A–1 STANDING COMMITTEES Academic and Student Affairs Committee

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Student Regent Presentation: Journey to Degree and Beyond INFORMATION This item is for information only. BACKGROUND Each year the Student Regent is given the opportunity to choose a particular aspect of the student experience to highlight and to present to the Board at its May or June meeting. This item also aligns with Regent Benoliel’s initiative, introduced when he was chair of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee, to begin each meeting of the Committee with a student experience. Kaitlyn Zhou, the 2018-2019 Student Regent, has chosen to investigate students’ experiences of their journeys to degrees and to careers. Regent Zhou plans to summarize key findings from the attached report and then open discussion. In keeping with the Board’s express desire to discuss long-term strategic issues and to bring conversations occuring across many campus units together, Regent Zhou intends to open discussion of degree and career pathways at the Board level. Attachment Journey to Degree and Beyond

Journey to Degree and Beyond Student Regent Item to the Board

Kaitlyn Zhou May 2019

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Executive Summary Each year, the student regent presents an item to the Board of Regents in the spring. This year, the student regent has explored how undergraduate students across all three UW campuses describe their educational experiences – in particular, how academic and beyond classroom experiences prepare students for careers. A series of interviews were conducted with students on all three UW campuses. Results were compiled to help design a survey which was sent out to all academic advisors to share as well as all graduating seniors on the Seattle campus. 366 survey responses were collected, providing tentative insight into how students experience their journeys to degrees and careers. Key findings from the survey:

● Students are most predominantly influenced by academic interests when selecting majors with (84% responses for extremely or very influential). Factors such as family pressure and competitiveness of major seem to be less influential.

● Students reported that they felt most prepared in writing and synthesis, dialogue and perspective, understanding societal implications and least prepared in data analysis and statistics.

● Between 52% - 74% of students participate in each of the following beyond classroom activities: undergraduate research, volunteer work, capstone or senior projects, or internships. 8% reported not having participated in any of the four listed activities.

● Students use a wide variety of resources to help with long-term career planning, including professors and TAs, peers and mentors, family, and academic advisors. The one resource which students are not using heavily for long-term career planning is the career center (51% reported never using it).

● 55% of students intend to pursue a graduate degree. When deciding to pursue additional education, career prospects becomes a more influential factor then when deciding on an undergraduate field of study.

● 83% of students agree that the University of Washington should be preparing them for their future careers. 45% of students agree that the University of Washington prepared them for their future careers.

Recommendations:

1. A university-wide strategic plan for career development based on further research into longer-term career outcomes.

2. Increased awareness among faculty, staff, and students of entry-level jobs and early-in career pathways for undergraduate students.

3. An expansion of internship opportunities and academic advising services around long-term career planning.

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INTRODUCTION Each year, the student regent presents an item to the board of regents in the spring. This year, the student regent has explored how undergraduate students on all three UW campuses describe their educational experiences. In particular, how academic and beyond classroom experiences prepare students for their future careers. The findings are summarized below and are intended to help regents better understand areas where the UW succeeds and areas where the UW can seek to improve.

Survey Method

Interview Method A series of interviews were conducted with ten students from across all three campuses. Students were contacted via personal relations or in connection to ASUW, ASUWB, ASUWT. The student regent conducted semi-structured interviews with each of these students. The interviews contained nine formal questions that asked the student about how they chose their majors, what were the most important skills they gained and an overview of their job search processes. The purpose of these interviews was to gain a better understanding of the landscape of liberal arts education at the University of Washington. The key findings of these interviews informed which additional questions to ask in the questionnaire.

Questionnaire Method

Population The population includes all current UW undergraduate students who are graduating in 2019 as well as recent alumi. Undergraduate students from all three campuses are included.

Instruments The questionnaire was administered via Google Forms and the original survey can be accessed at https://forms.gle/8oouJCcsGY75XFSd8. The questionnaire contained required multiple-choice questions as well as optional free responses. The questions asked about the students overall educational experiences at the University of Washington, and primarily focused on: how they chose their majors, what they gained from their majors, how their academic and beyond classroom experiences prepared them for their future careers, as well as their desire to pursue graduate degrees. Personal information such as gender and race was collected; however, names and email addresses were not collected to ensure respondent anonymity.

Outreach The primary forms of outreach were through academic advisors as well as a campus-wide email to all graduating seniors on the Seattle campus. Every academic advisor on all three campuses was emailed and asked to help share the survey. ASUW, ASUWB, ASUWT, RSCA were additionally contacted to help share the survey. Other forms of messaging included a post from the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Facebook page, as well as posts in other Facebook groups including the ASUW Student Senate group as well as the Student Advisory Board group. UW Tacoma’s dean of students received the request as well as UW Bothell’s Division of Student Affairs. The final samples include 320 students from Seattle, 42 students from Bothell and 4 students from Tacoma for a total of 366. There were 280 responses from the class of 2019, and 81 responses from students who graduated between 2014 and 2018 and 5 responses from students who graduated before 2014.

