Survey of 1993 Graduates

The survey was distributed to all students who graduated in spring and summer of 1993. The survey was sent to all graduates with their diplomas four or five months after graduation. The survey was eight pages long and required about 30 minutes to complete. A copy of the questionnaire is included in Appendix A.

In comparing differences between the averages of student groups, statistical tests were used to help determine if the differences were greater than expected by chance. References to statistically significant results refer to differences that would be found by chance no more than five percent of the time. Although some differences may be large enough to be statistically significant, they may not be large enough to be of practical importance. Evaluation of the practical importance of these findings is left to the reader.

To examine how representative the survey respondents were of the entire graduating class, the demographic characteristics of the 310 survey respondents were compared to all 1,742 students who graduated in the spring and summer quarter of 1993. Although there were some differences, there was a high degree of similarity between the respondents and the population of graduates (demographic comparisons are displayed in Appendix B). The largest difference was the distribution of students among the divisions. Proportionately fewer respondents majored in the arts and humanities (and more in the social sciences) than in the population of graduates. Based on these demographic comparisons, the survey respondents appear to be fairly representative of the graduating class.

There are limitations as to what this survey can reveal about UCSC's former students. The low response rate requires that all results from this survey be interpreted with great caution. The survey was sent only to graduating students; the results can not be generalized to students who transferred or withdrew. As the survey was administered several months after graduation, some graduates may not have had the opportunity to pursue their career and educational plans. For these graduates, current career and educational activities may not reflect their long-term goals and objectives. Finally, these results reflect students' current accomplishments. It provides limited information on what they plan to accomplish or what they are capable of accomplishing.

RESULTS

This report contains six sections: (1) current educational activities and goals; (2) current occupation; (3) undergraduate education; (4) intellectual and personal development; (5) quality of the student's major program, and (6) attitudes toward UC Santa Cruz.

Educational Activities and Goals

Over two-thirds of UC Santa Cruz's 1993 graduates planned to pursue further education. Twenty-four percent of the graduates were already attending post-baccalaureate degree programs by the time they returned their surveys (80% of those accepted into post-baccalaureate degree programs had enrolled). Two percent were either pursuing personal educational interests or had declined to enroll for the fall 1993 quarter, and another 43% had either applied for later terms or planned to apply in the near future.

The graduate and professional school acceptance rates for UCSC's graduates were very high. Ninety- three percent of the graduates who had applied to graduate school were accepted by at least one institution. This percentage has remained relatively unchanged since 1988. Applicants to graduate programs typically submit more than one application. The 1993 graduates reported submitting a total of 273 applications (an average of 3.3 per applicant) and receiving 173 acceptances. The acceptance rate (63%) per application was exceptionally high, but this may be an over-estimate of the actual rate as it is likely that some respondents did not list all institutions to which they applied. Nevertheless, it appears that UCSC graduates continue to have little difficulty gaining acceptance into graduate school.

As shown in Table 1, graduates enrolled in post-baccalaureate programs were split among undergraduate/certificate programs (3%), master's level programs (11%), and doctoral level programs (6%). The postbaccalaureate schools of UCSC graduates are listed in Appendix C and degree programs are listed in Appendix D. In most cases, the graduate programs were full-time.

Assuming the students who intend to apply to graduate or professional school will have the same acceptance and enrollment rates as those who have already applied, over half of the Santa Cruz graduates will eventually enter post-baccalaureate programs. 4 Fewer graduates enrolled in second baccalaureate or certificate/credential programs than in previous years, while the percentage of graduates enrolling in master's and doctoral programs remained about the same as in 1991.

Occupational Activities

Results on occupational activities are based on the 225 graduates who were not enrolled (full- time or part-time) in college. The employment rates for the 1993 graduating class are about the same as the rates for 1991 graduates. The important exceptions to this trend are graduates in the humanities, social sciences, and life sciences. Not only have employment rates for these graduates fallen over time, but they have fallen relative to other majors. Employment rates by major area of study shown in Table 2.

