Summary

The 2018 Student Survey Report details the attitudes, behaviors, and outcomes of college students. This report differs from those of previous years as it delves into the comparisons across academic levels to compare views of bachelor’s degree students, rather than focusing only on graduating seniors as previous reports had done*.

Key areas of focus include the students’ perceptions of career readiness; preferences and expectations for a job; career center use and job search; and experiences with study abroad, internships, and co-ops, and how students perceive that these experiences impact their career readiness. This study also aims to answer the question of whether college makes an impact on the types of jobs students seek, the job preferences they hold, and their perceptions of their career readiness proficiencies. In particular, does participation in internships/co-ops or study abroad influence student attitudes and preferences?

Highlights include:

• Students rated professionalism/work ethic, critical thinking/problem solving, and oral/written communications as the most important career readiness competencies and view themselves as most proficient in professionalism/work ethic and teamwork/collaboration.
• Responding students reported that a high starting salary would be the top deciding factor between two otherwise identical jobs. Other key deciding factors were job security and good insurance/benefits.
• Experiences matter: Students who held an internship/co-op and students who had a study abroad experience view job attributes differently from each other and from respondents as a whole.

October 2018. 8 1/2" x 11”. 48 pages. PDF format.

VIEW EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

If your organization participated in the survey, or you purchased a copy of the report, you can access the report at MyNACE > Research Reports.