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Senior Survey, Spring 2004

Questionnaire Design

The 2004 Senior Survey questionnaire addresses two general areas:

• Quality of the undergraduate experience: Questions in this section focus on seniors' attitudes about, and satisfaction with, their major program and other CU-Boulder programs and services.
• Graduation and after-graduation plans: Questions in this section focus on respondents' length of expected time to graduation and further education and/or job plans for after graduation.

The questionnaire consists of 84 short answer (check-off, drop-down box, or short text response) items and 4 long text, paragraph-type responses.

This year's questionnaire is similar to the 2001 web-based questionnaire, with the exception of the following changes that were made to reduce its length and to obtain further information in a few of the sections.

Larger structural changes:

• The section on participation in "Outside the classroom activities" was dropped.
• The section on "After graduation plans" was shortened so that seniors only had to enter the "most likely" post-graduate school they expected to attend and the "most likely" company they expected to work for, instead of the top three in each category.
• The "Would you recommend CU-Boulder" and "How much experience … in jobs related to field of study" items were moved to an earlier part of the form (after the "Satisfaction with aspects of major" section).
• Two new items were added, each with a check-off question and a follow-up long text question.
• First item asked whether seniors' "program of study met their educational goals" and asked them to explain the "ways their program did or did not meet their educational goals."
• Second item asked seniors to check off whether they would be taking "four years" or "longer than four years" to graduate, and then asked them to "write a letter to a friend" in high school ("Dear CJ"), explaining why they were taking four or more than four years to graduate. We had asked this question on the 1998 Senior Survey and on the 1993 Advising Survey
• Two of the four long text response items from the previous 2001 questionnaire were dropped: the "Most significant learning experience" item, and "How CU helped you develop as a person."

Item additions and deletions:

• Two items were added to the satisfaction with "Aspects of the undergraduate major" section:
• Time spent in small group projects
• Opportunities for oral presentations in class
• A number of additions were made to the "Awareness/use and satisfaction with services" section. The Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs reviewed this list of services and requested that a few additional services be included.
• Parenthetical clarifications were added to the following items, shown in italics.
• Registration (in registrar's office)
• Academic records and transcripts (in registrar's office)
• Advising in your college/school
• Counseling Services (Willard 1st floor: therapy, groups, workshops, lectures--NOT Wardenburg)
• The following services' descriptions were re-worded or re-ordered.
• CUConnect - the student web portal (replaced "PLUS" from the 2001 form)
• ITS computer labs (Macs/PCs) replaced "MacIntosh/PC labs"
• Student Academic Services Center (SASC) was moved to its appropriate alphabetical position
• Additional services were added
• Cultural Unity Center
• Disability Services
• Off-Campus Student Services
• Victim Assistance
• One to two items were added to each of the sections of the question, "What would you do differently?"
• "Put more effort toward/spend more time on:"
• Working for pay
• "Put less effort toward/spend less time on:"
  • Extracurricular clubs/activities
  • Working for pay
• "Other"
• Choose a different major
• The number of response options for the item "When do you expect to graduate?" were reduced and combined
• An item was added to the end of the questionnaire that asked respondents to enter the zip code of the place they were living this term.

Last revision 11/12/04