AAUDE Survey of Graduating Doctoral Students
November 2007
Lydia Snover, MIT, and Kendrick Tatum, Duke, for AAUDE
Currently all graduating doctoral students are asked to complete the NSF Survey of Earned
Doctorates (SED). The SED requests information on discipline, support and career plans. The
SED does not collect information on student satisfaction and/or experiences. In order to provide
more complete feedback for use in program review, the following set of core questions was
developed for use in surveys of graduating doctoral students. Many questions are also
appropriate for graduating master’s students.
The AAUDE Core Graduate Student Exit Survey questions are designed to supplement the
Survey of Earned Doctorates and cover the following major areas: Program quality; department
climate; advising/mentoring; and satisfaction with financial support. In addition to these
questions, schools should either merge in demographic data from the SED, their own databases,
or include demographic questions on their survey. Demographic data should include: gender,
ethnicity, citizenship, program name, program discipline (with translation to CIP for data
sharing), start date in program, graduation date for program, age, and financial support by year.
Other demographic data might include previous degrees and awarding institutions, and marital
status.
Many of the core questions in this document are already in use at AAU institutions. This set of
core questions is not a stand-alone survey and is meant to supplement existing surveys schools
are currently using. If an institution does not have an existing instrument, the core items
may/should be supplemented by universities to create instruments that meet the needs of
individual institutions. We do, however, encourage the use of the entire core set of items by any
AAUDE institution conducting a survey of exiting (graduating) doctoral students although none
are specifically required in order to participate in AAUDE data sharing. When using the
core questions the wording and scales should be maintained as listed here for data sharing. The
aggregation of data across many institutions will permit a rich analysis of student satisfaction and
related issues. The usefulness of the shared data for multivariate analysis will be directly
proportionate to the degree to which universities use the complete set of core questions.
The “general satisfaction” questions should be the first items on graduate exit surveys if the
institution is sharing their data through AAUDE. This is important because a respondent’s degree
of satisfaction may subtly shift during the course of the survey as specific questions, which will
likely not be constant across institutions, raise areas of (dis)satisfaction to a respondent’s
consciousness. Especially because each university’s instrument may be unique, asking general
satisfaction at the survey’s outset is the only way to get as comparable an indicator of general
satisfaction as possible.
Whenever possible these core questions should be administered in the same manner as the SED,
that is, they should be asked of all graduating doctoral (and master’s, if applicable) as they
complete their degree requirements. This will allow analysis of disciplines with small numbers
over an extended period (two or three years).
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Core Questions (N = 26):
On a scale of 1 to 5, (5=Excellent, 4=Very Good, 3=Good, 2=Fair, 1=Poor) please rate your
overall satisfaction with each of the following:



1: Your academic experience at this university
2: Your student life experience at this university
3: Your overall experience at this university
4: If you were to start your graduate/professional career again, would you select this same
university?
[Definitely, Probably, Maybe, Probably Not, Definitely Not]
5: If you were to start your graduate/professional career again, would you select the same field of
study?
[Definitely, Probably, Maybe, Probably Not, Definitely Not]
6: Would you recommend this university to someone considering your field of study?
[Definitely, Probably, Maybe, Probably Not, Definitely Not]
On a scale of 1 to 5, (5=Excellent, 4=Very Good, 3=Good, 2=Fair, 1=Poor) please rate the
following aspects of your graduate program:






