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National Survey of Student Engagement: CU-Boulder 2000

Other Findings - by major

Findings by major for: advising, degree completion and after graduation plans, and working for pay

Source of advising. Most seniors obtain advising from college or departmental advisors. However, there is tremendous variability among majors, even those within the same college. In Engineering, for example, almost all aerospace engineering majors are advised by college or departmental advisors; however, very few computer science majors use this source.

Other sources-friends and family, catalogs and publications, online registration, and university instructors and staff-are less likely to be the primary source of advising. However, there are exceptions: computer science majors use online registration more than any other source, followed by instructors and staff; MCDB majors primarily use the university catalog or other publications, followed closely by instructors or staff and advice from friends or family.

Primary obstacle to degree completion. Money is the primary obstacle to seniors' degree completion, followed to a lesser degree by seniors' own motivation. However, it should be noted that most seniors expect to, and probably will, graduate.

Among communications, international affairs, finance, and mechanical engineering majors, motivation is cited as a more likely obstacle than money. Except for English majors, very few seniors report that family obligations will interfere with degree completion; except for environmental studies majors, very few seniors report that difficulty getting courses could interfere. Lack of good advising is cited by somewhat more seniors, overall, than these other two potential obstacles, though almost no aerospace or mechanical engineering seniors foresee advising as a problem.

Note the inverse relationship between use of college/department advisors and whether advising will interfere with degree completion for seniors in computer science versus aerospace engineering. Aerospace seniors use college/department advisors more than anyone and are least likely to expect advising to be an obstacle. Computer science seniors use college/department advisors less than other engineering majors, and are most likely to expect advising to be an obstacle.

Expected time to degree completion. Most seniors at CU-Boulder expect to graduate within four years. Only a few specific majors - environmental studies, kinesiology, marketing, and most Engineering majors - think it will take them five years to finish. Virtually no seniors expect to transfer away from the university for their degrees, and almost none expect that they will not earn their degree.

Plans after graduation. Business and Engineering majors expect to be employed after graduation. Though a few plan to go on to graduate school, their numbers are quite low (aerospace engineering majors are more likely than other Business and Engineering majors to expect to attend graduate school). Almost no Business or Engineering seniors report being unsure of their post-college plans or are planning to take time off after school.

Arts & Sciences majors, on average, are much less likely than Business or Engineering majors to expect to be employed and more likely to expect to attend graduate school; however, this varies considerably by major. History majors are the most likely to expect to work, followed by economics and communications majors. Kinesiology and MCDB majors are very unlikely to expect to work full time right after college; both of these groups are more likely to expect to go on to graduate school. Political science majors are also especially likely to plan for graduate school. Sociology majors are the most likely to say that they will both work and attend graduate school.

Primary reason for working for pay. Most seniors' primary reason for working for pay is to earn money to cover basic expenses. Among Arts & Sciences majors and Business majors, the second reason is to earn extra spending money, while Engineering majors cite a desire to gain knowledge and skills.

Very few seniors work solely for "something to do," and almost none report that they do not work for pay.

NSSE 2000 Table of Contents

Last revision 04/26/02

jo - l:\ir\survey\nsse\00\report\nonordered_col.doc, last updated 6/11/01