About the same percentage of Santa Cruz graduates had obtained full-time employment within six months as students who graduated in 1991. This comparison may be somewhat misleading because the questionnaires were distributed at different times, and the employment rates differ by major. Although full-time employment has increased to previous levels, wages have not yet recovered (which is consistent with national trends). The lowest rates of those who were looking for work but could not find it (similar to the concept of the number of unemployed) were in math/physical sciences, life sciences, humanities, and interdisciplinary studies. The largest percentage of unemployed were in arts and economics. The majors with the largest percentages of full time employment were in interdisciplinary studies, math and physical sciences, arts, and economics. Salaries of employed (part- and full-time) graduates are summarized by major in Table 3 (only values for which three or more responses were reported). Students with degrees in the computer science or computer engineering reported the highest median salary (the lowest salaries were reported by graduates who majored in philosophy, history, and American studies).

Santa Cruz graduates were most likely to take jobs in business or industry (38%) and education (17%). About half of the working graduates were employed in these two fields. The other half were split among non-profit organizations (13%), self-employment (9%), government (6%) and "other" (15%). Table 4 shows that the percentage of graduates employed by each employer group was similar for both time periods.

1993 Santa Cruz graduates accepted slightly more clerical, health professional, and sales or marketing jobs than did the 1991 graduates (see Table 5). 5 As might be expected, these differences are also influenced by academic major.

Continuing economic stagnation, especially in California, may have negatively influenced the immediate employment opportunities experienced by the 1993 graduates. As illustrated in Table 6, more 1993 graduates accepted temporary employment and fewer found jobs that they considered to have definite career possibilities than did the 1991 UCSC graduates. The percentage of students taking temporary positions has continually increased since the 1988 survey.

The percentage of students whose jobs required a degree fell from 1991 (see Table 7). About forty percent of Santa Cruz graduates held positions requiring college degrees- regardless of whether their major was related to their job field or not. Another fourth said that the degree was helpful in securing their jobs, even though it was not required. For the remaining graduates, their degree was not a factor in obtaining their job. Graduates' salaries were closely linked to the importance of their degree to their job.

Salary figures should be interpreted with caution. Graduates' salaries are estimates based on salary categories on the survey (see Appendix A). They are the mean or average salaries based on these salary categories (not the median or midpoint of the range of salaries).

Undergraduate Education

Graduates were asked to evaluate both the importance of and their satisfaction with their undergraduate education. Both satisfaction and importance were evaluated on a five-point Likert scale (higher ratings express more favorable evaluations). The sixteen items were grouped into four categories: academic quality, instruction, general education, and faculty contact.

Table 8 reports the group and item averages for the satisfaction and importance ratings. Although satisfaction and importance were both rated on a five-point scale, the two scales are not equivalent. Direct numerical comparisons between satisfaction and importance ratings are inappropriate. In Table 8, the ratings are ranked by importance within each topic area. In this Table and others, differences on the order of 0.25 or smaller are within the variation expected, and should not be considered to be significant changes.

Graduates expressed a greater degree of satisfaction with UCSC's academic quality and teaching than with either social opportunities or faculty contact. Statistically, satisfaction with academic quality was significantly higher than with the other three areas of social opportunities, faculty contact, and teaching. Satisfaction with teaching was also significantly higher than satisfaction with either social opportunities or faculty contact.

Ratings of 1993 graduates showed that satisfaction with social opportunities has declined in some areas, although not significantly. There was a large and significant increase in the opportunities for personal involvement in off-campus activities. Students not only were more satisfied in this area but also thought it more important.

The items with the highest satisfaction ratings were overall quality of the education, the degree of challenge and rigor of the courses, and faculty teaching. This was also true for 1991 students. 1993 students reported relatively low satisfaction in the area of sports (3.00 and 3.43), core courses (3.41) and the contributions of colleges to students' learning (3.34). Although the latter are above the mid-point in the scale, they are distinctive features of UCSC and hence represent potential problem areas. Similar to previous graduates, current students expressed a dissatisfaction with faculty advising. It is important to point out that there has been some improvement in satisfaction ratings, which increased from 2.74 in 1991 to 2.99 in 1993.

Graduates placed significantly greater importance on the areas of academic quality and teaching than on general education and social opportunities. Both academic quality and teaching were rated as "very important;" faculty contact and general education were rated as "moderately important." On individual items, graduates placed the greatest importance on the faculty as teachers and their accessibility, the overall quality of their education, and the degree of challenge or rigor in their course work. Sports, core courses, residential colleges and opportunities for involvement in campus activities were rated as the least important contributors to their education.

