The refinement of basic skills is essential to success in the work environment or the pursuit of further education. This section explores how our alumni feel CSUDH contributed to the development of these skills and how they affected their subsequent educational activities.
The Alumni Survey asked respondents to comment on how much their experiences at CSUDH contributed to their development in various skill areas. The skill levels described below reflect essential competencies that are highly desirable for a student receiving a degree. These skills are also fundamental to functioning in the work environment and/or to pursue an advanced degree. As indicated by the combined ratings of “very much” and “much,” findings from the Alumni Survey reveal that CSUDH played a valuable role in developing these abilities in our alumni respondents. With few exceptions, as discussed below, further analysis by degree levels show only small differences for most of these skills. The links below, showing the percent that felt CSUDH had much to do with developing their skills, will access these breakdowns by degree level.
Critical thinking skills (72.7%)
Career goals (67.0%)
Problem solving skills (66.8%)
Writing skills (66.4%)
Working in a group (66.4%)
Accepting people from diverse backgrounds (64.1%)
Oral presentation skills (63.0%)
Research skills (62.0%)
Verbal communication skills (61.3%)
Interpersonal skills (58.9%)
Leadership skills (52.3%)
Effective use of computer technology (48.3%)
Library skills (44.6%)
There were a few cases where marked differences between degree levels appeared. For instance, respondents that only earned a credential without concurrently enrolling in a degree program (“credential only”) reported that CSUDH contributed more to developing their career goals than was the case for undergraduates (credential only, 73.5% vs. undergraduate, 64.0%). Graduate degree respondents ranked this item in between the undergraduate and “credential only” respondents (68.2%). More “credential only” respondents reported that their oral presentation skills were enhanced at CSUDH (68.3%) than was the case for graduate degree respondents (58.2%). Undergraduate respondents were in the middle (64.1%).
Graduate degree respondents indicated that CSUDH did not contribute as much to some of their abilities as was the case for undergraduate degree or “credential only” respondents. For instance, a smaller proportion of graduate degree respondents indicated that their verbal communication skills was developed much at CSUDH (53.8%) compared to undergraduate (65.3%) or “credential only” respondents (63.9%). The same could be said for interpersonal skills in that only 50.8% of the graduated degree respondents indicated that CSUDH made much of a contribution compared to undergraduate (63.1%) or “credential only” respondents (62.4%). Graduate degree respondents also did not report as much value added to accepting people from diverse backgrounds compared to undergraduate respondents (53.7% vs. 67.7%) or “credential only” respondents (53.7% vs. 71.6%). It can be speculated that many of these graduate degree respondents felt that these abilities were already present before they became graduate students in the first place.
Respondents were asked the extent to which they agreed to the statement,
“CSUDH prepared me for graduate and/or professional school.” Overall, three
quarters (75.1%) agreed, as indicated by their ratings of either “strongly
agreed” or “agree.” There were only small differences in these combined ratings
by degree level (undergraduate,
72.6%, graduate, 79.0%, credential only: 76.6). However, the graduate degree
respondents provided a higher percentage (50.4%) of “strongly agree” ratings
than was the case for undergraduate (35.3%) respondents. There were virtually
no differences by ethnic group.
The highest percentage of agreement came from Whites (78.5%), next were African-Americans
(75.0%), then Hispanics (74.6%), and finally Asian/Pacific Islanders (70.1%).
A comparison of subpopulations
shows that it doesn’t matter when the respondents graduated since both new
(73.7%) and old (75.9%) alumni respondents agreed to the same extent. The
percentage of agreement from distance learning respondents was only slightly
higher (78.0%).
Respondents were given the following list of degrees/programs: Certificate, Bachelor’s, Second Bachelor’s, Credential, Master’s, Doctoral (PhD, EdD, etc), and Professional degree (Law, MD, etc.). They were asked three questions pertaining to this list. They were to mark all degrees/programs that they have already completed, then all degrees/programs they are currently pursuing, and finally, all degrees/programs that they plan to pursue at a later date. For each of these three questions, the responses to the list of degrees/programs are not mutually exclusive since they were asked to mark as many as apply.
Although the reliability of the information on all the degrees/programs that
the respondents already earned is limited to their highest level of education
achieved (this is due to questionnaire clarity), the information gathered
on their continuing education and their future plans for additional education
appears to be fairly sound.
Of the undergraduate respondents, 15.7% went on to complete a master’s degree, 14.2% are currently pursuing a master’s degree, and 24.6% indicated that they plan on pursuing a master’s degree at some time in the future. Although few of these undergraduate respondents subsequently earned a doctorate (1.8%) and even fewer are currently pursuing one (1.0%), almost a tenth (9.4%) indicated they would like to pursue a doctorate degree in the future. Of the undergraduate respondents, 3.8% are currently pursuing a credential. Approximately, 1 out of every 5 undergraduate respondents (19.8%) indicated that they were currently pursuing additional education of some kind and 36.0% indicated that they plan on pursuing some kind of additional education in the future.
Graduate alumni also went on to complete advanced degrees. A relatively small proportion of the graduate respondents (5.8%) subsequently completed a doctorate degree while 4.8% are currently enrolled doctorate programs. Another 17.0% of the alumni plan on pursuing a doctorate in the future. Also reported is the following:
Overall, with certificates, credentials, and additional master’s degrees included, 8.6% are currently pursuing some kind of education and 19.7% plan on pursuing some kind of education at some time in the future.
Half (45.7%) of those that were recommended for a credential at CSUDH without also earning a degree at the same time indicated that they have completed a master’s degree. Furthermore, 11.3% are currently pursuing a master’s degree, and 14.0% plan to pursue a master’s degree at some time in the future. Although relatively few (2.3%) have earned a doctorate degree or are pursuing one (0.9%), 13.6% have a doctorate degree in their future plans.
Two subpopulations of graduate degree alumni were given a pair of questions regarding their capstone experience. These subpopulations were the distance learning respondents and the respondents that graduated over five years ago (“old alumni”). The first question asked them to indicate the type of capstone experience they completed for their degree at CSUDH. A comparison of subpopulations shows that the majority of distance learning respondents completed a thesis (65.5%), many completed a final project (28.9%), and relatively few took the comprehensive examinations (5.6%). Non-distance learning respondents that were given this question, were all from the “old alumni” subpopulation. Only a quarter of these (25.5%) completed a thesis or a final project (23.4%), but half (51.1%) completed comprehensive exams.
The second question asked them to rethink their decision now that they have graduated and indicate the capstone activity they would choose if they could go back in time and do it again (even if it was not an option at the time). A crosstabulation of “if doing it again” by “activity selected” shows that the majority of respondents were satisfied with what they did. Most of those that completed a thesis indicated that they would do the same (82.6%) if they were back in time doing it again. However, there were some that would rather have opted for the comprehensive exams (8.3%) or the final project (9.2%). For those that completed comprehensive exams, 72.9% validated their decision to do so, 12.5% would rather have completed a thesis, and 14.6% wished they completed a final project instead. Out of those that completed a final project, 85.0% were glad they did, 11.7% wished they had completed a thesis, and only 3.3% would have preferred taking comprehensive exams instead.
These results show that more of those completing a thesis or final project were satisfied with their decision compared to those taking final exams. For this latter group, those with regrets were split regarding what they would do different if they could go back in time and do it again.