Newsgroups: bit.listserv.erl-l
Date:         Sat, 12 Sep 1992 00:16:00 CDT
From:         P30JWP1@NIU.BITNET
Subject:      OERI; Recent College Grads (269 lines)

The following is provided by The Office of Educational Research
and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.  Please feel
welcome to distribute.


                  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
         OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND IMPROVEMENT
            NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

                        ELECTRONIC ED TAB

            RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATES TRANSCRIPT STUDY:
       ESTIMATES OF 1985-86 BACHELOR'S DEGREE RECIPIENTS'

                   COURSE-TAKING BEHAVIOR

This tabulation describes briefly some of the key
findings of the 1987 Recent College Graduates Transcript
Study.  The format is such that the tabulation can be
retrieved from an electronic bulletin board and printed using
most printers.

The data in this ED TAB are based on transcripts collected as
part of the 1987 Recent College Graduates Study (RCGS).  The
RCGS collects data on a nationally representative sample of
college graduates (both bachelor's and master's degree
recipients) to obtain information on their educational and
occupational experiences approximately one year after
graduation.  The RCGS also responds to a Congressional mandate
to determine the availability of qualified teachers for the
nation's elementary and secondary schools.  This study has been
conducted six times in the past (1976, '78, '81, '85, '87 and
'91).  The 1987 RCGS is unique among the other RCGSs in that it
collected postsecondary transcripts on eligible bachelor's degree
recipients in the 1987 sample.  The data from these transcripts
form the basis of this ED TAB.

An earlier report, Occupational and Educational Outcomes of
1985-86 Bachelor's Degree Recipients, describes the
distribution, by major fields of study, of occupations held by
the 1985-86 graduates about one year after graduation.  That
report provides information on such occupational
characteristics as: labor market status, employment status,
job satisfaction, and salary.  This ED TAB parallels that
report in that, to the extent possible, the same major fields
of study and occupational groups used in that report are found
here.  Ten major fields of study are discussed in the report.
They are: business and management, education, engineering,
health care, public affairs and social services, biological and
life sciences, math/computer science/physical science, social
science, humanities, and psychology).  This ED TAB will report on
the course-taking behavior of nine of these ten majors.  An
insufficient number of biology majors entered into the labor
market to identify their course-taking behavior by occupation.
The last section of this ED TAB, the Methodology section, defines
the terms related to program areas and major fields of study that
are used in this ED TAB.


                             HIGHLIGHTS

Course-taking behavior among majors:

o    The average number of courses taken by bachelor's degree
     recipients ranged from 48 courses, 1/ for social science
     majors, who earned 140 credit 2/ hours on average, to 58
     courses for engineering majors, who earned 168 credit hours
     on average.

o    The average grade point average of graduates in the ten
     major fields of study considered in this ED TAB did not
     differ substantially.  The range was from 2.6 to 2.8.

Course-taking behavior in selected program areas:

o    Education

     Among the grade point averages (GPAs) associated with each
     of the 18 program areas presented in this ED TAB, the GPA
     for the education program area was among the highest, 3.1.
     This suggests that graduates received on average higher
     grades from courses taken in the education program area than
     in many other program areas.

o    Foreign languages

     The percentage of graduates who took one or more foreign
     language courses varied from 21 percent for engineering
     majors to 66 percent for social science majors.
     Approximately one-third of business, education, and health
     care majors took one or more foreign language courses.
     Among biology, social science, humanities, and psychology
     majors, more than half took one or more foreign language
     courses.

o    Mathematics

     At least three-fourths of the graduates in each of the
     selected majors, except humanities, took one or more courses
     in mathematics.  The average number of math courses taken by
     the graduates in each of the majors was at least two.  The
     average number of math credits earned varied from a low of 8
     credits for humanities, health care, and public affairs
     majors to a high of 24 and 27 credits for engineering and
     math/computer science/physical science majors, respectively.

o    Physical science

     For each of the selected majors at least sixty percent of
     the graduates took at least one course in the physical
     sciences.  The average number of courses taken varied from 2
     courses for business and public affairs and social services
     majors to at least 8 for biological and life science,
     engineering, and math/computer science/physical science
     majors.

