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Comparing Schools/Colleges and Divisions

Average ratings for items across schools/colleges and division are generally quite similar, but there are a number of differences in ratings across these groups that are worth mentioning. Notably, for all but a few of the items that address academic areas, the graduate students in the Leeds School of Business gave higher ratings, on average, than did students in all the other schools/colleges and divisions (.1 to .3 points higher). For most items, the higher average ratings of business students were due to the more favorable ratings of the business school's doctoral students, compared to those of its master's students. In the summary below, we report differences among schools/colleges and divisions on the academic-related items, where differences in average ratings for each school/college and division, other than the Business school, varied noticeably (by .4 to .8 points). The average ratings for each of the schools/colleges and divisions, discussed below, can be viewed by selecting the relevant survey items in the means by college and student level excel.

• Program space and facilities: The four schools/colleges and divisions reporting relatively less satisfaction with space and facilities are Arts and Humanities (mean = 2.4), Social Sciences (2.5), Journalism (2.5) and Music (2.6). The four most satisfied with their program's facilities are Business (2.9), Education (3.1), Engineering (3.1) and Natural Sciences (3.2). (Scale: 1 = poor... 5 = excellent)
• Availability of area courses needed for program: Journalism graduate students (2.7) reported relatively less satisfaction with this aspect of their program. Arts and Humanities (3.0), Social Sciences (3.1), Engineering (3.2), and Music (3.3) graduate students were generally satisfied with the availability of area courses in their program; and Education (3.4), Natural Sciences (3.4), and Business (3.6) students were the most satisfied. (Scale: 1 = poor... 5 = excellent)
• Opportunity to interact across disciplines: Education and Music graduate students reported the least satisfaction with this opportunity in their program (2.7 and 2.8, respectively). Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences graduate students were also less satisfied (2.9) than were students in other schools/colleges. Natural Sciences (3.3) and Business (3.4) graduate students were the most satisfied with their opportunity to interact across disciplines. (Scale: 1 = poor... 5 = excellent)
• Program integrates current developments in the field Journalism (3.4) and Arts and Humanities (3.4) graduate students were least satisfied with their program's ability to integrate current developments. Natural Sciences (3.9) and Business (4.0) graduate students were the most satisfied with this aspect of their program, followed closely by Education and Music (3.8 and 3.7, respectively). (Scale: 1 = poor... 5 = excellent)
• Promoted my professional development: This item was answered by substantially fewer graduate students overall and applied primarily to doctoral students; in fact, only doctoral students in the schools of Business and Education chose to answer this item. The doctoral students in these two schools were the most satisfied (4.6) with the help they received in this area. In contrast, the few (6 master's and 9 doctoral) graduate students in the School of Journalism, for whom this was applicable, were the least satisfied (3.5) with the assistance they received in this area. (Scale: 1 = strongly disagree… 5 = strongly agree)
• Would recommend this university for their program: The average reported likelihood of recommending CU-Boulder for someone considering their respective programs was relatively high for Business (4.2), Natural Sciences (4.1) and Engineering (4.0) graduate students. Arts and Humanities graduate students' ratings (3.6) indicated that they would be somewhat less likely to make this recommendation. (Scale: 1 = definitely not... 5 = definitely)
• Would recommend this university for another field: Journalism graduate students' average ratings (4.0) on this item suggested that they would be somewhat more likely to recommend CU-Boulder to someone in another field of study. Natural Sciences and Arts and Humanities students (3.6) reported being less likely to recommend CU-Boulder to someone in a different field. (Scale: 1 = definitely not... 5 = definitely)
• Would select same field of study: On average, Music (4.6) and Social Sciences (4.5) graduate students reported that they would most likely select the same field of study if they were starting their academic career over again. However, Journalism graduate students' average ratings (4.2) to this item suggest that they would be least likely do so. (Scale: 1 = definitely not... 5 = definitely)
• Would select same university: Arts and Humanities graduate students (3.5) would be least likely to select the same university again, if starting their career over, compared to graduate students in the other schools/colleges and divisions (3.7-4.0). (Scale: 1 = definitely not... 5 = definitely)
• Intellectual quality and Academic Standards: Students from all schools/colleges and divisions were about equally satisfied with the intellectual quality of their fellow graduate students (3.8-4.0) and also with the academic standards in their program (3.6- 3.7). Business students reported the highest levels of satisfaction with their program's academic standards (4.0). (Scale: 1 = poor… 5 = excellent)

