The 1999 HEDS Senior Survey: A Summary of Findings

Prepared by Susan H. Frost and Daniel Teodorescu

This report summarizes the results of the HEDS Senior Survey that Emory College seniors completed last spring. As predicted, requiring students to complete the instrument when they apply for graduation has considerably increased the participation rate. Of the 1,136 degree recipients, 992 completed the survey for a response rate of 87 percent.

 

At Emory, the survey was administered during the first two months of the year when students submitted their applications for graduation. While this timing assures maximum participation, it limits the interpretation of some answers. For instance, seniors' employment plans (i.e., whether they've received job offers) are relatively undefined at that early stage; the employment profile becomes considerably more accurate and definitive as one approaches the graduation day. Findings related to job prospects should, therefore, be interpreted with caution.

Data analysis supporting this report was produced in the Office of Institutional Planning and Research and was based on the raw data file received in August from HEDS. In addition to statistical summaries, the report lists narrative feedback received from seniors who used the comments section at the end of the survey to expand on certain aspects of their undergraduate experience at Emory (see Appendix A). Such comments complement well the quantitative data, particularly on the question of satisfaction with university services and aspects of the undergraduate experience. A second report is to be generated this fall by HEDS which will include a comparison of responses of Emory College seniors and those at other private universities.

 

General Profile of Survey Respondents

Overall, the distribution of seniors by race and gender closely approximates the composition of the 1999 population of degree recipients (see Tables 1a and 1b). Table 2 shows the distribution of both average overall grades and average grades in the major; 40 percent of respondents report average overall grades of A or A-. Approximately half of respondents lived off-campus during their senior year; 31 percent lived in dorms or university housing (Table 3).

With regard to the socio-economic profile of respondents, results mirror data from freshmen surveys. Approximately one quarter of students come from families with a total income of $200,000 or more (Table 4); 24 percent of respondents' fathers have a Bachelors' degree and 59 percent earned a graduate or advanced professional degree (Table 5).

 

Gains in knowledge and skills

The majority of respondents consider that their undergraduate experience at Emory has 'greatly' enhanced their capacity to function independently (54 percent), self-understanding (53 percent), in-depth knowledge of the field (53 percent), ability to think analytically and logically (50 percent), and their capacity to acquire new skills and knowledge on their own (48 percent).

Skills that were somehow unaffected by the undergraduate experience are in the area of foreign languages (see Table 6). Forty-three percent of the respondents consider that their education has not enhanced at all their ability to read or speak a foreign language. It is also important to note that only 20 percent see a considerable enhancement in their ability to use quantitative tools.

 

Faculty support

Table 7 indicates a high level of satisfaction with faculty availability. Ninety three percent of students report having had an opportunity for conversation outside the classroom. Overall, almost all respondents (97 percent) felt that faculty provided them with intellectual challenge and stimulation throughout their years at Emory. However, 43 percent consider that they did not have an opportunity to work on a research project.

While most students felt strong faculty support and engagement at the academic level, they seemed to have experienced a relatively weaker emotional support from their teachers: 33 percent of respondents reported having not received emotional support or encouragement from faculty.

 

Satisfaction with the college experience

Overall, 89 percent of seniors report being satisfied or very satisfied with their undergraduate education at Emory (Table 8). Seventy nine percent believe they will remember their college years as essentially happy ones or as some of the most enjoyable times of their life (Table 9). Only five percent expect to remember these years as a period of dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

However, when asked if they would choose to attend Emory again if they had the chance to relive their college experience, only 27 percent said 'definitely would' and 33 percent 'probably would' (Table 10).

As Table 11 reveals, services and aspects of the university life that a large proportion of students are 'very satisfied' with include library resources (66 percent), Humanities & Arts (50 percent), classroom facilities (44 percent), Social Sciences (42 percent), extra-curricular offerings (40 percent), faculty availability (38 percent) and the attitude of faculty toward students (37 percent). Students were most dissatisfied with student health services, food services, and the overall campus social life. It is important to note that many negative comments in Appendix A tend to point to the same areas of dissatisfaction that this quantitative analysis reveals.

 

Multicultural orientation

Thirty-seven percent of Emory College seniors have studied abroad during their undergraduate career, with the majority of students studying in an European country (Table 12).

