Life After UMaine - 2001/02 Baccalaureate
Degree Recipients
Introduction
The Office of Institutional Studies recently
completed a survey of the 1,296 individuals receiving UMaine
baccalaureate degrees in December, 2001, and in May and August,
2002. A total of 641 degree recipients returned the survey for a
response rate of 53% (36 students with international addresses
were not mailed surveys and there were an additional 51 graduates
for whom no address could be obtained). The following report
summarizes the employment and educational status of those UMaine
graduates, which at the time of the survey six to fifteen months
had elapsed, depending on graduation date.
Employment After Graduation
Of those graduates that reported being
employed, 75.8% found full-time work while 13.5% were working
part-time. Individuals only involved in graduate school comprised
an additional 6.4% of 2001/02 graduates while 4.3% of the
respondents were unemployed (Figure 1). Only 83% of those
reporting full-time employment indicated that their job was
related to their degree. In addition, 11.5% of recent graduates
working full-time and 42.7% of recent graduates working part-time
were also attending graduate school, for a total graduate school
attendance rate of 24.5% (n = 157), an increase of 6% over the
previous year.
Figure 1.
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Where are the jobs?
Almost two-thirds (64.1%) of the graduates in
2001/2002 that reported working full-time remained in Maine, which
is about the same as last year. Not surprisingly, the location of
graduates’ work differed between those originally from Maine and
those not from Maine. Among the graduates from Maine, 69.2%
remained in Maine (representing a decrease of 4.5% from last year)
and 30.8% left Maine for work. Of those graduates not from Maine,
34.3% remained in Maine to work after graduation (down from 40.7%
last year) while 65.7% left Maine to work (Figure 2).
Figure 2.
When examined by college, the majority of
students do stay in Maine to work. However, there is a noticeable
difference with the College of Engineering and College of Liberal
Arts & Sciences-Physical Sciences, where %49 of Engineering
graduates and 50% of Physical Science graduates choose to work
out-of-state (Figure 3).
Figure 3.
How well did UMaine prepare
its graduates?
Of those employed full-time in a job that was
related to their area of study 83.4% believed that their UMaine
experience prepared them “Very Well” or “Moderately Well” and only
16.6% reported being “Minimally Prepared” or “Uncertain”. Of
those graduates enrolled in graduate school (regardless of their
employment status, n = 157, or 24.5% of all respondents), 92.6%
felt UMaine had prepared them “Very Well” or “Moderately Well”,
and 7.4% reported feeling “Minimally Prepared” or “Uncertain”.
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Who is attending graduate
school?
24.5% (n = 157) of the 638 respondents to the
survey reported being enrolled in graduate studies (regardless of
their employment status). The colleges of these graduates that
had the highest rate of graduate school attendance were the
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences – Physical Sciences (40%),
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences – Humanities (35.1%), and the
College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, & Agriculture (34.3%). The
colleges that had the lowest proportion of graduates attending
graduate school were the College of Business, Public Policy, and
Health (10.1%) and the College of Education and Human Development
(17.3%) (Figure 4).
Figure 4.
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What do they earn?
The median salary of the 405 graduates who
reported being employed full-time (and who reported their annual
income) was $28,000. The median salary for those employed in
Maine full-time was $26,000 and for those that worked outside the
state it was $32,000.
Median salaries of those working full-time
varied by college. For example, among all respondents the median
salary of graduates from the College of Engineering was highest at
$42,000 and the median salary of those receiving degrees from the
College of Liberal Art & Sciences - Humanities was the lowest at
$23,000 (Table 1).
Table 1.
|
College |
Median Salary
|
Median Salary
(In Maine) |
Median Salary
(Outside Maine) |
|
$ |
N |
$ |
N |
$ |
N |
|
Business, Public Policy, and Health |
35,000 |
94 |
31000 |
64 |
36,000 |
30 |
|
Education & Human Development |
24,000 |
83 |
24,000 |
62 |
25,000 |
21 |
|
Engineering |
42,000 |
62 |
40,000 |
31 |
49,000 |
31 |
|
LAS- Humanities |
23,000 |
29 |
21,000 |
19 |
30,000 |
10 |
|
LAS- Physical Sciences |
27,500 |
11 |
26,750 |
6 |
30,000 |
5 |
|
LAS- Social Sciences |
26,000 |
62 |
26,000 |
42 |
27,000 |
20 |
|
Natural Sciences, Forestry, &
Agriculture |
27,000 |
59 |
24,500 |
38 |
30,000 |
21 |
|
UNIV. TOTAL |
28,000 |
405 |
26,000 |
262 |
32,000 |
138 |
Note: cell sizes should be considered when
comparing medians in the table above
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Method
The survey was mailed to 1,296 baccalaureate degree recipients,
who graduated in December, 2001, May, 2002, and August, 2002.
Follow-up surveys were mailed approximately four and eight weeks
after the initial mailing to those who had not yet responded. A
total of 641 graduates provided usable responses to the survey,
yielding a return rate of 53% (36 graduates with international
addresses were excluded from the mailings; there were an
additional 51 graduates for whom addresses could not be
obtained). At the time of the survey six to fifteen months had
elapsed, depending on graduation date. The proportion of
respondents by college did not vary from the proportions in the
population of all graduates by college by more than three
percent.
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