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Current Initiatives on Campus A number of leaders across campus are all involved in better understanding student career pathways and educational outcomes. The following are a few individuals who have been consulted throughout this project and who could be potential collaborators in future efforts.

Kevin Mihata, Associate Dean for Educational Programs

Founding Director of Center for 21st Century Liberal Arts (Undergraduate Academic Affairs)

C21 (the Center for 21st Century Liberal Learning) helps students in the College of Arts and Sciences connect their college learning to their career and life goals. Our work with Amazon, Microsoft, and other leading employers has taught us that beyond the skills and knowledge they already earn through their degree, A&S students need a deeper understanding of the expectations, norms, and values of the world of work. Although we focus on life after college, we believe deeply that the intentional, curious, growth-oriented learners that employers want to hire are precisely the students who make the most of their intellectual opportunities at UW. Engaging the professional world shows students that learning matters beyond school.

Sean Gehrke, Director of the Office of Educational Assessment

For more than 40 years, the Office of Educational Assessment (OEA) has surveyed UW undergraduate and graduate degree recipients about their post-graduate activities and educational outcomes, with special emphasis

on documenting employment and continuing education activities post-graduation. Historically degree recipients were surveyed nine to twelve months post-graduation. In recent years, beginning with 2014-2015 degree recipients, OEA surveyed alumni six months post-graduation in conformance with requirements of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Beginning with 2019 degree recipients, the responsibility for surveying alumni will be shared with UW Career & Internship Center, who will gather information about students’ “first destination” post-graduation. OEA will continue to survey alumni six months after earning their degrees to contribute to the longitudinal collection of educational experiences and outcomes for UW alumni. Reports detailing the results of OEA’s alumni surveys can be found at http://www.washington.edu/assessment/reports/.

Susan Terry, Executive Director, Career Center

The UW Career & Internship Center has a vision to empower students to discover and pursue a path to a fulfilling career, so they can make their own unique marks on the world. We are dedicated to educating and supporting students as they explore and choose academic majors and career options, obtain and reflect upon career-related experiences, develop professional presence and essential skills for workplace success, and launch post-graduation career plans, including graduate/professional school and employment. Part of our team works directly with students and recent graduates – providing information and advice on a range of career development and job search topics. Part of our team works directly with employers – interacting with them through our online jobs board, campus interview program, career fairs, and panels.

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Magdalena Balazinska, Co-chair of the Provost’s Task Force on Data Science

Associate Vice Provost of Data Science and Professor of Computer Science & Engineering

Tyler McCormick, Co-chair of the Provost’s Task Force on Data Science

Professor of Statistics & Sociology

To complement the data science options available at UW and to keep up with trends at peer institutions, we propose to develop a data science minor. This minor will be open to all but will attend to the particular needs of non-STEM undergraduate students who may have only high school math and science background, and no prior programming experience. We envision that students in the minor will benefit from the education it provides in several ways. Fundamentally, this new minor is a way for students to gain literacy and fluency in data science methods and understand their implications for society and the world. This minor, in and of itself, likely will not help students become competitive for jobs as data scientists in high-tech firms. It will, however, help students to leverage familiarity with data science in fields outside of data science, gain skills and fluency to work with data, and serve as a stepping stone toward acquiring more advanced skills and degrees in data science.

Phil Reid, Vice Provost of Academic and Student Affairs

Professor of Chemistry

The survey results provided by Regent Zhou demonstrate the desire by students for curricular and co-curricular programming that support the transition from college to career. This finding is also consistent with some of the challenges the UW faces with regards to enrollment management. Specifically, more and more students are pursuing areas of study where they perceive that the connection of degree to career is clear. Recognizing student interest in this connection, many of our strategic enrollment management initiatives involve making career outcomes more clear to prospective students. For example, we are entering an agreement with AstrumU to perform machine learning on 10 years of student academic data and career outcomes. The idea is to identify correlations between academic pathways and careers, and use this information to develop services that help students explore how degree programs connect to employment outcomes. This study also has potential benefits for employers who will be able to identify current students pursuing academic experiences that translate into successful employees.

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Respondents Of the 366 respondents, the following is a breakdown of demographics, with the charts on the right indicating the number of student responses per category.

Of the respondents, 53% (195/366) were preferred she/her/hers pronouns, 42% (152/366 preferred he/him/his pronouns). The remaining respondents preferred they/them/their or a combination of two or more pronouns. A few respondents preferred not to answer.

