Life After UMaine - 2002/03 Baccalaureate
Degree Recipients
Introduction
The Office of Institutional Studies recently
completed a survey of the 1,356 individuals receiving UMaine
baccalaureate degrees in December, 2002, and in May and August,
2003. A total of 664 degree recipients returned the survey for
a response rate of 52% (31 students with international addresses
were not mailed surveys and there were an additional 48
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 conferral date.
Employment After
Graduation
Of those graduates that reported being
employed, 77.6% found full-time work (up from 75.8% last year),
while 11.6% were working part-time, a decrease of 2.9% from last
year. Individuals only involved in graduate school comprised an
additional 5.7% of 2002/03 graduates (down from 6.4% last year),
while 5.2% of the respondents were unemployed, up from 4.3% last
year (Figure 1). 76.8% of those reporting full-time employment
indicated that their job was related to their degree. In
addition, 11.6% of recent graduates working full-time and 50.0%
of recent graduates working part-time were also attending
graduate school, for a total graduate school attendance rate of
24.4% (n = 144), similar to the previous year.
Figure 1.
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Where are the jobs?
Almost three-fourths (72.1%) of the
graduates in 2002/2003 that reported working full-time remained
in Maine, which is an 8.0% increase from 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, 80.9% remained in Maine (representing an
increase of 11.7% from last year) and 19.1% left Maine for
work. Of those graduates not from Maine, 35.4% remained in
Maine to work after graduation (up from 34.3% last year) while
64.6% left Maine to work, down from 65.7% last year (Figure 2).
Figure 2.
The proportion of graduates remaining in
Maine to work differed by academic grouping of the graduates.
84.5% of graduates from the College of Education and Human
Development, 72% of graduates from the College of Business,
Public Policy and Health, and 70.6% of graduates from the
College or Liberal Arts & Sciences – Physical Sciences remained
in Maine. (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, 83.1% believed that their
UMaine experience prepared them “Very Well” or “Moderately Well”
and only 16.9% reported being “Minimally Prepared” or
“Uncertain” (both figures similar to last year). Of those
graduates enrolled in graduate school (regardless of their
employment status, n = 144, or 24.4% of respondents), 89.6% felt
UMaine had prepared them “Very Well” or “Moderately Well” (down
somewhat from 92.6% last year), and 10.4% reported feeling
“Minimally Prepared” or “Uncertain”, up somewhat from 7.4% the
previous year.
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Who is attending graduate
school?
24.4% (n = 144) of 591 respondents reported
being enrolled in graduate studies (regardless of their
employment status). The academic groupings of these graduates
that had the highest rate of graduate school attendance were the
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences- Social Sciences (34.9%),
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences- Physical Sciences (29.1%)
and the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, & Agriculture
(27.7%). The academic groupings that had the lowest proportion
of graduates attending graduate school were the College of
Business, Public Policy, and Health, and the College of Liberal
Arts & Sciences- Humanities, both with 18.3% (Figure 4).
Figure 4.
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What do they earn?
The median salary of the 397 graduates who
reported being employed full-time (and who reported their annual
income) was $30,000, up from $28,000 last year. The median
salary for those employed in Maine full-time was $28,000
($28,000 last year), and for those that worked outside the state
it was $34,000 ($32,000 last year).
Median salaries of those working full-time
varied by academic grouping. 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 Education & Human
Development was the lowest at $24,500 (Table 1).
Table 1.
|
College |
Median
Salary |
Median Salary
(In Maine) |
Median Salary (Outside Maine) |
|
$ |
n |
$ |
n |
$ |
n |
|
Business, Public Policy, & Health |
35,000 |
107 |
35,000 |
76 |
38,000 |
31 |
|
Education & Human Development |
24,500 |
82 |
24,000 |
68 |
31,950 |
14 |
|
Engineering |
42,000 |
49 |
41,600 |
31 |
45,000 |
18 |
|
LAS- Humanities |
27,000 |
37 |
25,000 |
23 |
31,250 |
14 |
|
LAS- Physical Sciences |
35,500 |
14 |
32,000 |
11 |
45,000 |
3 |
|
LAS- Social Sciences |
25,000 |
57 |
25,000 |
40 |
33,000 |
17 |
|
Natural Sciences, Forestry, &
Agriculture |
26,000 |
47 |
26,000 |
27 |
26,000 |
20 |
|
UNIVERSITY TOTAL |
30,000 |
397 |
28,000 |
280 |
34,000 |
117 |
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Method
The survey was mailed to baccalaureate degree recipients, who
graduated in December, 2002, May, 2003, and August, 2003.
Follow-up surveys were mailed approximately four, eight and
twelve weeks after the initial mailing to those who had not
yet responded. Survey recipients were also given the option
of completing the survey on-line, with 47 choosing to respond
electronically (7.1% of total respondents). A total of 664
graduates provided usable responses to the survey, yielding a
return rate of 52% (31 graduates with international addresses
were excluded from the mailings; there were an additional 48
graduates for whom addresses could not be obtained). At the
time of the survey, six to fifteen months had elapsed since
graduation, depending on conferral 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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