	±1.9

Analyses

The data obtained from completed surveys were analyzed using standard statistical methods. 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 significant³. 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.
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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. A 95 percent confidence interval contains the true population value in 95% of the possible samples of a given size from the population. Margins of error for individual questions are usually even smaller than the overall margin of error because the variance of proportions in each survey item is almost always less than the 50/50 figure used in calculating the confidence interval. Thus, the margin of error given is conservative.(back)

3. In analyses not presented in these reports, responses were tested for significant differences between women and men, between white, African American, and other minority students, and between the different colleges. All questions requiring categorical responses were analyzed using chi-squared tests, and all questions with numerically coded responses were analyzed with either T-tests or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's multiple comparison procedure. Complete results are available from UPA on request.(back)

For more information on the 2010 Sophomore 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: July, 2010

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