Life After UMaine - 2003/04 Baccalaureate
Degree Recipients
Introduction
The Office of Institutional Studies recently
completed a survey of the 1,456 individuals receiving UMaine
baccalaureate degrees in December, 2003, and in May and August,
2004. A total of 728 degree recipients returned the survey for a
response rate of 55% (40 students with international addresses
were not mailed surveys and there were an additional 92 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, 75.4% found full-time work (down somewhat from 77.6%
last year), while 12.4% were working part-time, an increase of
only 0.8% from last year. Individuals only involved in graduate
school comprised an additional 5.6% of 2003/04 graduates (the same
as last year) while 6.7% of the respondents were unemployed, up
slightly from 5.2% last year (Figure 1). 80.8% of those reporting
full-time employment indicated that their job was related to their
degree. In addition, 11.7% of recent graduates working full-time
and 58.6% of recent graduates working part-time were also
attending graduate school, for a total graduate school attendance
rate of 24.6% (n = 179), similar to the previous year.
Figure 1.
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Where are the jobs?
Over two thirds (66.9%) of the graduates in
2003/2004 that reported working full-time remained in Maine, which
is a 5.2% decrease 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, 74%
remained in Maine (representing a decrease of 6.9% from last year)
and 26% left Maine for work. Of those graduates not from Maine,
36.4% remained in Maine to work after graduation (up from 35.4%
last year) while 63.6% left Maine to work, down from 64.6% last
year (Figure 2).
Figure 2.
The proportion of graduates remaining in Maine
to work differed by academic grouping of the graduates. 82.6% of
graduates from the College of Education and Human Development,
68.8% of graduates from the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry
& Agriculture, and 67% of graduates from the College or Liberal
Arts & Sciences – Social 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, 83.4% believed that their UMaine
experience prepared them “Very Well” or “Moderately Well” and only
16.6% 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 = 179,
or 24.6% of respondents), 88.1% felt UMaine had prepared them
“Very Well” or “Moderately Well” (down slightly from 89.6% last
year), and 11.9% reported feeling “Minimally Prepared” or
“Uncertain".
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Who is attending graduate
school?
24.6% (n = 179) of 728 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- Physical Sciences (42.9%), College of
Liberal Arts & Sciences- Social Sciences (38.2%) and the College
of Liberal Arts & Sciences- Humanities (27.6%). The academic
groupings that had the lowest proportion of graduates attending
graduate school were the College of Business, Public Policy, and
Health (12.7%), and the College of Education and Human Development
(17.4%).
Figure 4.
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What do they earn?
The median salary of the 452 graduates who
reported being employed full-time (and who reported their annual
income) was $32,000, up from $30,000 last year. The median salary
for those employed in Maine full-time was $30,000 (up from $28,000
last year), and for those that worked outside the state it was
$35,000 (up from $34,000 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 $45,000, and the median salary of those receiving
degrees from the College of Education & Human Development was the
lowest at $25,000 (Table 1).
Table 1.
|
College |
Median
Salary |
Median Salary
(In Maine) |
Median Salary (Outside Maine) |
|
$ |
n |
$ |
n |
$ |
n |
|
Business, Public Policy, & Health |
35,000 |
118 |
35,000 |
76 |
35,250 |
42 |
|
Education & Human Development |
25,000 |
72 |
24,750 |
58 |
34,500 |
14 |
|
Engineering |
45,000 |
67 |
43,000 |
37 |
50,000 |
30 |
|
LAS- Humanities |
27,150 |
28 |
26,500 |
15 |
27,300 |
13 |
|
LAS- Physical Sciences |
35,000 |
15 |
33,000 |
6 |
35,000 |
9 |
|
LAS- Social Sciences |
29,000 |
76 |
27,000 |
53 |
33,000 |
23 |
|
Natural Sciences, Forestry, &
Agriculture |
28,000 |
68 |
26,000 |
47 |
31,000 |
21 |
|
UNIVERSITY TOTAL |
32,000 |
452 |
30,000 |
298 |
35,000 |
154 |
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Method
The survey was mailed to baccalaureate degree recipients, who
graduated in December, 2003, May, 2004, and August, 2004.
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 59 choosing to respond
electronically (8.1% of total respondents). A total of 728
graduates provided usable responses to the survey, yielding a
return rate of 55% (40 graduates with international addresses
were excluded from the mailings; there were an additional 92
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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