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Office of Assessment: Fall 2008 Alumni Survey

Methodology

                A survey of Fitchburg State College graduates was advertised by the College’s Alumni and Development Office and posted on the web at the College’s Select Survey™ site.  Graduates were solicited with notices in the emailed Alumni Affairs newsletter and in the hard copy alumni magazine, Contact.  Complimentary copies of Contact are sent to alumni for three years after graduation.  After three years, the magazine is sent only to members of the Alumni Association. 

 The electronic survey was open for participation from September 1 to November 15, 2008.  There were 259 entries on the closing date.  One entry was found to have no responses, and two more were duplicate responses from the same respondent.  One of the duplicates and the empty response were removed.  The final data set contained 257 records.  Some responses within particular records were blank, so not every table may encompass all 257 respondents.  Since approximately 10,000 alumni were notified of the survey, the return rate is 2.6%, only slightly above the 2% response rate typical of direct-mail appeals.

                The survey itself was intentionally short.  Most responses were close-ended, that is, respondents had to select their answers from a drop-down menu or set of radio buttons.  About two thirds of the items dealt with issues pertinent to alumni affairs, e.g., satisfaction with Contact (very high) and interest in a variety of proposed activities.  The rest of the items dealt broadly with questions typically asked about alumni by regional and program accreditors:  How satisfied are students with their educational experiences, how employable are they when they graduate, how successful are they in their careers, and how likely are they to go on for graduate education?  Answers to these questions, based on this survey, are the summarized in the tables and discussions below.

                Almost every degree program contributed respondents to the survey, including some (e.g., medical technology) which are no longer offered at the College.  Many respondents have been out of school for some time; 35 indicated that they are retired.  The preponderance of respondents from the class of 2003 and earlier was somewhat unexpected, but in terms of reporting on career trajectory (see Table 5, below), not unwelcome.

Alumni Satisfaction

                Item 16 on the survey asked “At this point, how satisfied are you with the education you received at Fitchburg State College?”  Respondents were offered a drop-down Likert scale that ranged from “Very Dissatisfied” (value = 1) through “Very Satisfied” (value = 5).  Table 1, below, displays the mean overall satisfaction for various subgroups.  While there is some apparent variation, there is no statistically significant difference among respondent groups.  All seem to be generally quite satisfied with the education they received at FSC.

Table 1

Educational Satisfaction

                A table of respondents broken down by degree program was produced and analyzed, but is NOT reprinted here.  For the most part, there was no significant difference from one degree program to another.  There were two exceptions to that generalization, though.  Alumni from Interdisciplinary Studies (N = 2) reflected educational satisfaction significantly below the mean (apparently, one of the two was very disgruntled), and the average Teacher Preparation alum was significantly MORE satisfied than the average FSC graduate (at the p < 0.5 level.) 

                Table 2 breaks out Teacher Preparation respondents by specialization.  There were no significant differences within the Teacher Preparation group.

Table 2

Educational Satisfaction for Education Alumni

Alumni Employability

              Item 9 on the survey asked, “How soon after graduation were you able to gain employment in your field of study?”  As with the satisfaction question, results were broken down by degree program but due to small Ns, were unintelligible in that format and are not reported here.  Programs with fairly large numbers of respondents (Business Administration, Communications Media, Education) appeared to have distributions among the five options reported in Table 3 that were similar to that of the College as a whole.

Table 3

Time From Graduation to Employment

                In both the distant and the more recent past, about two thirds of graduates either had jobs in their major fields upon graduation, or got them within six months.  The overall rate is better within the last five years than it was in the past (68% vs. 65%), though fewer current graduates appear to have jobs or offers when they get their diplomas.  More recent graduates (22% vs. 14%) have never worked in their major fields at all.  That may be an anomaly that will work itself out over time, with alums currently in the “never worked” cell moving into one of the bottom two, or it might reflect a generational difference among alumni.

Career Success

                Career success tends to be measured by one or both of two things: salary and/or title.  Questions about both are included on the survey. 

Asking about salaries is a delicate matter.  Item 12 posed the question broadly: “If you are currently working for pay, how would you assess your present compensation?”  Respondents were offered a drop-down five-point Likert scale, and were also allowed to indicate that they were not working for pay or were retired.  Choices for those currently working for pay were “Much better than average for my field,” “Somewhat better than average for my field,” “Typical for the field in which I work,” “Somewhat below average for my field,” and “Well below average for my field.”  Item 12 did not distinguish between full- or part-time employment, or employment in the major field rather than some other (but see Table 5, below).  Retirees and those not working for pay were not included in the results tabulated below.

                While the Ns are small, recent graduates appear to be almost twice as likely as older alums (29% vs. 15%) to rate their salaries as “Somewhat below average” or “Well below average,” and about half as likely (16% vs. 34%) to indicate that their salaries are “Better than average” or “Much better than average.”

Table 4

Self-Reported Compensation of Alumni

                The “title” issue as addressed by Item 10 on the survey.  A technical limitation of the survey software required extensive explanation of Item 10 to be printed as instructions rather than made part of the drop-down response selector. 

Item 10 asks, “Which of the following best describes your present level of responsibility?” Bulleted explanations for some of the choices follow:

• "Entry-level professional" includes beginning artists and entrepreneurs as well as technicians, nurses, teachers, managers, etc., in the early stages of their careers.
• "Advanced professional" includes well-established artists and entrepreneurs as well as clinical specialists, teacher leaders, etc.
• "Management-level" includes artists and entrepreneurs who develop large-scale operational concepts and supervise others in the execution of work, as well building principals in education, head nurses, etc.

Other options include “Experienced professional, artist, or entrepreneur;” “Senior executive (e.g., President, CEO;””Retired;” and “Other.”

                Table 5 offered a chance to see where recent graduates find themselves on the career ladder and to suggest where they might go if their careers follow trajectories similar to those of more senior alums.  As expected, recent graduates tend to be clustered at the lower end of the ladder when compared to those who have been in the workplace longer.

                An unexpected finding was the relatively small numbers who work full-time in their major fields.  Table 3 indicated that as many as 86% of graduates eventually find work in their majors, but many either work part-time in their fields or switch out of them.  (Or, possibly, they answer survey questions inconsistently.)  Alums working in, or having worked (this includes retirees) full-time in their major fields number just 88 out of 206 more senior graduates (43%) and only 30 of 51 recent graduates (59%).

Table 5

Employment Responsibility Levels of Alumni

Working Full-Time in Major Field

Graduate Education

              Finally, Item 13 asks, “Which of the following best describes your highest educational attainment?”  Selectable responses include, “No additional coursework,” “Additional undergraduate credits,” “Some graduate coursework,” “Graduate certificate or certification,” “Master’s degree,” “First professional degree,” and “Doctorate.”

              Table 6 indicates that the percentage of alums with at least some graduate coursework varies considerable, from 0% to 100%.  Generally speaking, program-sized numbers are too small to draw inferences.  What’s interesting is that among respondents to this survey, more than half (56%) have at least some graduate coursework, but the numbers are much higher for more senior alumni (60%) than more recent alumni (39%).  That doesn’t mean they won’t undertake graduate school eventually, but suggests that “going on to graduate school” from a bachelor’s program at FSC may be a fairly uncommon pattern.

Table 6

Baccalaureate Graduates Reporting Graduate Education

View survey items and tabulated responses.

View summary of survey results for Office of Alumni and Development.

Back to Assessment home page.