| Methodology |
| Background |
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The Career Services
Office regularly collects data about the employment and graduate school attendance of
Virginia Tech bachelor's degree applicants. The Center for Survey Research was
contracted to collect this data by administering a brief annual telephone survey to all
undergraduate degree applicants. This survey is administered to the entire
population of bachelor's degree candidates; not just to a sample of the population. |
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A two-stage survey
administration was used for both the fall and spring/summer graduating classes. Each
administration included an initial call prior to graduation (Stage I) to identify students
with definite full-time employment or graduate school plans. Those students
without definite plans at the time of the initial call received a follow-up call six
months later (Stage II). Also included in the Stage II population are students who
were non-respondents or unreachable during the Stage I administration. It should be
noted that there were a number of students for whom no current phone or address
information was available through university records or other conventional directory
sources. These students were coded "untraceable" and dropped from the
eligible population for Stage I and the follow-up population for Stage II. |
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| Fall 1998 and Spring/Summer 1999 Data |
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After completion of
data collection for both the Fall 1998 and Spring/Summer 1999 degree applicants, it was
discovered that 19 students were included in each of the two populations provided for
these surveys. The more current information for each of these students was retained, and
duplicate data was deleted. This resulted in 4,290 completed interviews out of a
possible 4,464 degree applicants -- an overall response rate of 96.1%. |
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Please note that
the academic year for this survey is defined as Fall 1998, Spring 1999, and Summer I &
II 1999. |