North Carolina State University
1999 Sophomore Student Survey:
Executive Summary
(Report No. 1)

Survey Methods

• NC State conducted its annual survey of sophomore students during the spring 1999 semester. Eligible students had completed 45-59 credit hours, with at least 30 at NC State.
• The survey was administered on the World Wide Web. Paper and pencil copies were distributed to non-respondents by their academic advisors. The final response rate was 65.0 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).

• More than 90 percent of respondents plan to complete their degree at NC State. African American respondents, however, were more than twice as likely as whites to say they would not choose to attend NC State if they could start over (15.2% vs. 6.1%).
• Over one-third (39.5%) of respondents were not employed during the academic year. 17.5 percent were employed and working 20 hours per week or more. Well over one-third of employed respondents (40.8%) were working in jobs related to their major. African American students were more likely than whites to be employed and working more than 20 hours per week, and to be in jobs not directly related to their major.
• The 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 (66.9%).
• One-third or more respondents said they participate in an honor/service/professional fraternity or sorority (36.3%), visual/performing arts/music groups (35.2%), and academic (Honor Programs, etc.) groups (33.8%). For the most part participation in the activities asked about reflects the racial distribution at NC State. However, about 60 percent of those saying they participated in Union activities board/student media were African Americans, and another 31.9 percent were from other minority groups. In comparison, just 2.9 percent of respondents who said they participated in the student judicial board were African American.
• 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, over 90 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly agreed that NC State is committed to helping minorities succeed, and three-fourths disagreed somewhat or strongly that there is a lot of racial conflict on campus. African American respondents were less likely to agree that the University is committed to their success, and more likely to say that there is a lot of racial conflict.

• Most respondents (65.9%) said the intellectual environment on campus was either "strong" or "very strong." Over 80 percent said the overall quality of instruction (81.7%) and their overall education at NC State (87.6%) was either "good" or "excellent".
• About one-third of respondents (34.7%) said that during their time at NC State they had had more than two classes which had been too large to learn effectively, and 15.7 percent said they had had 2 or more classes in which the instructor’s spoken English was difficult to understand.
• Most 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.

• About two-thirds of respondents (65.5%) felt the campus has taken sufficient steps to ensure their physical safely. Women and African Americans, however, were more likely to say this has not been the case (women: 16.6% vs. men: 8.0% and African Americans: 20.0% vs. whites: 10.7%).
• Overall, sophomore respondents were most satisfied with library services, and least satisfied with new student orientation services and the bookstore. Training services to use both the library and campus technology were also given relatively low ratings. African American respondents generally gave higher ratings than whites to all services asked about except those related to advising, for which they gave similar ratings.
• For non-academic services, the highest ratings were given to extra-curricular activities and the lowest to campus food services. African Americans gave notably higher average ratings than whites to extra-curricular activities, community service projects, and leadership skills.

• About one-third or more of respondents said NC State had met their needs for intellectual growth (40.3%), personal growth (34.8%), and career training (32.9%) "very well."
• On a scale of 1 ("not at all") to 4 ("very much"), NC State’s contribution to 28 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 the highest ratings, and world view goals the lowest. 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.
• Two-thirds of respondents (66.4%) said NC State had contributed "very much" to developing computer skills, and 63.4 percent said the university had contributed "very much" to helping them develop their independence and self-reliance.
• More than 40 percent of respondents (41.3%) said NC State had contributed "very little" or "not at all" to advancing their appreciation of the arts (41.3%). More than 30 percent said NC State had contributed "very little" or "not at all" to their exercising public responsibility (30.8%).

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