All racial and ethnic groups which had more than one respondent are visualized on the right. When asked about their racial or ethnic group, the biggest racial or ethnic group that participated was Caucasian with 52% (190/366) of respondents identifying as such. In future studies, it would be recommended to specifically reach out and share with the survey with more diverse groups across campus. A few respondents preferred not to answer.

All majors which had more than five respondents are visualized on the right. 15% of respondents in the survey study Political Science, 7% study Computer Science (Seattle), 7% study Computer Science & Software Engineering (Tacoma), 6% study Human Centered Design and Engineering, and 6% study Biology. The skew of the data is most likely due to the impact of certain academic advisors who were able to more effectively share the survey with their students or recent alums. About 49% percent of respondents are in STEM, and 51% who are Non-STEM (The definition of STEM majors is based off of the classification by the American College Testing organization (http://www.act.org/content/act/en/research/reports/act-publications/condition-of-stem-2013/stem-majors-and-occupations/stem-majors-and-occupations.html).

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Key Findings

A note on graphs Each of the graphs below represents student responses from the question which is indicated in the title of the graph. There were 366 responses to each of the questions, with the exception of Figure 8 and 9 which had 300 responses as only students who wanted to pursue graduate school answered. The Y-axis represents the number of student responses for that particular category. The X-axis represents a Likert scale that reads left to right, with “Not at all” on the far left and “Extremely” on the far right. Color is used to double-encode this scale. The following legend is used throughout the document.

Figure 1: Legend

Key factors that influence students when deciding a major Students seem to be primarily influenced by academic interests 84% responses for extremely or very influential. 58% of students responded that career prospects were extremely or very influential and 57% responded that personal values were extremely or very influential. Competitiveness of majors and family pressure were not very influential, with 74% and 84% of students saying it was not at all or slightly influentially respectively. Figure 2: How did the following factors influence your decision making process when choosing a major?

Student responses to the question: How did these factors or other factors influence your decision?

“The major I'm in was my back up major as a result of not being accepted into my intended major. I actually was not informed of the application system to some majors before joining UW and so I had no back up plan; thankfully, the major I got into had a less competitive applicant pool and somehow matched my interests. But as a

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result, many of the factors listed above were not influential to me picking my major, I honestly had to pick one to graduate.” “If I'm being honest, while I have an interest in computer science, I primarily chose this major because I wanted to be able to sustain myself financially, and be able to actually live in this area. I want to be able to afford to travel, and that is not an inexpensive hobby. If we lived in a different world, I would likely be majoring in history and/or literature.” “I found peers and teachers that were fun to learn from and work with while I was studying the major, which helped me reaffirm my passion and finish my major.” “It is the kind of material that I am energized by learning and can spend hours on without noticing the time passing.”

Preparation by area Overall, students feel strongest in understanding societal implications, writing and synthesis, dialogue and perspective with 68%, 60%, 58%, reporting they feel extremely or very prepared in these areas respectively. The weakest two categories are data analysis and statistics. 25% of students report they are not at all or slightly prepared in data analysis and 36% reported they are not at all or slightly prepared in statistics. Figure 3: Do you feel adequately prepared in these areas from your coursework?

Student responses to the question: What were some of the most valuable skills you gained from your

coursework?

“Discovering the interconnectedness of the world makes topics more manageable and has filled in so many gaps that I didn't realize were present in my knowledge.”

“Most importantly, I think that my research and writing skills have improved. I should note that my most valuable learning experiences here did not arise from my chemical engineering courses, but from the electives that I took on the side, such as literature, anthropology, classics, and language classes.”

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“Collaboration and teamwork, maintaining objective integrity as a researcher, making a well-crafted argument, how to be concise and effective when presenting large amounts of data, synthesis of ideas and concepts, creativity.” “Research. Even though I wasn’t able to pursue a major in the business school, I learned so many valuable skills and so much information about scientific research. It has helped me have a solid understanding of the scientific method, which helps me at work but also when I am speaking with people who are misinformed about politics or news or even pseudoscience.”

Filtered view of preparation by area The following graph is a filtered view of figure 3, where all majors which are classified as a STEM major by the American College Testing organization (http://www.act.org/content/act/en/research/reports/act-publications/condition-of-stem-2013/stem-majors-and-occupations/stem-majors-and-occupations.html) were grouped together and presented on the first row and all other majors are presented on the second row. Non-STEM students are stronger in understanding societal implications, writing and synthesis, dialogue and perspective but weaker in data analysis and statistics. In figure 4, the percentages add up to 100% across each knowledge area. 49% of the responses were from students in STEM majors while 51% were from students in Non-STEM majors. If a student double majored, the first indicated major was used. Figure 4: Do you feel adequately prepared in these areas from your coursework? Separated into STEM and Non-STEM

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Student responses to the question: What are the most valuable skills that were missing?

