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Office of Assessment
Alumni Survey Results

Office of Assessment/Career Services

Telephone Interviews with 1996-1997 Graduates

Executive Summary

The Responding Sample

            Computer-assisted telephone interviews were conducted by trained interviewers with 313 Winthrop University alumni who had graduated during the 1996-1997 academic year.  The non-response proportion included 131 alumni who had moved or whose phones had been disconnected, 126 alumni for whom no phone number was available, 116 answering machines, 54 alumni who could not be reached because they worked nights or took evening classes, 54 unanswered numbers after five attempts, 1 foreign exchange student not available in the U.S., 3 alumni not available due to illness, and 2 who could not be contacted because they were out of town.  There were only 18 alumni who refused to participate.

            In order to increase the total response rate for the survey, follow-up mail surveys were sent to the 512 non-responding members of the alumni population resulting in responses from an additional 160 alumni.  Thus the survey data reports on 472 alumni or 57 percent of the alumni population.  The overall response rate and sample size are quite good based on survey research standards.

            The sample consisted of 371 (79%) undergraduates and 101 (21%) graduate students.  The most commonly reported age range of students was 22-23 years (44%) with 16 percent of the group being 24 years old, 19 percent in the 25-29 range, 11 percent in the 30-39 year range and 9 percent 40 or older.  Eighty-one percent of the sample were white and 16 percent were African-Americans. The majority (85%) attended Winthrop full-time with 66 percent of the undergraduates having entered as freshmen.  The sample was 76 percent female and 24 percent male.  Compared to the previous two studies, this shows a trend toward a larger percentage of African American alumni included in the survey.

First Activity After Graduation

            Nearly four out of five alumni (78%) reported full-time employment as their first activity after graduation while 10 percent indicated that their first full-time activity was continuing their education.  Twelve percent indicated some “other” activity after graduation such as working part-time, still seeking employment, or “getting married.”  Nearly half (45%) reported being employed in business and industry, 35 percent in elementary or secondary education, 7 percent in health care, and 5 percent in government positions.  Twelve respondents said they are employed by not-for-profit organizations.

            Over half (58%) classified their employers as local while 17 percent indicated their employers are state or regional in scope.  Thirteen percent reported they are employed by national organizations while 12 percent classify their employer as international.  Seventy-six percent said their work is located within South Carolina and only 8 respondents (3%) said their primary work location is outside of the southeast region of the U.S.  Half (50%) are working with rather small organizations (200 or fewer employees) while a fourth (24%) are with organizations employing more than 200.  Twenty-six percent of respondents said they don’t know the number of employees in their organization.  

            Over half (57%) said they were employed within a month of graduation.  This includes 30 percent who said they were employed while attending Winthrop and 11 percent who obtained new positions before graduation.  An additional 32 percent obtained jobs between 1 and 3 months after graduation.  Only 3 percent said it took more than 6 months to find a job.

            While 36 percent of the respondents said they used the Career Services office in searching for a job, 7 percent said they learned about their first job through Career Services.  In the 1994-95 survey, 44 percent of respondents had used Career Services in their job search and 11 percent reported finding their first job through Winthrop’s Career Services.  Twenty-nine percent reported they received help from their academic department or advisor in searching for a job, about the same as reported two years ago.  Fourteen percent said they learned of their first job from information obtained from their academic departments, up from 9 percent two years ago.  More than half (62%) used personal contacts in their job search and a third (33%) said information from these contacts was used for landing their first job.  Nineteen alumni (12%) said they found employment from newspaper advertisements and 9 (6%) found jobs through employment agencies.  

            The median reported salary range for Winthrop alumni in the first year after graduation remains at $20,000-24,999 but the percentage earning less than $20,000 continues to drop from 38% in the survey of 1992-93 grads to 31% for the 1994-95 survey and to 21 percent in this survey.  Forty two percent earn $25,000 or over, up from 28% two years ago.  (Only three percent of respondents refused to give their income.)  Most (91%) report being either very satisfied or moderately satisfied with their current job.

            Nearly four out of five (79%) feel that the preparation received at Winthrop for their job was either excellent or above average.  An additional 12 percent report their preparation was “average.”  Only 5 percent indicated they feel the preparation they received from Winthrop was fair or poor while 4 percent did not respond or said they “didn’t know.”

            For alumni who stated that Winthrop has prepared them well for their jobs, the most frequently cited reasons were the courses, their major program (48 alumni), professors (29 alumni), an internship or other real-world experience (32 alumni) and overall academic program
quality (31 alumni).  One biology major summed it up by saying “the biology major is the reason I got hired—for my lab skills.”  An MBA graduate stated, “Without my MBA I would not have my current job.”  An elementary education graduate described her feelings about her preparation for her first job this way:  “I felt I was up on current issues and prepared for my first year of teaching.”  An interior design major said, “It prepared me for more than just a job—it prepared me for life.”  Only 20 respondents feel their job preparation was less than average.  An education major complained, “I don’t think we had enough time in the real world of teaching; should go to different schools and get more experience.”