Differences Between Groups on Undergraduate Education. Three different groups were analyzed. Underrepresented ethnic minority students (i.e., African American, Chicano, Latino, Native American, and Filipino) were compared to Asian, European and other students; transfer students were compared to students who entered as freshpersons, and graduates whose jobs had career potential were compared to those whose job did not have career potential (graduates who took longer than 4 years were not different from those who graduated within four years). Also, satisfaction rates were analyzed separately for each college, to see if students felt significantly more satisfied with a particular college. Naturally, higher averages among some groups means that other students were less satisfied with those items. Only significant differences are reported.

Underrepresented (SAA) students were generally far more satisfied than non-minorities with advising. Generally, they were satisfied with advising, both in overall quality (3.56) and faculty advising (3.97). Apparently, programs providing advising to SAA students have been effective. Since advising was the greatest area of concern across all students, it is important to keep in mind its differential ratings across student groups. SAA students also were more satisfied than other students with their opportunities for personal involvement in campus activities, their opportunities to work with faculty and the overall quality of their education.

Not surprisingly, transfer students were less satisfied than "native freshpersons" with the colleges' contributions to their education. However, transfer students had slightly higher levels of satisfaction with the degree of challenge and rigor in courses and the overall quality of academic advising.

Due to the low number of respondents, differences between students within colleges should be considered with great caution. The largest difference in satisfaction levels between colleges was in the area of core courses. The highest averages were at Stevenson (4.34), Kresge, and Oakes (both 3.74) while the lowest was at Crown (2.66) and Porter (2.82). Sports activities were rated most important by Crown students and least important by Kresge students. Merrill students thought core courses were very important (4.06) while Porter students rated them as far less important (2.88). An important area of concern was how the residential colleges contributed to the students' life and learning. Cowell students thought this was highly important (4.03) while College Eight students thought this was less important (2.78).

Improvement Indices. Low satisfaction ratings may not be cause for concern if students consider the subject unimportant. An "improvement index" was created to compare the importance and satisfaction ratings on each of the sixteen questions on undergraduate education. The improvement index is the percentage of students who expressed dissatisfaction in an area they rated as moderately important or very important. For example, if a student rated the accessibility of the faculty to be very important, but was dissatisfied with their accessibility, it implies that the student thinks that improvement is needed. The index helps us to understand how students' needs in each area have been met and points to areas that require improvement. Table 9 summarizes the items that were classified as needing the most improvement.

Overall, there has been a rise in the number of areas that seem to need improvement, and more students feel less satisfied with items that they feel are important. In general, there is a common pattern for satisfaction levels to fall or not keep up with rising importance levels in most areas of students' satisfaction with their undergraduate education. In terms of teaching, faculty contact and social opportunities, satisfaction levels have risen, but not as fast as importance levels. In terms of academic quality, there has been a slight decrease in satisfaction levels.

Although there have been some gains since the last survey in 1991, advising remains a major problem. From 1988 to 1993, the satisfaction ratings on the quality of academic advising were 2.94, 2.74, and 2.99 respectively, representing some of the lowest satisfaction ratings of the survey.7 The improvement indexes were 31%, 38%, 35%; each of which was the highest ranked problem in undergraduate education.

Other areas which were identified by the index as needing improvement by seventeen percent or more of the students included opportunities to work with individual faculty, availability of general education courses, and the quality of teaching assistants. The improvement index also reveals some good news. Areas not identified as needing improvement include some that are generally identified as strengths of UC Santa Cruz. These include the quality of teaching and the quality of undergraduate education.

Differences Between Groups on Improvement of Undergraduate Education. Graduates belonging to underrepresented ethnic minorities reported fewer areas needing significant improvement than non-SAA students. Only 17% reported the quality of academic advising needed improvement (13% for the faculty as advisors). For SAA students, the highest improvement indices were found on the availability of general education courses and the overall quality of TAs. The improvement indices for transfer students were very similar to the campus average. The only exception was for the contribution of the colleges to intellectual life; 23% of transfer students felt it needed improvement.

Intellectual and Personal Development

The survey asked the graduates to evaluate the campus' contribution to their intellectual growth and personal development and abilities in two sets of questions. The first set consisted of sixteen questions on intellectual growth. Graduates were asked to rate their satisfaction with the campus' contribution in a number of academic areas. Graduates were also asked about the degree of importance they placed on each of these academic areas. The second set of questions asked graduates to assess personal skills and abilities in twenty-five areas. Again, graduates were asked to rate their satisfaction in each area. They also were asked to rate how well UC Santa Cruz prepared them in each of these areas. These items were scored on a five-point scale for both satisfaction and importance (a response of 5 indicated either "very satisfied" or "extremely important").

