Where are our students one year after graduation?

 2007 Survey

When you read our mission statement, you will see that we believe in the value of lifelong learning and the power of knowledge to transform lives. We continually strive for innovative undergraduate and graduate programs that lead to opportunities for personal and professional success in a rapidly changing and technologically sophisticated world. Part of our commitment focuses on instilling a lifelong desire for learning and preparing students to assume a vital role in the global marketplace. While these are extremely important goals, measuring our success at accomplishing these goals becomes more challenging because these aspects are typically demonstrated after our students graduate. Measuring the success of our students is one method of determining our success at accomplishing these goals.

How are the students who graduated from Mountain State University last year doing after graduation? Are they working? If so, where are they working? Is their job related to their field of study? Have they continued in their educational endeavors? If so, what degree will they be seeking? At what college or university are they continuing their education?  Where is the institution located? These are some of the questions that we try to answer with the One Year Survey.

While MSU awarded 1,005 degrees for 2005-2006, there were only 965 students receiving those degrees. There were 109 respondents producing an 11% response rate. Of those graduates responding, 90% indicated that they were currently employed. Of those who responded that they were not currently employed, 46% indicated that they were continuing their education while 54% were not working or going to school. This would indicate that approximately 94% of the graduates were either working or continuing their education, leaving only 6% who were doing neither.

Graduates were employed in over 50 different cities both inside the United States and over seas. The majority of those graduates who were working were employed in Beckley, WV (20.4%). Other cities that accounted for the majority of jobs included Charleston, WV (8.2%), Houston, TX (7.1%), Huntington, WV (6.1%), and Welch, WV (4.1%). Fifteen different states represented 96.8% of the employed graduates while the remaining 3.1% were employed in the United Arab Emirates. When combining various cities within each state, West Virginia employed 59.2% of the graduates followed by Texas (10.2%), Virginia (5.1%), Florida (4.1%), Maryland (4.1%), Ohio (2.8%), Massachusetts (2%), Michigan (2%), Hawaii (1%), Kansas (1%), Kentucky (1%), North Carolina (1%), New Jersey (1%), Pennsylvania (1%), and Washington (1%). When asked if their job was related to their field of study, 79% indicated that it was while 19% indicated that it was not.

The second major question asked on the survey was if the graduate was continuing their education. Of the graduates responding, 36% indicated that they were continuing their education while 64% indicated that they were not. Of those graduates who were continuing their education, 5% were seeking their doctoral degree, 90% were seeking their master's degree, and 5% were seeking their bachelor's degree. There were 14 colleges or universities indicated in the survey responses. The majority (56.4%) were attending Mountain State University. West Virginia University (10.3%) and Concord (5.1%) received the majority of the remainder of graduates. The remainder all have approximately 2.6% each and included Emerson College, Liberty University, North Central University, Northwestern University, Stalla CFA, Tiffin University, Universitas 21 Global, University of Charleston, University of Nebraska, University of Phoenix, and Walden University.

The responses from this survey help us answer the questions we asked earlier. The 90% of the graduates that are working is evidence that we are preparing students to assume a vital role in the global marketplace. The 36% of the graduates that are continuing their education after graduation is evidence that we are instilling a lifelong desire for learning. This percentage is lower that the 43.1% indicated by the 2005 Alumni Survey. However, since this was the first year that this survey was administered, these results will be used as a benchmark for future surveys.

• 2007 One Year Survey Results