“Methodology and statistical analysis- really any quantitative classes- were not courses that were required or taught in the Political Science major, and I now feel that if I wanted a career in policy, I would have to supplement my degree outside of a university setting. Courses in R, Stata, or even basic statistics would be a

great addition to political science major tracks.” “Technical skills. I’m currently taking accounting classes at the local community college to build on the technical skills I got while working part time jobs when I was a student at UW.” “My coursework was really missing classes that taught hard skills that are applicable to getting a job. I learned a

lot about how and why things work, but there is very little hands-on experience in the coursework, which makes it difficult to get a job in the same field after graduation.” “An understanding of the societal implications of what we are learning about and scientific writing.

However, in most STEM majors it's difficult to make room for classes that would teach these skills.”

Beyond classroom activities Between 52% and 74% of students participate in each of the following beyond classroom activities: undergraduate research, volunteer work, capstone or senior projects, or internships. However, only 8% reported not having participated in any of the four listed activities. Of those who participated, the activity that students cited as most helpful in preparing them for their future career was internships (39% reporting very or extremely helpful). In the following chart, the bars in gray indicate students that did not participate in the activity. Figure 5: How did these outside classroom activities prepare you for your future career?

Student responses to the question: How did these outside classroom activities prepare you for your

future career?

“In truth, it was my internships and job experience that helped me much more than my classes did [...] Long story short, the degree would be much more valuable if professors were encouraged to include course content that can help students bridge their understanding of politics and theory in theory to how each work in practice. It could be

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as simple as incorporating a course on Washington state politics and offering insights about the legislature, advocacy, etc. etc. Liberal arts degrees are known for being purely what students make of it, but they don't

have to be.” “I feel that the activities outside of the classroom, such as research, helped prepare me in ways the classroom cannot. Coursework helped prepare me to understand why we do the things we do in research.”

Long-term career planning Students use a wide variety of resources to help with long-term career planning, including professors and TAs, peers and mentors, family, and academic advisors. The most effective resource seems to be peers and mentors. Students seem to have mixed opinions on what is helpful and what is not. The one resource which students are not using heavily for long-term career planning is the career center (51% reported never using it). Of those who have used it for long-term career planning, 32% reported it as not at all or slightly helpful. In the following chart, the bars in gray indicate students that did not participate in the activity. Figure 6: Which of the following helped you with long-term career planning?

Student comments after the long-term career planning section:

“I needed more, but didn't know I needed more.”

“Advisors introduced me to some faculty who would be great resources for the type of work I am interested in, and utilizing their advice and knowledge along the way has been very beneficial for me.” “While the general undergraduate advisors had little to offer, my major advisor was incredibly helpful and supportive. I have tried to use the career center on several occasions but have found that they are not knowledgeable about careers in science.” “Everyone gives you the same advice with no substance. It's especially hard for me to get a job being an african american. Advisors did not recognize this and did not do enough to help.”

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“Both specialized advisors and career center were out of touch with career tracks and didn't have enough knowledge to really help.” “I wish that there was more direct networking with companies/agencies. I went to the career center but only got broad information about what you can do with a political science degree (like become an ambassador or an elected official). There were few resources for connecting students with entry level jobs in the field. I know I could become an ambassador with a poli sci degree, but what’s the first step in that career track?”

Graduate School Most students intend to pursue graduate degrees with 55% of students say they are definitely or very likely to pursue a graduate degree. Of those interested in pursuing graduate education, the three most popular graduate degrees students are interested in are: Master of Science (28%), Master of Art (20%), Ph.D. (15%). 41% of students intend to enroll in graduate school one to three years upon graduation and 30% of students intend to enroll after three or more years upon graduation.

Figure 7: Do you plan on pursuing a graduate degree?

When asked which factors influence their decision to pursue graduate education, most of the factors listed above: academic interests, alignment with personal values, family, pressure remained the same.

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Figure 8: How do the following factors influence your decision to pursue a graduate program?

The factor that changed the most was career prospects with nearly 80% of respondents say that career prospects were extremely or very influential when it came to pursuing a graduate degree as compared to 58% of respondents who said it was extremely or very influential when deciding an undergraduate major. Figure 9 visualizes this finding where the chart on the left is the student responses to how career prospects were influential when deciding a major and the chart on the right are responses to how career prospects influence them when deciding to pursue graduate school. Figure 9: Influence of career prospects when deciding a major versus deciding to pursue graduate school.

Preparation for future career 83% of students strongly agreed or agreed that the University of Washington should be preparing them for their future careers. 45% of students strongly agreed or agreed that the University of Washington prepared them for their future careers. 20% of students strongly disagreed or disagreed that the UW prepared them for their future careers. When filtering the data on only recent alums, similar trends were found.