            Three out of four graduates (75%) reported their jobs to be highly or moderately related to their major at Winthrop.  Twelve percent, however, said their jobs are not at all related to their major.  Half of these (50%) said this is because there simply were no job openings in their field.  A biology grad said, “It is hard to find something because biology is so general.  You need more education.”  And a history major said, “Nothing available in my major field.  More opportunities in other fields.”

            One hundred nine alumni indicated that they have continued education since graduation.  (This includes 47 alumni for whom continuing education was their first activity after graduation and 62 who indicated they have combined education with some other activity.)  Of these, 29 percent are continuing their education at Winthrop and 10 percent at USC.  Twenty-six percent indicated that they are enrolled in programs in other four-year schools.  The proportion of alumni remaining at Winthrop for graduate study is the same as that reported by 1994-95 grads (29%) but substantially lower than in 1992-93 when 40 percent of alums continuing their education remained at Winthrop.

            Of the alumni who are continuing their education, 65 percent said they are working on a master’s degree while 3 alumni are pursuing doctorates, 3 are in law programs, and 4 are working toward a medical degree.  Fifteen percent are not working toward any specific degree but are continuing their education for self improvement.  Thirty-four percent of those continuing their education are majoring in education while 23 percent are in the arts and sciences and 22 percent are in business or computer science programs.

            When asked if their preparation at Winthrop for continuing their education was excellent, above average, average, fair, or poor, nearly half (46%) said excellent while an additional 39 percent said above average.  Only 1 alumni rated preparation at Winthrop as only fair or poor.

            When asked why they felt Winthrop had prepared them so well for continuing their education, the most often stated reasons were courses, the overall academic quality at Winthrop,
the professors, and the quality of the major program.  As one former English major stated, “Professors taught me well—how to research and write.”

Career Preparation/Planning Activities

            In the survey, alumni were asked the number of times they used Career Services counseling as a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior.  While only 14 percent of respondents indicated they visited Career Services as freshmen, 22 percent visited as sophomores, 42 percent as juniors and 71 percent as seniors.

            In addition, alumni were asked to rate the help available from Career Services.  The percentages of respondents indicating they feel the services were either excellent or above average are shown below along with the number of respondents who expressed their opinion.  If one assumes that alumni with no opinion did not make use of the individual services, then these data show that Career Services is perceived quite positively by students who use the services.  On the other hand, the number of alumni who are able or willing to rate the various services is significantly lower for all services except career workshops compared to 1994-95 alumni, despite a much larger number of survey respondents in this year’s study.  For example, the number of alumni having an opinion about resume writing assistance dropped from 166 to 103, those expressing opinions toward learning to network went from 83 to 43, and the number citing views about the co-op program dropped from 47 to 30.

            Respondents were asked to rate the “quality” of career guidance available through the Career Center and that available in their major department.  Overall results show that about one-half of alumni (54%) rated career guidance through the Career Center as excellent or above average while about three-fourths (76%) rated career guidance through their departments as excellent or good.  

            Sixty-two percent of respondents said they completed an internship or some other type of practicum while at Winthrop.

CIS Program

            The survey included one question regarding the Critical Issues Symposium program.  Specifically, alumni who had entered Winthrop as freshmen were asked if they benefited greatly, somewhat, slightly or not at all from their CIS experience.  Thirty-eight percent said they benefited a great deal or somewhat but 31 percent said they didn’t benefit at all from the program.  This indicates a shift in attitudes toward the program from two years ago when 72 percent said they benefited greatly or somewhat and only 10 percent said they did not benefit at all.

Public Service

            Alumni were also asked about some non-academic aspects of their Winthrop career.  First, they were asked to rate the opportunities for growth and development available at Winthrop.  Forty-six percent said that such opportunities were excellent, and 43 percent said they were above average.  Over half of grads (52%) said they had volunteered some of their time to public service activities while a student at Winthrop.  

Cultural Events  

            Alumni were also asked about the cultural events requirement.  Specifically, they were asked if they felt the cultural events requirement was very helpful, moderately helpful, slightly helpful, or not at all helpful.  Of the 245 undergraduate alumni responding to this question 22 percent felt that cultural events were very helpful but an additional 25 percent rated the requirement as moderately helpful.  Nearly one out of three (32%) said they felt the requirement was not at all helpful.  Many students explained why they felt cultural events were helpful.  A biology major stated, “I enjoyed it and it was something that I never went to.  Now I enjoy it and know what to expect.”  Other alumni expressed opposite opinions.  As one business major said, “The program got worse in my last year.  It really did not make me want to go to them after graduation.”

Perceived Quality of Education at Winthrop

            This year, 84 percent of alumni indicated that they would choose Winthrop again.  Similarly, 78 percent said they would choose the same major.  Forty percent indicated they would choose the same major because they enjoy their job while another 30 percent indicated it was because of the love of the field.  An early childhood education major said, “I love children and I love the teaching profession.”  A psychology major said simply, “I like it and it’s what I want to do.”

            This year, 77 alumni (17%) said they would not choose the same major again.  The most frequently reported single reasons for this was a “change in mind” and a lack of job opportunities (26% each), followed by a preference for another major (21%).