Title: Perceived Stress and Competition Among Students in a Highly Demanding Academic Program: Implications
1Perceived Stress and CompetitionAmong Students
in a Highly Demanding Academic ProgramImplicatio
ns for Advising and OtherSupport Services
- Rich Robbins, Director of Academic Advising
- Lisa Schneider, Director of Learning
InitiativesBetsy East, Assistant Dean for
Student Services - College of Engineering
- Cornell University
- Code 99
- 2006 NACADA National Conference
2Outline
- Context
- Survey Development/Administration
- Survey Results
- Implications of Results
3Cornell Engineering
- Approximately 2,700 students
- 71 Male
- 29 Female
- 12 International
- 8 Underrepresented Minority
- 26 Asian American
- SAT average
- Math 752
- Verbal 677
- HS class rank average 90 in top 10
4Culture
- Faculty proud of how hard our students work
- We did it, they can
- Fair amount of grading on curve
- Competitive environment
- Easiest to get in to, hardest to graduate from
- Dean with new ideas
5Issues Identified
- Surveys, discussions over past 15 years
- Workload
- Competition among students
- Perceived stress
- Difficulty of curriculum
- Curved grading system
6Current Survey
- Cornell Survey Research Institute
- current undergraduate Engineering students
- web administration in spring 2005
- Response rate of 35.5 (938/2,640 responses)
- respondents highly representative of student body
- gender, ethnicity, year in school, gpa,
citizenship, major
7Current Survey Focus
- stressors and experiences related to
- workload
- competition
- rigor
- curved grading
- how students allocate their time
- knowledge and/or participation in programs or
organizations and use of other resources in the
College - quality of faculty instruction and TA interaction
8Data Collected Qualitative
- data described in words, such as responses to
open-ended questions - Use when
- little is known about the topic being assessed
- closed-ended items (e.g., multiple-choice, scaled
responses) cannot yet be determined
9Focus Group
- Objective
- Understand students perceptions of undergraduate
experience - information transcribed, qualitative data coded,
results used for survey question development - Attendance
- 16 students attended
- dinner and a 20 gift certificate to Campus Store
10Focus Group Questions(examples)
- What do you like best about being a college
student? - What do you like least about being a college
student? - What about college life do you find stressful?
- What do you like best about being an Engineering
student? - What do you like least about being an Engineering
student?
11Data Collected Quantitative
- Quantitative methods result in data being
described in numbers (statistics, such as
percentages, ratings) - Qualitative comments were coded and summarized,
with quantitative items developed from this data - Quantitative survey was piloted on 32 students
with slight revisions resulting
12 13Time Use
- Average Weekday
- 10.5 hours on academic work (attending classes,
studying, academic extracurriculars) - 0.6 hours on paid work
- 7.1 hours of sleep per night
- 4.2 hours personal time
- 1.5 hours other extra-curricular activities
- 78.2 fallen asleep in class at least once in
semester - 48.3 pulled an all-nighter at least once in
semester - (12.1 at least five times)
- 91.3 cite amount of school work as reason for
not getting enough sleep
14Participation in College Programs/Orgs
15Use of Available Resources
16Teaching Assistants
- Interactions with Engineering TAs rated as
helpful or extremely helpful 60.8 - Engineering TAs perceived as extremely helpful
significantly more often than non-Engineering TAs - Majority (52.6) of follow-up comments positive
- approachability and willingness to help
- invaluable for learning course material and
passing the class - 14.9 of commenting students mentioned struggles
due to language barrier issues
17Perceived Stress(rated as very or extremely
stressful)
18Subgroup Comparisons Perceived Stress
- Higher incidence of perceived stress among
- Female
- Asian-American
- URM students
- Females
- Higher stress levels overall
- Significantly higher for workload and rigor
19Perceived Stress (cont)
- Asian-American and URM students
- significantly higher levels of stress on all six
stressors - White students and male students
- lowest incidences of perceived stress
- GPA
- Highly stressed respondents have significantly
lower GPAs (average of .19 grade points)
20Perceptions and Experiences of Engineering
Students
- 64.2 agreed that students evidence teamwork
and cooperation - 61.2 agreed that students feel it is more
important to get a good grade than to
learn the material - 62.4 felt a need to do better than their
classmates - 32.5 agreed that Engineering students have
a positive quality of life.
21Perceptions and Experiences of Engineering
Students
- 60.2 felt the majority of their Engineering
course instructors are accessible - 54.6 said that they have at least one
Engineering faculty member they can go to for
guidance or to discuss academic or career
goals - 58.1 felt the curriculum requirements are not
flexible enough to allow them to take courses
outside of their field of study - 50.6 would like to study abroad but feel
requirements are too constraining
22Coursework and Grade Concerns
- 42.4 did not understand material taught in
class once a week or more - 22.5 reported coursework as too difficult to
keep up with once a week or more - 24.3 felt they could not cope with all they
had to do once a week or more - 62 felt extremely anxious about their
grades at least half of the time - 19 reported feeling this way all of the time
23Sub-group ComparisonsExperiences and Concerns
- Coursework and grade concerns significantly
- less prevalent for students with higher GPAs
- more prevalent for female, URM, Asian-American
students - Asian-American students were most likely to
- not understand the material
- feel coursework was too difficult to keep up
with - have a hard time coping with all they had to do
- feel extremely anxious about their grades
24Implications and Use of Data
- College Curriculum Committee
- Used student concerns about lack of flexibility
- Increase Study Abroad opportunities
- Take more courses of interest
- Timing of choosing a major
- Strategic Plan Initiatives
- Development of Center for Teaching Excellence
- Survey confirmed need
25Implications and Use of Data
- Advising/Student Services Programming
- Work with academic depts on faculty advising
- Reinforces our work with Univ. initiatives on
Asian mental health efforts - Possible development of programming specific to
Asian students
26Implications and Use of Data
- Re-double our efforts to engage women and URM
students in leadership positions - AEW Facilitators, Peer tutors, Student Org
officers - Student Services marketing
27Questions/Discussion
28Thank You!
- Rich Robbins, rlr43_at_cornell.eduLisa Schneider,
lms3_at_cornell.edu - Betsy East, ere2_at_cornell.edu