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Figure 10: Should and did the UW prepare you for your future career?

Student responses to the question: In what ways did your coursework and other beyond classroom

activities prepare you for your future career?

“Critical thinking, effective communication, academic research and writing, and statistical analysis, for example, are broad skills that can be applied to nearly any field. That doesn't help narrow down the transition between education and career for many, though.” “After hundreds of applications, many cover letters, and several networking events, I'm now currently working three jobs to make ends meet and thankfully one position is somewhat related to what I studied [...] Though at this point in time, I'm still living in poverty with little hope of rising above it using all the skills and knowledge I obtained through working towards and receiving my Bachelor's Degree.” “My coursework prepared me by forcing me to think and overcome my own ego, biases, histories and traditions before I could even begin to understand another person, culture, idea or concept.” “I took some fabulous courses [...] that challenged social norms in our society in response to death/dying and sexuality, respectively, that I found fascinating and vital to a progressive community. I was exposed to communities I had never met/read about before and they exposed me to the huge variety of the human condition and lifestyle. I seriously appreciated classes like these and will take their concepts into my future career.” “My undergrad taught me transferable skills that have made me the successful person I am today. I did very poorly academically during my undergrad, however,I was heavily involved and learned how to show up on time, keep commitments, be open to others' ideas, work with others, learn how to do things I don't like, but are necessary (ie: work with difficult people, respect people's' ideas that don't align with mine). It set me up for success in life.”

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Recommendations A university-wide strategic plan for career development is recommended. A number of campus leaders are working on better understanding career development for undergraduate students. It could be beneficial for our senior leaders to develop a mission, align goals and to collaborate often. Marketing around career development initiatives could be streamlined, allowing students, faculty, and administrators to understand where the main points of contact are. An investigation towards understanding the entry-level jobs and early-in career paths of recent graduates across all disciplines is recommended. Mid and late-career opportunities are often highlighted to students without providing examples of the many pathways between an undergraduate liberal arts degree and these aspiring roles. Lastly, expanding opportunities for internships as well as academic advising services around long-term career planning is recommended. Students are encouraged to explore broadly and to think deeply about the impact they wish to make. By augmenting their understanding of possible career pathways and starting conversations around long-term career planning, the UW can help students develop strategic plans and make more informed decisions.

Special Thanks Special thanks to all those who met with me and who helped with the production of this report. In particular, thanks to Phil Reid, Kevin Mihata, Sean Gehrke, Nate Mckee, Susan Terry, Magdalena Balazinska, Ann Nagel, Ed Taylor, LeAnne Wiles, Constance Rice, and Tyler Lange. Thank you to Mary Gresch, Jack Martin, Kirsten Atik, John D. Burkhardt, Maria Lamarca Anderson, Ritika Jain, Armen Papyan, Leah Shin, and all academic advisors who helped share this survey. To all the students who volunteered to be interviewed as well as the nearly 400 students who participated in the survey and wrote responses - thank you for sharing your voice! This would not have been possible without your care and love for the university.

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Additional Student Quotes 1. How did these factors or other factors influence your decision? (145 responses)

a. Personal values

i. I wanted to study something that felt ethical and morally fulfilling. ii. I went with what I was interested in learning about the most. Honestly, deciding for a career came

second. iii. It matched perfectly with how I like to think about things and solve problems. iv. It is the kind of material that I am energized by learning and can spend hours on without noticing

the time passing. b. Competitive Majors

i. The major I'm in was my back up major as a result of not being accepted into my intended major. I actually was not informed of the application system to some majors before joining UW and so I had no back up plan; thankfully, the major I got into had a less competitive applicant pool and somehow matched my interests. But as a result, many of the factors listed above were not influential to me picking my major, I honestly had to pick one to graduate.

ii. I wanted a major that would align with my personal and career goals. Initially I wanted to go into Biology, but was advised that I would not get into the department and that I should save time by changing majors. Changing to Psychology turned out to be more beneficial for my future goals anyway, but it was not my initial plan.

c. Career prospects

i. I wanted a direct path to a well paying job, so I studied accounting and four years later that’s exactly what I achieved.

ii. If I'm being honest, while I have an interest in computer science, I primarily chose this major because I wanted to be able to sustain myself financially, and be able to actually live in this area. I want to be able to afford to travel, and that is not an inexpensive hobby. If we lived in a different world, I would likely be majoring in history and/or literature.

d. Community

i. I never thought of studying dance in college, however the department was so welcoming (and I missed it so much) that adding it as a second major was an obvious choice. I am lucky enough to have parents that support me in whatever I decide to study - so I got to follow my passions. I wouldn't do it any other way.

ii. Second most influential part was the mentorship available in the major - I found peers and teachers that were fun to learn from and work with while I was studying the major, which helped me reaffirm my passion and finish my major.