7: Overall quality of graduate level teaching
8: Quality of academic advising and guidance
9: Assistance in finding employment
10: The opportunity to interact intellectually across disciplines
11: Overall program quality
12: The overall quality of the graduate curriculum
13: Did you find the amount of financial support you received to be adequate?
[Yes, No, Don’t know]
To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?
14: Students in my program are treated with respect by faculty
[Strongly Agree, Agree, Ambivalent, Disagree, Strongly Disagree]
15: Overall, the climate of my program is positive
[Strongly Agree, Agree, Ambivalent, Disagree, Strongly Disagree]
16: Overall, my dissertation advisor performed the role well
[Strongly Agree, Agree, Ambivalent, Disagree, Strongly Disagree]
17: Coursework, seminars, labs, reading courses, etc., adequately prepared me for
candidacy/comprehensive examinations
[Strongly Agree, Agree, Ambivalent, Disagree, Strongly Disagree]
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Rate the extent to which the following factors were an obstacle to your academic progress using
the following scale:
(1=not an obstacle, 2=a minor obstacle, 3=a moderate obstacle, 4=a major obstacle, 9=not
applicable):






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18: Work/financial commitments
19: Family obligations
20: Availability of faculty
21: Program structure or requirements
22: Course scheduling
23: Immigration laws or regulations
24: Other (please identify)
Please indicate whether you participated in any of the following activities during your graduate
experience and mark you level of satisfaction if you engaged in the listed activity:

25: Received advice on career options within academia (Y, N, Not Available)
[Very Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied, Neutral, Somewhat Dissatisfied, Very Dissatisfied]

26: Received advice on career options outside academia (Y, N, Not Available)
[Very Satisfied, Somewhat Satisfied, Neutral, Somewhat Dissatisfied, Very Dissatisfied]
Another important issue with respect to graduate education is the post graduation plans of degree
recipients. We have included some optional questions that might be included in exit surveys. However,
these questions duplicate to a large degree questions asked on the Survey of Earned Doctorates. Optimally,
schools could link their local exit surveys to the responses individual students provide to the Survey of
Earned Doctorates.
Optional Questions (N=7):
Post Graduation Plans and Retrospective Assessment
A: Which of the following best describes the current state of your employment plans immediately
after you complete your degree?
1 Employed or have a definite job offer related to my most recent degree
2 Employed, but not in my field
3 Negotiating with one or more specific organizations (in or out of field)
4 Under consideration for a position but have not received final word (in or out of field)
5 Seeking employment in my field, no offer at this time
6 In military service
7 Scholarship commitment
8 Paid to volunteer work for the Peace Corps, Vista, etc.
9 Not seeking employment immediately
B: Which of the following best describes your expectation for employment immediately after you
complete your degree at this institution?
1 Postdoctoral researcher or fellow
2 Researcher, academic setting
3 Researcher, nonacademic setting (e.g., national lab/industry/medical center)
4 Tenure track faculty position
5 Non-tenure track faculty position
6 Secondary school teaching position
7 Manager or administrator
8 Finance, Accounting
9 Marketing, Sales
10 Engineer, Manufacturing
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11 Management information systems, Programmer
12 Medical professional
13 Writer, Journalist, Artist, Musician
14 Lawyer
15 Analyst
16 Clergy
17 Other (please specify)
88 Not sure
99 Not applicable (e.g., I plan to enroll in another degree or certificate program)
C: Since entering this graduate program, have you changed your mind about the type of position you
expect to have after you graduate?
1 Yes
2 No
Not applicable
If Yes, please describe.
D: Do you expect the position indicated above to be directly related to your graduate/professional
training?
1 Yes
2 No
Not sure
Not applicable
E: How would you categorize the employer you expect/hope to work for immediately after you
complete your graduate degree?
1 U.S. federal government, or your home country if not the U.S.
2 State or local government
3 Industry or business
4 Nonprofit organization or foundation
5 College or university
6 Community or junior college
7 Elementary, secondary, or special focus school
8 Self-employed, private practice, or consultant
9 Hospital or clinic
10 Other type of (please specify) other
Not sure
Not applicable (e.g., I plan to enroll in another degree or certificate program)
F: Since entering this graduate program, have you changed your mind about the type of employer
for whom you expect to work?
1 Yes
2 No
Not applicable
If Yes, please describe
G: Where would the employer you expect to work for most likely be located?
1 Inside the U.S.
2 Outside the U.S.
Not applicable
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