More than half of respondents have taken at least one course with emphasis on the cultures of the Arab world, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, or Latin America and the Caribbean (Table 13). One third of students have taken courses with emphasis on African American life, institutions, and culture. And approximately half of seniors have had at least one course with emphasis on the study of women, women's issues, or feminism.

Ninety-five percent of students report having studied and socialized at least occasionally with persons from a different racial or ethnic group. And almost two thirds of them attended events sponsored by cultural organizations representing a different racial/ethnic group (Table 14).

 

Participation in university life

The activity that involved by far most seniors is volunteering; approximately three-quarters of respondents participated in some type of volunteer services (Table 15). Forty five percent had an off-campus internship. Forty four percent participated in an honor society and 43 percent were members of a social fraternity or sorority.

 

Personal Goals

As Table 16 shows, the most important goals in order of importance are 'raising a family' (75 percent), 'being very well financially' (46 percent), 'making a significant scholarly or intellectual contribution to one's field' (42 percent), and 'working to build a community' (38 percent). 'Influencing the political structure' is important only for 19 percent of respondents.

 

Employment while in college

Sixty-six percent of respondents reported that they worked for pay during the senior year. Almost a third of them worked between 10 and 14 hour per week; 31 percent worked more than 20 hours a week (Table 17). About one third of those working for pay during the senior year would recommend other seniors in similar circumstances to work fewer hours than they do (Table 18).

Of those working for pay, half held on-campus jobs, and half had jobs off campus (Table 19). The majority of respondents held semi-professional jobs (Table 20).

 

Educational Loans

Forty three percent of respondents reported having taken loans to support their education - these include loans made by family (Table 21). Forty seven percent of those who took loans will pay personally at least $10,000 of the total loan amount (Table 22).

Of those who borrowed money, 16 percent have more than $25,000 in loans. Sixty-seven percent of the students who took loans expressed concerns about their ability to repay them (Table 23).

When asked about possible effects of these loans, 60 percent consider that such loans caused anxiety about their financial situation; 55 percent believe that borrowing money will necessitate immediate employment after graduation (Table 24).

It is worthy to note that, a quarter of those who borrowed money believe that loans caused them to postpone graduate school. Moreover, 35 percent believe that taking loans has restricted their choice of graduate schools to universities that offer significant financial aid. Forty percent think that their debt focused their job search on higher paying fields. And more than half of respondents consider that their educational loans may lead them to postpone a major purchase (e.g., car, home).

 

Career Plans

When asked about their principal activity next fall, half of the surveyed seniors chose 'employment'; 38 percent reported they would continue their education at a graduate or professional school (see Table 25). Since students completed the survey early in the year, their employment plans where relatively undefined at that time. This is reflected in the following findings: seventy percent of those who intended to work upon graduation were searching for a position; 15 percent preferred to start their search after graduation; 10 percent already were offered and accepted a position; and 4 percent already were offered and refused a position (Table 26).

Of the 992 respondents, 399 (40 percent) applied for admission to graduate studies for the next academic year. The most popular degree programs that students applied for were medical and law degrees (see Table 27 through Table 29); only a relatively low proportion of seniors indicated a desire to start a Ph.D. program. The most popular fields, besides law and medicine, appear to be biological sciences, psychology, and humanities (Table 30).

When asked about the highest degree they hope to obtain regardless of their fall plans, only 18 respondents (2 percent) do not want to pursue advanced degrees (Table 31). Eleven percent of senior respondents plan to pursue more than one advanced degrees at some point in their career. Half of respondents expect to obtain their highest degrees in law, medicine, or business (Table 32).

As Table 33 indicates, in choosing a career, the majority of Emory students consider the following criteria to be essential: interest in work (50 percent), stable and secure future (46 percent), intellectual challenge (45 percent), and opportunities to be creative and exercise initiative (41 percent).

Table 34 compares career goals of respondents when they entered college with long-term career goals and the first jobs they anticipate after graduation. It is interesting to note the shifts taking place during the college years. Between freshman and senior years, the proportion of those planning a career in medicine drops from 34 percent to 19 percent. On the other hand, by the senior year, more students want to purse fields such as business and law.

 

Appendix - Table 1 through Table 34

 

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