2. What were some of the most valuable skills you gained from your coursework? (209 responses)

a. Writing

i. Most importantly, I think that my research and writing skills have improved. I should note that my most valuable learning experiences here did not arise from my chemical engineering courses, but from the electives that I took on the side, such as literature, anthropology, classics, and language classes.

ii. Creating my narrative voice, how to communicate effectively through written word and design, learning what characteristics of being a designer I identified with

b. Writing and Analysis

i. Writing and analytical skills. I don't mean this rhetorically - ever since my time in the philosophy department, I can feel that my abilities as a writer and reader have substantially improved in a very tangible way.

ii. Writing and qualitative analysis, as well as cultural and legal analysis and implications, are some of the most valuable skills gained through my time as a political science undergrad.

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c. Intersectionality

i. Being able to create a workable thesis and logically follow it throughout an argument. Discovering the interconnectedness of the world makes topics more manageable and has filled in so many gaps that I didn't realize were present in my knowledge.

ii. Understanding of history and the mutual impacts of policy, culture, identity, and community wellbeing on each other

d. Collaboration

i. Collaboration and teamwork, maintaining objective integrity as a researcher, making a well-crafted argument, how to be concise and effective when presenting large amounts of data, synthesis of ideas and concepts, creativity.

ii. How to learn (I grew up in a very poor area with poor education; I learned a lot of critical thinking skills in English courses), how to work with others, how to be professional towards experts in their respective fields, especially when they're sharing their knowledge with us.

e. Research

i. Research. Even though I wasn’t able to pursue a major in the business school, I learned so many valuable skills and so much information about scientific research. It has helped me have a solid understanding of the scientific method, which helps me at work but also when I am speaking with people who are misinformed about politics or news or even pseudoscience.

3. What are the most valuable skills that were missing? (198 responses)

a. Quantitative Skills

i. Quantitative skills. I do not feel the social sciences at UW adequately prepared me for social science research, which is extremely quantitatively heavy.

ii. Methodology and statistical analysis- really any quantitative classes- were not courses that were required or taught in the Political Science major, and I now feel that if I wanted a career in policy, I would have to supplement my degree outside of a university setting. Courses in R, Stata, or even basic statistics would be a great addition to political science major tracks.

b. Real world applications

i. I did not see much political discussion in my classes, I was not exposed to many current public issues, but I also understand I don't study political science or LSJ. I have no interest in these topics, but I would not have minded being challenged to apply my knowledge to current political events.

ii. My coursework was really missing classes that taught hard skills that are applicable to getting a job. I learned a lot about how and why things work, but there is very little hands-on experience in the coursework, which makes it difficult to get a job in the same field after graduation.

iii. In truth, it was my internships and job experience that helped me much more than my classes did. If someone does not feel equipped to take advantage of a career/internship opportunity that the program has not prepared them for, they're likely to not take it. Long story short, the degree would be much more valuable if professors were encouraged to include course content that can help students bridge their understanding of politics and theory in theory to how each work in practice. It could be as simple as incorporating a course on Washington state politics and offering insights about the legislature, advocacy, etc. etc. Liberal arts degrees are known for being purely what students make of it, but they don't have to be.

c. Collaboration

i. There were too many strictly individual assignments and not enough complex group projects or opportunities for students to openly mentor each other in small groups to build actual collaboration.

ii. Soft skills: Interpersonal skills and teamwork dynamics. Just because the business school has a group project in every course, doesn't mean that the students have support, resources, or knowledge to be able to be part of a highly functional team--it's very rare, actually and creates a lot of unnecessary stress.

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d. Qualitative skills and intersectionality

i. Writing and the ability to speak about our area of study. It is all well and good to have these great quantitative classes but not at the cost of the qualitative.

ii. An understanding of the societal implications of what we are learning about and scientific writing. However, in most STEM majors it's difficult to make room for classes that would teach these skills.

iii. Intersectionality. UW encourages a interdisciplinary education, and a quarter system allows students to have an incredibly diverse array of courses in specific topics. This doesn't mean students know how to piece together information from different fields to cultivate a rounded, educated, discerning mind.

e. Job search skills

i. Portfolio Creation and filling it with things to actually get a job, information gathering on the state of the craft and how to get a job, development of skills I brought with me …

ii. Knowing how to get your first job in the UX field. I had to spend over a year getting rejected from many companies before being able to get an adequate UX position. There was also little to no useful help that I received from the department. I had to have multiple colleagues and mentors help me craft my job hunting skills.

f. Overall satisfied

i. I got everything I wanted, so none!

