For the past 43 years, the National
Survey of Colleges has been conducted in order to track and identify
specific trends of college graduates.
This
survey was officially launched in 1970, and over the years thousands of
companies and non-profit organizations have used the results from the
survey as part of their business planning and marketing research.
Let's take a look at what the survey tracks and what is included in the survey results.
One
of the things the survey tracks is how specific degrees impact future
career opportunities. In the 1970's for example, graduates who majored
in education and accounting had a better chance of getting a job and
having a successful career then graduates who majored in other
disciplines such as art, history and archeology. This trend gradually
started changing however in the late 1980's and early 1990's. By this
time more and more graduates started majoring in fields like business
and finance because more job opportunities were opening up in these
areas.
The
survey results from the past five years however show that more graduates
have started majoring in various fields of engineering and technology.
It has been suggested that the launch of companies like Facebook, Google
and Twitter may be partly responsible for this changing trend.
Other
academic trends the National Survey of College Graduates covers, is the
number of graduates entering the health and medical fields. Some of the
parameters and guidelines used to conduct this particular research
included tracking graduates with bachelor degrees or higher and also
past graduates who had reached 76 years of age.
In
addition, there are also many other key variables used to in the
National Survey of College Graduates surveys. Some of these variables
include native country and citizenship, marital status, current
occupation, number of children, level of job satisfaction, employment
sector, additional educational history, immigration status, geographic
location of current job, ethnicity, gender and demographic group.
After
the surveys are analyzed using these key variables, the staff at NSCG
are able to identify specific patterns and outcomes and also identify
specific trends. This information has proven to be very useful in
putting together educational forecasts.
It
should also be noted that a percentage of the information used by the
NSCG staff comes directly from census data and the American Community
Survey.
All completed surveys are available for use in a down-loadable statistical format.
To learn more about the National Survey of College Graduates, go to http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvygrads/. On the homepage you will see a link for the latest news updates and also instructions on how to order specific publications.
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