Bio Sci Alumni Express Strong Satisfaction, Close Ties to UC Davis
September 5, 2005
A recent survey of alumni from Biological Sciences found that alumni are very satisfied with their undergraduate education and that most feel a familial relationship with the university. Alumni also reported annual earnings well above the state average.
The survey was conducted in the summer of 2003 by Student Affairs Research & Information (SARI), which surveyed 1,660 alumni whom had received undergraduate degrees from majors currently included within the College of Biological Sciences in 1973, 1983, or 1993. Forty-four percent of these alumni (n=724) returned a completed questionnaire.
Highlights
Bioscience alumni expressed a high level of satisfaction with their undergraduate education, even exceeding the considerably high satisfaction of alumni from all other majors (see graph). Bioscience alumni were also nearly unanimous in their willingness to recommend UC Davis to a current high school senior.
A majority of the alumni feel a family relationship with campus.
Bioscience respondents felt well-prepared for postgraduate education and for their current employment by their undergraduate education.
A substantial majority of all bioscience alumni were currently employed either full-time (80%) or part-time (10%). Nearly half (46%) of all bioscience alumni from these cohort years were working in the general area of health sciences. Other common occupations among these graduates were biological scientists and educators.
The mean salary reported by bioscience majors, $112,900, was substantially higher than the California average annual wage for 2002 which was $41,469. It was also higher than the mean for responding graduates from across all the colleges and divisions of the campus ($93,092).
Three-quarters (75%) of all bioscience alumni had completed or were currently pursuing a postgraduate degree or credential. More than a third (36%) of bioscience alumni reported that they had completed a health science doctorate, which supports the notion that undergraduate teaching in biological sciences is an important pipeline for producing new doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
A full report is available here, or contact Jennifer Lee (530) 754-9254 to receive a copy by mail.