4. Comments on long-term career planning. (57 responses) a. Interactions with professors

i. I had a few standout professors and mentors that noted an interest in me and encouraged my long-term career planning

ii. My major seems like a stepping stone to graduate school. At least that's how professors treated the program due to the difficult job market in this particular field. This was discouraging.

b. Interactions with advisors i. Advisors introduced me to some faculty who would be great resources for the type of work I am

interested in, and utilizing their advice and knowledge along the way has been very beneficial for me.

ii. A good adviser is probably the most useful resource I've ever had. Use them for any questions that you might have. Even if they don't have the direct answer, they usually know where to point you so that you can get the direct answer.

iii. While the general undergraduate advisors had little to offer, my major advisor was incredibly helpful and supportive. I have tried to use the career center on several occasions but have found that they are not knowledgeable about careers in science.

iv. Everyone gives you the same advice with no substance. It's especially hard for me to get a job being an african american. Advisors did not recognize this and did not do enough to help.

v. Both specialized advisors and career center were out of touch with career tracks and didn't have enough knowledge to really help.

c. A need to understand entry level jobs

i. Teachers should do a better job promoting jobs available in the industries in which they teach... not just high level, aspirational jobs, but also entry level jobs.

ii. I wish that there was more direct networking with companies/agencies. I went to the career center but only got broad information about what you can do with a political science degree (like become an ambassador or an elected official). There were few resources for connecting students with entry level jobs in the field. I know I could become an ambassador with a poli sci degree, but what’s the first step in that career track?

d. Suggestions

i. English is a degree that a person can do anything with... if they are taught that. Start teaching English kids they can compete with everyone else! Get them in contact with a wide variety of professionals to help guide them.

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ii. You are your best resource. I reached out to people outside of university to make connections and ask for advice.

iii. A great deal of my career planning support came from mentors I found in other places, who were able to share their experience with me after a couple years of being in the field.

5. In what ways did your coursework and other beyond classroom activities prepare you for your future career?

(144 responses)

a. Exposure to new perspectives

i. Having historical knowledge of different groups of people has helped me in my work with supporting underrepresented students in higher education.

ii. My courses pushed me to the brink, partly me, partly the university/professors. My coursework prepared me by forcing me to think and overcome my own ego, biases, histories and traditions before I could even begin to understand another person, culture, idea or concept.

iii. I took some fabulous courses [...] that challenged social norms in our society in response to death/dying and sexuality, respectively, that I found fascinating and vital to a progressive community. I was exposed to communities I had never met/read about before and they exposed me to the huge variety of the human condition and lifestyle. I seriously appreciated classes like these and will take their concepts into my future career.

b. Satisfaction i. I knew very little about genetics before the UW and I would like to work in genetics. Now I would

be prepared to work in the genetics field or earn a genetics graduate degree. ii. Taught me valuable theory, which is harder to figure out on my own

iii. What they said was really true: You get what you put into your time at UW. I got so much out of my experience at UW far more than I would have ever imagined. Coming to UW was a huge leap into the unknown and I'm glad I did it.

iv. They taught me the basic knowledge necessary to take exams like the MCAT and gave an intro to many diseases that will likely be discussed in medical school. The Humanities and Social Science classes that I took due to the honors program were incredibly helpful towards understanding societal implications of healthcare.

v. The necessary fundamental concepts to be prepared for further education. c. Dissatisfaction

i. Topically, UW prepared me for graduate school, though I had no interest in continuing. As far as employment goes, my community college education was almost as rigorous.

ii. Honestly I felt like I was just checking boxes for graduate school, I found it hard to believe that many of the classes I took would actually translate to graduate school at all.

iii. It didn't. I have no idea what to expect when I go to work at my new job. I also don't know what sort of careers I could go into

iv. They didn't. If anything I'm more confused about what I want to be and what I'm doing that I was when I began college.

v. Very little. I received some advice from the career center about resumes, interviews, and where to apply. But not one bit of my coursework left me with real-world tools to succeed in achieving a career.

d. Coursework connecting with beyond classroom activities

i. Coursework was mostly theory and thinking, with some writing skills; all other hard skills and their applications had to be learned in extracurricular endeavors.

ii. I feel that the activities outside of the classroom, such as research, helped prepare me in ways the classroom cannot. Coursework helped prepare me to understand why we do the things we do in research.

iii. Starting a club at UWB and communicating with students and industry professionals helped me sharpen my soft skills and marketing skills.

iv. I think the most impactful learning lessons were gained outside the classroom in Research and Club activities. This was my opportunity to apply the skills I had learned in class.