In general, graduates were quite satisfied with the campus' contribution to their intellectual growth. Ranked by importance to 1993 graduates, Table 10 reports the averages on each of these items. Each of these averages was significantly greater than the midpoint of the scale. This means that graduates were generally satisfied with the campus' contributions to their intellectual development.

1993 graduates placed great importance on their ability to analyze information, write clearly, and use their creative faculties. Unlike previous years' graduates, students placed more importance and satisfaction on understanding math, science and applying scientific principles. Graduates expressed their highest degree of satisfaction with their intellectual skills (e.g., ability to analyze information, write clear English prose, use their creative faculties). They also expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the campus' contribution in the content-oriented areas. These areas are subject-matter specific and focus on understanding information (e.g., social processes and institutions, human development, and philosophic and social thought), and are probably influenced by the graduates' major course of study.

Differences Between Groups on Intellectual Growth. SAA graduates generally were more satisfied than non-SAA graduates with their intellectual growth, especially in the areas of philosophic thought, understanding government, the fine arts, international problems and social processes. They also regarded these areas as more important.

There were many areas in which students' satisfaction of their intellectual growth differed by college. College Eight and Crown students found the highest satisfaction levels in understanding the natural sciences, technology and applying scientific methods, while Porter and Cowell had the lowest ratings. Kresge and Cowell students were more satisfied with their understanding of western culture, literature, and philosophic thought than Crown, College Eight or Porter students.

The second set of questions focused on how much students felt they had developed their personal skills and abilities while at Santa Cruz. In Table 11, these questions are ranked by importance to 1993 graduates. The highest ratings were for self-understanding, writing skills and intellectual curiosity. The lowest ratings were similar to 1991 graduates: socio- economic improvement, athletic interest, spiritual development, leadership skills and the acquisition of specific job skills.

The most important areas of personal development were self-understanding and self- confidence, writing skills, intellectual curiosity, sense of personal identity and experience and skill in relating to others. 1993 graduates rated these items as having greater importance than earlier graduates. The least important areas were economic status, sports, spiritual values and the ability to lead.

Differences Between Groups on Personal Development. In general, SAA students felt more satisfied with their personal growth than other students. In particular, they were more satisfied with their speaking skills (4.09 vs. 3.27), improved economic and social status (2.83 vs. 2.10), and their career plans and skills (3.67 vs. 3.07). They were also more satisfied with their ability to cope with pressure or change, understand different cultures, philosophies and ways of life, learn independently, create original works or projects and express intellectual curiosity. Other differences included the importance of improved economic and social status (4.00 vs. 2.98), acquisition of specific job skills (4.61 vs. 4.09), and career plans and skills (4.68 vs. 4.33).

About half of the personal development items were rated significantly lower by transfer students. The largest differences were in the sense of personal identity, ability to lead or guide others, personal philosophy of life, ability to cope with change, and a sense of self- confidence and self-understanding. Transfer students also thought some of these areas were less important. Transfer students also thought improved economic or social status was more important.

The most important differences between colleges was in the acquisition of specific job skills. The least satisfied students were at Merrill (2.28), Porter (2.36) and Stevenson (2.51). The most satisfied students were from Kresge (3.15) and College Eight (3.12). Oakes students had the highest satisfaction ratings for working independently and developing a sense of curiosity; Stevenson had the lowest in both. Merrill students had the highest levels in the understanding of different cultures and ways of life (4.26) while College Eight had the lowest (3.37).

Improvement Indices. Table 11 displays comparison ratings (improvement indices) of importance and satisfaction levels. The magnitude of the improvement index for intellectual and personal growth questions increased considerably since the last survey. Following the national trend, UCSC students are becoming more concerned about employment and career plans. As discussed in the section on the students' background, students come to UCSC with plans that have more emphasis on social and educational goals. While these interests remain strong, career and economic interests appear to have increased. A large amount of the increase in the improvement indices may have to do with rising importance levels rather than falling satisfaction rates. Areas of rising importance ratings were in acquisition of specific job skills (which represents the largest number of students who feel dissatisfied in an area that they consider important), career plans and skills, a long-term interest in fitness, and spiritual or religious values. The importance rating for acquisition of specific jobs skills rose from 3.86 to 4.15. The satisfaction level actually rose a slight amount from 2.66 to 2.88. It would appear that students' values have changed rather than the quality their of educational experience. Students were more satisfied with their personal development in career plans and skills than 1991 graduates. However, its importance also increased. A similar change occurred in graduates' religious and spiritual values. Finally, it is important to remember that only four of the areas with a high improvement indices were rated as less than satisfactory (noted with an asterisk in Table 12).