Course-taking behavior of graduates in selected majors:

o    Business and management majors

     More graduates majored in business and management than in
     any of the other major fields of study.

     Business majors generally took more computer science and
     math courses and the same number or less of foreign language
     courses than majors in education, health care, social
     sciences, humanities or psychology.

o    Education majors

     Education majors took an average of 17 courses in education
     resulting in about 50 credits on average in education.  Each
     of the other majors took less than 4 education courses and
     earned at most 10 credits on average in education courses.
     Education majors had an average GPA of 2.9 in their
     education courses.  All other nine majors earned at least as
     high a GPA for their course-work in education.

     Compared with all graduates, education majors had among the
     lowest GPAs in the following program areas:  business and
     management, foreign language, history, psychology, public
     affairs and social services, social science, and
     voc./technical.

     Seven of every 10 education majors graduated without taking
     a computer science course, 2 out of every 3 had not taken a
     foreign language course, 1 of every 4 never had a physical
     science course and 1 of every 10 never had a mathematics
     course.

o    Engineering majors

     Engineering majors earned an average of 68 credit hours in
     engineering courses.  All other majors averaged less than 60
     credit hours in courses in their major field and generally
     earned fewer credits than engineers in mathematics and the
     physical sciences.  In the physical sciences program area,
     however, math/computer science/physical science and
     biology/life science majors earned about the same number of
     credits as engineering majors.  The proportion of engineers
     with at least one course in fine and applied arts, foreign
     languages, history, life sciences, and psychology was among
     the lowest of the majors.

Course-taking behavior and occupational choices of graduates:

o    Between 4 and 18 percent of graduates in education, health
     care, math/computer science/physical science, social
     science, and humanities held a business or management
     position one year after graduation.  A larger proportion of
     education and health care majors who entered the business
     field took one or more courses in business than those who
d teaching, in the case of education majors or health
     care, in the case of health care majors. For example, 24
     percent of education majors who obtained a position in
     education took one or more courses in business while 45
     percent of education majors who entered business took at
     least one course in business.

o    Between 5 and 13 percent of majors in math/computer
     science/physical science, social science and humanities
     entered the teaching profession after graduation.  For each
     of these three majors those who entered teaching took more
     courses and earned more credits on average in education than
     those who entered their major's principal occupation (which
     was computer science for the math/computer science/physical
     science majors, business and management for the social
     science majors, and administrative services (clerical) for
     the humanities majors).

o    Fifty-seven percent of engineering majors and 6 percent of
     math/computer science/physical science majors were working
     as engineers 1 year after graduation.  A larger proportion
     of math/computer science/physical science majors who became
     engineers took at least one course in engineering than
     majors in these fields who became computer scientists.

o    Among math/computer science/physical science majors
     one-third held a computer science position one year after
     graduation while 4 percent of business majors held such a
     position.  Business majors who entered the computer science
     profession after graduation took more computer science
     courses on average and earned more computer science credits
     than business majors who entered business occupations after
     graduation.

---------------------------
1/ See section V D, Definition of terms and variable coding,
for a detailed description of what a "course" encompasses.

2/ See section V D, Definition of terms and variable coding,
for a detailed description of what a "credit" encompasses.

3/ Differences cited in the above highlights are statistically
significant at the 5 percent level of significance.  Where
applicable, Bonferroni adjustments for multiple comparisons were
used.

A copy of the report RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATES TRANSCRIPT STUDY:
ESTIMATES OF 1985-86 BACHELOR'S DEGREE RE
BEHAVIOR is available from U.S. Department of Education, Office
of Educational Research and Improvement, Dept. EIB, 555 New
Jersey Avenue N. W., Washington, D.C.  20208-5641.  Please refer
to NCES 92-078.

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ESTIMATES OF 1985-86 BACHELOR'S DEGREE
RECIPIENTS' COURSE-TAKING BEHAVIOR

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