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v. Service learning (as an aspect of my coursework) was directly related to my intended future career vi. I learned a TON through outside resources like joining the improv team and filmmaking clubs and

taking a screenwriting intensive over the summer a couple of summers back. I want to be a screenwriter.

e. Real world applications

i. They prepared me by teaching me example methodologies I could use in the workplace, but only at a surface level. It would have been nice to know even a wider variety based on what I have learned from coworkers at my current job.

ii. Honestly, it felt to me that only a handful of classes actually taught me material related to what my future career. However, all classes taught me how to have strong work ethic, and how to persevere when things got tough.

f. Collaboration

i. Group work in my courses taught me how to collaborate and use the diverse strengths of my peers to be effective team leaders. The writing I was asked to do in my classes helped me learn how to communicate scientific and public health information to others in a concise but thorough manner.

ii. My undergrad taught me transferable skills that have made me the successful person I am today. I did very poorly academically during my undergrad, however,I was heavily involved and learned how to show up on time, keep commitments, be open to others' ideas, work with others, learn how to do things I don't like, but are necessary (ie: work with difficult people, respect people's' ideas that don't align with mine). It set me up for success in life

6. Is there anything else you would like us to know? (94 responses)

a. Adversities i. The decision to not pursue graduate studies was purely financial. The cost to benefit ratio was far

too high to make any economic sense. Please do add that to future surveys. ii. I went through undergrad in 7.5 quarters instead of the normal 12, meaning I chose to forgo many

opportunities for more learning, because those classes were not offered in a way that fit my schedule, and anticipating needing to go to graduate school, I wanted to rush through undergrad to save money.

iii. There are other variables to consider as well in terms of choosing a job or other life choices such as finances, family, mental/physical health. Important to acknowledge other adversaries people face when it comes to being hired and being well resourced.

iv. Also, burnout was a big issue for me in this program. The consistently hard classes combined with working 2 jobs, and then having to do an internship for capstone as well, were all major causes of this. [...] I realize this is a competitive and rigorous program, and that part of the point is to weed out prospective students, but at what cost?

b. Preparation for the job market i. Liberal arts majors like me need extra support in preparing for the job market. It would have been

helpful for me to have some training in how to effectively communicate the value of the skills I learned - writing, critical thinking, etc.

ii. My advising in [x] has not helped me apply to jobs on time or get into a graduate school at all, and I have felt behind on all of this stuff the entire time.

iii. I see across the three UW campuses that don't sufficiently prepare students for a career/the real world, and that's dangerous because students invest so much money into these degrees.

c. Transition between college and employment

i. An education in fields that have broader skill-sets (e.g. liberal arts, humanities) naturally present as challenges for correlating with obvious career paths, compared to fields that have highly technical, vocational-heavy, certifiable backgrounds (STEM, fine and performing arts, business/law). Critical thinking, effective communication, academic research and writing, and statistical analysis, for example, are broad skills that can be applied to nearly any field. That doesn't help narrow down the transition between education and career for many, though.

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ii. After hundreds of applications, many cover letters, and several networking events, I'm now currently working three jobs to make ends meet and thankfully one position is somewhat related to what I studied [...] Though at this point in time, I'm still living in poverty with little hope of rising above it using all the skills and knowledge I obtained through working towards and receiving my Bachelor's Degree.

d. Choosing majors

i. After exploring other majors, I decided on economics because of the integration of social and computational concepts and because it was what I had intended to do when I came here as an undergraduate. I regret that choice and felt stuck when I had to complete this major. It’s very difficult to envision how the skills learned in this department can be applied in a professional setting,

ii. Through my studies I never found an area that I knew I wanted to pursue. I felt overwhelmed by work and expectations that I never had time to think of what I wanted to do. Now I feel like I didn’t learn enough to compete with other people in my field because of my grades. I experienced so much stress that I don’t want to enter the job search and feel like I did in school again.

e. Additional comments i. The humanities departments have made so much more effort to make each individual feel like they

are a part of a community and not just a tuition payment (like I experienced in the sciences). The professors are welcoming and encouraging and I have learned so much from taking advantage of their office hours or asking questions in lecture.

ii. I think it would be unrealistic to expect school to teach us everything we need to know to be prepared for our careers - some things can only be learned through the experience. Rather it’s more valuable to learn how to learn, and to take advantage of all the resources and unique opportunities that the university offers to enable us to explore further into the areas we imagine our careers going.

iii. Coming in as a transfer was an interesting experience. I feel like the UW did not care about the transfer students as much as they did about their 4-year students. If you're an incoming transfer, utilize your adviser. Meet with them, make a plan, make sure you stay on track. Aside from stress of transferring and getting into a major, I had a great experience here at the UW.

iv. Go dawgs! v. Thank you for a kick @$$ alma mater!!!

vi. I’m so excited to be done! I finally feel ready to take on the world.

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