Differences Between Groups on Improvement of Intellectual and Personal Growth. SAA graduates were very similar to other respondents in their improvement indices. However, SAA graduates were less concerned than other graduates with long-term interest in fitness (20% vs. 32%), career plans and skills (16% vs. 31%), and clear and effective speaking skills (3% vs. 20%). In contrast, transfer students were far more critical of UCSC's contribution to their intellectual and personal growth than non-transfer students. Although the overall rankings of the issues were very similar, the improvement indices for graduates who transferred were generally four to eight percent higher than non-transferring graduates.

The Student's Major Program

The 1993 survey's area of special interest included questions on students' evaluations of their major program. Graduates were asked to rate their satisfaction with their major program in a series of 26 questions. These ranged from the quality of education to an ability to create original works. Graduates were also given the opportunity to provide more complete comments about course availability and integration, how they completed their comprehensive requirement, and their independent study and research projects.

For ease of comparison, survey responses shown in Table 13 were summarized by discipline groups (economics is reported separately as it had a high number of respondents). Table 13 reports the group and item average for satisfaction ratings (1 is lowest, 5 is highest). Separate analysis is done for disciplinary areas. All questions are specific to the students' majors.

In general, students were quite satisfied with faculty instruction, quality of knowledge received in the major, the challenge and rigor in coursework and the accuracy and fairness in evaluations, a topic that also appears in students' comments below. Students were least satisfied with major advising, the timeliness of narrative evaluations, and the quality of preparation for the student's career. These results are broadly consistent previous with results in this and other studies (see page 13 for comparative results on advising). Course availability was a problem in some areas, notably in arts and interdisciplinary studies, but in most academic areas it was satisfactory.

Comparisons between the ratings of discipline areas should be treated with great caution. The number of graduates in each group is too low to make inferences and most discipline groups combine students with different programs of study. This paragraph summarizes the findings, but should not be considered an accurate description of the disciplines. In general, humanities and social science majors generally rated their programs most highly. Natural science majors were more satisfied than other majors with course selection, coherence of the curriculum, preparation for a career, and their ability to create original work while they were less satisfied with the board staff and feedback from narrative evaluations. Life science majors were more satisfied with their career preparation than other majors, but they were less satisfied with contact with faculty outside the classroom and the board staff. Arts majors tended to be more satisfied with their narrative evaluations and the helpfulness of board staff, but rated course selection, career preparation, class size, and diversity of viewpoints lower than other majors. Economics majors were least satisfied with their discipline. For example, economics received the lowest satisfaction ratings for its course selection (2.8), course size (2.1), senior comprehensive requirement (2.7), timeliness of narrative evaluations (2.2), and career guidance (2.0).

Differences Between Groups in Evaluations of the Major Program. Transfer students were more satisfied with the rigor of courses and faculty instruction in the major than students who entered UCSC as freshpersons. Transfer students who felt their job had career potential were less satisfied with the quality of teaching assistants than were "native freshpersons" (also see Table 7).

Like the comparisons between disciplines, great caution should be taken before interpreting these results. Although colleges have little or no influence on education experiences within the major, there were some large differences in ratings by college. For example, Oakes students were the most satisfied with the quality of instruction (4.35) while Stevenson students were the least satisfied (3.79). Kresge students' satisfaction with the senior comprehensive requirement was fairly high (4.22), but Porter students rated it much lower (3.32). Kresge students were also more satisfied with the timeliness of narrative evaluations and the coherence of their major curriculum than students from other colleges.

Comments about the Students' Major Programs

On the whole, most students reported they enjoyed their educational experience within their major, which is consistent with the findings in this study. Four questions were asked about the student's major program: availability of classes, inter-relatedness of courses, the senior comprehensive exam, and independent studies or research projects.

