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Macleans 2008 university student survey results are in

There’s lots to explore in the education section of Maclean’s website right now. University students were surveyed on a variety of topics including whether they felt “like a number” and whether they could register for the all the courses they wanted.

There are several ways to choose a university, and just as many sources of information with which to make your decision.  Students and parents stress over making the “right” decision, but chances are, if you have focused on the right sources of information, and made your choice for the right reason, you’ll make a good decision.

Student surveys are interesting sources of data, but of course, their usefulness can be somewhat limited.

It may be handy to know that most students are able to successfully register in their first choice of courses, but how good was that selection of courses in the first place?

If a large portion of students indicate that they are getting “personal attention” from their profs, does this mean that professors are accessible, or does it mean they’re swamped with superficial interactions about what’s on the exam and don’t have the time to explore your research interests in-depth with you?

Does the level of involvement in campus activities reflect more on the activities offered by the university, the socioeconomic level of the students (who may have to choose work over involvement) or even the city the university is located in (university-sanctioned activities might not be the social hub in a large city; in other cities, the university activities might be the only offerings)?

Just because the survey results could be interpreted in a variety of ways doesn’t mean you should ignore them.  More useful (and more fun, says the former math tutor) than simply taking the results at face value is to use surveys like to explore notions of statistical validity, significance and bias.  Asking what could be producing the observed results is often more interesting than the results themselves.

For example, one question asked in the 2007 survey was, “If you could start over again, would you still choose to go to this school?”  Would a high percentages of “yes” votes necessarily indicate that this school should be at the top of your list?

The implication of a “yes” vote is that the school is so good that I would choose it again.  But, there’s so much that goes into such a simple question.

For example, if I were asked that question, I would say absolutely yes.  I would choose Glendon again if I knew now what I knew then.  But, depending on why I say yes, you may find that a yes for me would be a no for you!  How do you know that someone is answering yes based on characteristics of the school that you would experience in a similar way?

There’s also a kind of response bias in that question.  How many people are so dissatisfied with their current situation that they would redo a significant portion of it differently?  Choose a different school?  That means you wouldn’t have met your university friends.  You wouldn’t have had those frosh experiences.  You wouldn’t have that local hangout.  That’s really a lot to give up.

Do you want to admit that your life is so messed up that you need a do-over?  Don’t some of our fondest memories also come from hugely stupid mistakes that we endured and lived to tell?

Remember, 90% of people at “school x” might be happy there, but many schools attract certain types of students in the first place.  If the school doesn’t seem like the place for you, then that high satisfaction ranking was probably given by people unlike you, and might actually signify that you’d be dissatisfied at that school.

A better way, then, to interpret student satisfaction rankings might be this: of the students who initially thought that was the best school for them, these questions confirm or refute their preconceptions of that university.

Perhaps then, high satisfaction rankings can best be seen as success of the university marketing departments.  After all, they sold their incoming students on a particular image of the school.  High satisfaction would probably mean that the experience was as promised.  And, that’s a good thing, because that helps you feel confident that what they promise is what they deliver.

So, examine the results but take them with a grain of salt.  Use the questions (not just the answers) to help refine for yourself exactly what you’re looking for in a university and find other sources of information (university literature, campus visits etc.) to present a more complete picture of the schools.

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