2009 Survey of Graduating Seniors
Findings of Note

Graduating seniors continue to report high rates of involvement in student organizations (87%) and community service (87%) during their time at the university. Additionally, 55% of seniors report holding leadership roles in student organizations. All of these participation rates are an increase from the same survey last year.
New to the survey this year was a series of questions that asked students to indicate how their Marquette education had improved their abilities related to the University’s Institutional Learning Outcomes and key mission and identity indicators. Relatively high rates of improvement were reported by students across these indicators. Additional effort could even further improve the institutional goals of helping students understand global social justice issues and helping students integrate their faith with their education (aligning daily activities with faith, praying/reflecting regularly, and growing spiritually).
The future plans for graduating seniors at the time the survey was completed were markedly different from the same survey last year (both surveys were conducted in April – one month prior to graduation). A lower percentage of graduating seniors applied for full time jobs in 2009 than 2008 (57% vs. 64%), and students were also offered jobs before graduation at a much lower rate (26% vs. 42%). A greater percentage of graduating seniors applied to graduate school in 2009 than 2008 (36% vs. 32%) and more also applied for full-time service positions (16% vs. 8%).
A series of questions asked graduating seniors about their participation in co-curricular learning experiences. Not surprisingly, the most marked impact came from experiences with significant duration and intensity (study abroad, international experiences, internships, and practicum/co-op/clinical/field experiences). When factoring for both rates of participation as well as level of perceived impact, participation in a student organization is the greatest source of impact on undergraduate students of the all the co-curricular learning opportunities measured by the survey.
Students continue to report very high rates of satisfaction with their Marquette education and their chosen major area of study. A series of additional questions for juniors probed satisfaction with particular aspects of campus life. Of note, less than half reported cultural/ethnic diversity on campus as “good” or “very good,” indicating an opportunity for improvement.