Availability of Classes. Most students did not have problems getting into classes, despite the growth in class sizes (the satisfaction average for class size in Table 12 is 3.37, which is above the midpoint in the scale). Many responded "none" when asked if there were courses that were unavailable. A few students mentioned that many physical education classes were full, but no other class was listed by more than one student. However, the minority of students that did not get into the classes they wanted were vocal in their frustration, and typically said that the hardest classes to get into were lower division classes.

Inter-relatedness of Classes. Nearly all students answered affirmatively when asked if their classes and major were integrated, and expressed satisfaction with their major program. When asked if there were other classes that they wanted to take, students responded idiosyncratically, with a only a few classes being listed by more than one student. Suggestions included women's architecture, more technical classes in theater, and computer networking. A few students wanted a different focus for psychology (wanting more health, experimental, and history). Another few objected to the recent reduction in business and practical courses offered by the Economics Board. But overall, the vast majority of students thought that their classes were well integrated and had no suggestions on other classes they wished to take.

Senior Comprehensive Exams. The majority of students also spoke highly of oral exams to satisfy their comprehensive requirements. Although only a minority of students took them, there was a near universal agreement that they had a positive effect on students' lives. There were few students who had negative comments about writing a thesis to satisfy the requirement, but overall the majority of students who completed their requirement in this way thought they benefited from the experience. Students who had the option of taking another class or seminar had positive comments, but they were in general not as enthusiastic as those who took orals or wrote a thesis. The largest criticism came from those taking the comprehensive exam. Fewer than half were critical of the exam (a small minority had no opinion). Interestingly, some who said they did well on the exams did not like them.

Independent Studies. Students had few comments on independent study. Only a minority of students participated at all in such studies, but of those who did, they went to some lengths to describe their experience in positive terms. Students' independent study projects ranged from artistic projects such as recitals and theater productions to more practical ones such as working at a community clinic and doing an environmental study of the Fort Ord closure.

Comments about UCSC

Comments were solicited from graduates on three topics: the most difficult problem a student faced at UCSC, how much money they borrowed to attend the university, and lastly, whether they would choose to attend UCSC again.

The Most Difficult Problems. Of the most difficult problems, financial concerns seem to be of major importance. The most common problem faced among graduates was a lack of money. The second most commonly cited problem was campus growth; comments centered on class size and getting into classes. A few students also expressed problems with choosing a major/career, advising, and the lack of diversity on campus. A large number of comments on problems were idiosyncratic, ranging from personal problems, lack of time to pursue other interests, and dealing with roommates.

Amount of Debt. Fewer than half (48%) of the graduates responding to the survey were able to complete their undergraduate degree without accumulating any debt. This represents a significant drop from the 1991 class in which 63% did not accumulate debt. Of those who did borrow for their education, the average debt was about $8,000 (a rise from $6,000 two years ago). Like the graduates in our previous study, some graduates were concerned about the amount of debt they had accumulated and some had postponed future educational plans in order to work to reduce the size of their debt. But overall, debt did not significantly impact the plan of most of the graduates. Those who managed not to incur a debt were extremely grateful to parents and others who enabled them to get their degree without having to borrow.

Would Graduates Choose to Attend UCSC If They Could Decide Again? The comments about UCSC were largely positive. Most students were very happy with the quality of the undergraduate education they received from UCSC. A majority (68%) said they would still choose to attend UCSC if they were to start over again. Only 7% said they would not while a quarter (25%) said they were uncertain. The positive comments mentioned the narrative evaluation system, the faculty and teaching experience, the focus on personal growth and creative thinking, and the overwhelming natural beauty of the campus.

Several areas of concern about the campus were expressed. Among these were the need to improve advising (both academic and career/employment), preservation of the narrative evaluation and college systems, limiting class sizes and rising fees. Some of the aspects of undergraduate education at Santa Cruz that the graduates wanted to see preserved included small classes and opportunities for faculty contact, the liberal atmosphere which fosters self- exploration and expression, and the campus' emphasis on undergraduate education. Additional areas of concern included issues surrounding campus growth and maintaining the quality teaching environment (providing adequate resources to accommodate enrollment increases, preventing overcrowding, and providing for class variety and availability).

