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National Survey of Student Engagement: CU-Boulder 2000

College/cluster specific findings

Humanities majors score higher than most, or all, other clusters and colleges on a wide array of scales. These include general education, cognitive skills, academic emphasis, personal development, general satisfaction, advising, diversity, and faculty engagement. In the academic realm, students in the humanities report greater emphasis on critical thinking and synthesis of ideas, higher quality of upper-division instruction and advising, more discussion of ideas with faculty, and higher rates of participation in independent study. With regard to personal development, humanities majors are more likely than other students to say that their education has contributed to their understanding of themselves and others, as well as their ability to learn on their own.

As compared to A&S social and natural sciences, humanities departments tend to be much smaller. Results from the NSSE may indicate that humanities departments have been able to capitalize on their small size by providing a more academically-enriched curriculum for their students.

Social science freshmen score quite high on acquiring a broad general education and are satisfied with lower-division class size and academic advising. Social science freshmen are especially satisfied with the overall quality of their academic advising and the university's responsiveness to academic problems. They also indicate a strong desire to study abroad; the percent who say they want to participate in a study abroad program is considerably higher than that for any other college or cluster.

Social science seniors generally score in the middle on all of the scales and items.

Natural science freshmen rank somewhat low on practical academics, including acquisition of work-related knowledge, working with others outside of class, and frequency of class presentations.

Engineering students rate high on major-related academics, but somewhat lower on acquisition of a broad general education. In particular, engineering majors report heavy emphasis in their curriculum on complex cognitive skills, studying, and gaining worked-related knowledge, but perhaps at the expense of more general skills. Particularly among freshmen, engineering students are less likely to report that the university has helped them to acquire a broad general education, including learning to write and speak effectively. Further, engineering students rate the extent to which the university has helped them develop an understanding of themselves and persons from diverse backgrounds near the bottom among colleges. Engineering seniors are the least likely to have devoted time to community service or volunteering and rate the extent to which the university has helped them contribute to the welfare of the community lowest among the colleges.

It would appear that the college experience for engineering students is more limited to academic activities than is true for students in other colleges. Still, engineering students are quite pleased overall with their education at UCB. With the exception of acquiring improved writing and speaking skills, it is not clear that engineering students would prefer that their curriculum be restructured to emphasize more non-academic activities and skills.

Journalism majors study less, but spend more time on outside-the-classroom activities. Journalism students report the lowest emphasis on studying among all the colleges, and they spend less time than students in other colleges preparing for class. These findings are in line with other UCB survey results. For example, in the 1999 UCB undergraduate survey, less than half of the journalism seniors surveyed spent more than 11 hours per week studying; only business posted a lower rate. In addition, in the 1998 UCB senior survey, nearly one-third of journalism seniors said their major courses were "too easy," a rate significantly higher than that for other colleges.

However, the NSSE data also indicate that journalism seniors have high rates of participation in internships, considerable emphasis in their curriculum on acquiring work-related knowledge, and frequent work with others outside of class. They also work more hours on and off campus than seniors in most other colleges.

Advising is ranked lower in the College of Business as compared to other colleges. Among seniors, business rates lower than any other college on the advising scale and the specific advising items. Business school advisors are viewed as less accurate and less available than advisors in other colleges; ratings of the quality of academic advising in business are significantly lower than other colleges.

Business freshmen spend less time than freshmen in other colleges preparing for class and more time socializing compared to others. They also report the highest use of multiple choice exams and are on the low end of satisfaction with lower-division class size. In the 1999 UCB undergraduate survey, business students reported the least amount of time spent studying; only one-third of business freshmen studied more than 11 hours per week as compared to 64% of engineering students and 75% of music majors.

Architecture and Planning students have a positive view of UCB administration. Among seniors, Architecture and Planning students rate the university's responsiveness to problems significantly higher than students in any of the other colleges. Architecture and Planning seniors also are more likely to characterize UCB administrative personnel as helpful, considerate, and flexible and are less likely to say that students have to run around from office to office to get things done.

Architecture and Planning seniors rate the availability of general education courses highest of any of the colleges; however, their rating of the availability of major courses is lowest among the colleges.

Music seniors discuss career plans with their faculty. Perhaps because of the nature of the job market and/or because there are distinct career tracks in music (e.g., performance versus teaching), music seniors are much more likely than other seniors to have discussed career plans with faculty. While their rate of collaboration with faculty outside the classroom is low, it is higher than that for seniors in other colleges.

NSSE 2000 Table of Contents

Last revision 04/26/02

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