School of Journalism and Arts and Humanities: Graduate students in the School of Journalism and in the Arts and Humanities division showed some interesting patterns in average ratings on a few additional items in comparison to graduate students in the other schools/colleges and divisions. (Scale: 1 = poor… 5 = excellent)

• Both Journalism and Arts and Humanities graduate students (3.4) were relatively less satisfied with their relationship between faculty and graduate students in their program, compared with graduate students (3.5-4.0) in the other schools/colleges.
• Journalism graduate students were also relatively less satisfied (4.1) with the intellectual quality of the faculty in their program. Arts and Humanities graduate students were the most (4.5) satisfied with this quality of their faculty, more so even than Business graduate students (4.4).
• Journalism graduate students (2.8) were relatively less satisfied with the quality of academic advising and guidance in their program compared to graduate students in other schools/colleges (3.1-3.6).
• Business, Education, and Journalism had relatively high average likelihoods of staying in their respective program until they graduated (means=4.9, 4.9, and 4.8, respectively). Master's Journalism students reported a higher likelihood (5.0) of doing so than the doctoral graduate students in that school (4.5).

Importance and Achievement of Knowledge/Skill Areas: For the items that dealt with the importance of knowledge/skill areas, and the degree to which these were enhanced (achievement), in each program, Business School graduate students had the highest average ratings on all but two of the knowledge and skill areas: research and writing. For the most part, average ratings of each school/college and division on the importance of a knowledge/skill area closely mirrored the achievement ratings graduate students reported for that same area. Some notable differences in average ratings of achievement for these knowledge/skill areas among the schools/colleges and divisions, other than Business, are discussed below. (Scale: 1 = not at all… 4 = greatly)

• Communication Skills: Graduate students in both the College of Music (2.8) and Arts and Humanities (2.9) gave relatively low average achievement ratings for this skill. Journalism graduate students (3.2) had the highest average rating in this area.
• Critical Thinking: Graduate students in the College of Music (3.1) also reported the lowest average achievement rating on this skill as well. However, Arts and Humanities graduate students (3.5) reported the highest. In fact, all three of the arts and sciences divisions -- Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Arts and Humanities - reported the highest average ratings, compared to the other schools/colleges.
• Leadership: Journalism graduate students (2.4) reported the lowest achievement rating for this skill area. Music graduate students (2.8), however, reported the highest average achievement in this area; just as high, in fact, as Business School graduate students.
• Research: Graduate students in the School of Education (2.9) reported the lowest average achievement in this area, whereas both Journalism and Natural Sciences graduate students (3.5) reported the highest level of achievement in comparison to graduate students in the other schools/colleges and divisions.
• Teamwork: On teamwork, however, both Journalism and Arts and Humanities (2.4) reported the lowest average ratings of achievement, and the School of Education graduate students (2.9) reported the highest.
• Time Management Skills: Graduate students in all the schools/colleges and divisions, other than Business, reported similar average achievement ratings (2.6-2.8), with School of Education graduate students (2.6) reporting a slightly lower average rating than reported by graduate students (2.7-2.8) in the other schools/colleges and divisions.
• Writing: Journalism graduate students (3.3) reported the highest average rating in the area of writing, higher even than graduate students in the Business School (3.2). Both Natural Sciences and College of Engineering graduate students (2.9) reported the lowest achievement in this area.

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Last revision 09/28/06