The survey was designed to examine the quality of the undergraduate education provided to students. Educational quality was examined in several contexts: graduates' current occupational and educational activities; future educational endeavors; graduates' evaluation of their undergraduate experience at Santa Cruz; their assessment of skills, abilities, and intellectual development; and assessment of their major program. In general, it was found that Santa Cruz graduates are well prepared for future educational and occupational activities, are satisfied with their undergraduate education, and perceive the University to have played a positive and influential role in their intellectual and personal development. Areas in which students thought there could be improvement are in the acquisition of specific job skills, students' economic status, and advising.

Career Skills. Students who entered UCSC in 1989 as freshpersons were far more interested in the intellectual benefits of an education than their peers. In general, students were quite satisfied with the overall quality of their education, but were less satisfied with obtaining specific job skills, improvement of their economic status, and career planning. The increase in interest in obtaining career skills may be the result of several factors. For the past five years, the parental income of Santa Cruz students has been declining. As UC fees increased, these students had fewer alternatives to pay for their education. This probably contributed to the increases in the number of students graduating in debt and the average amount of their debt. Graduating in debt and difficulty in obtaining good jobs probably caused 1993 graduates to be more aware of the need for career skills than earlier graduating classes. Although 1993 graduates reported the greatest concern, these issues appeared on the last three surveys. The consistency of these findings suggest it is an issue that warrants serious consideration.

Advising. Like earlier surveys of graduates, advising, both academic and personal, was identified as an area that required considerable improvement. Graduates felt that poor advising had a significant and adverse impact on retention, student satisfaction, and graduation. The long- term nature of the advising problems on campus underscores the importance of UCSC's continuing efforts to improve advising.

Differences Between Groups. In general, SAA students felt more satisfied with their educational experience, including areas that are of major concern (i.e., advising and career skills). Although not conclusive, the results suggest that the extra support services available to SAA students may have contributed to their satisfaction. Transfer students were more dissatisfied with their personal and intellectual development than students who entered UCSC as freshpersons. As transfer students are more likely to live off campus and not participate in college activities, colleges (and thus, UCSC) are probably less effective in addressing the needs and expectations of transfer students. Several initiatives on how to better address the needs of transfer students are currently being considered and the results from this survey underscore their importance.

For More Information. This report was developed for a general audience. If the specific concerns of a specific unit, board, committee, or division were not addressed in this report, campus representatives are invited to contact the authors to request further information.

FOOTNOTES

1 As recommended to the California Postsecondary Education Commission in The Final Report of the Joint Committee for Review of the Master Plan For HigherEducation (p. 129)

2 See our ACE surveys on entering freshpersons, in particular, PersonalCharacteristics of Santa Cruz Freshpersons: a Twenty-Year Summary, Jan. 1991, and survey data on 1989 freshpersons.

3 Academic Master's programs include MA and MS degrees. Professional Master's programs include nonacademic master's level programs (e.g., MBA, MFA). Academic Doctorates include all Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs. Professional Doctorates include all nonacademic doctoral level programs (e.g. LL.D., MD).

4 The number is found by the following calculation: Current Enrollments + [Acceptance Rate] X [Enrollment Rate] X [Number who Plan to Apply] = 19% + [.93] X [.80] X 43% = 51%. This number is probably a good estimate of the number who will apply because the survey requested rather specific information about intention to apply (names of the universities, fields of study, and degree programs).

5 Appendix D contains a list of the jobs accepted by UC Santa Cruz Graduates.

6 Satisfaction responses ranged from 1 (Very Dissatisfied) to 5 (Very Satisfied) and importance responses varied from 1 (Not Important) to 5 (Extremely Important). Questions not asked on the 1993 survey are denoted as "na." Items with an asterisk are analyzed more fully in the section on the student's major program and are ignored in this section

Items with an asterisk are analyzed more fully in the section on the student's major program and are ignored in this section.

7 According to the Task Force on Undergraduate Instruction, 45% of the 1967-73 alumni cited inadequate academic advising as a problem. More recently, The Survey of 1984 Graduates, reported that 22% of the graduates rated their major advisors as "poor" or "very poor."

8 Questions not asked on the 1988 survey are denoted as "na."

9 In 1993, development was measured on a five-point scale: (1) no development, (2) some development, (3) moderate development, (4) considerable development, (5) exceptional development.

10 Questions not asked on the 1991 survey are denoted "na."

11 Asterisks denote items with average satisfaction ratings below 3.0.