Texas Tech University

Future Plans for Bachelor's Degree Recipients

All students earning a baccalaureate degree are asked to respond to a comprehensive survey via the Internet where they rate their academic career and their college-life experiences at Texas Tech. They are also urged to comment in detail on what they liked best and what needs improvement. Furthermore, these graduating students are asked to reveal their future plans in considerable detail. The surveys are conducted just before the May, August, and December graduation commencements, and the latest response rate is 33%.

The information available goes far beyond the seven general categories of this national website in describing student futures. Those with employment goals list their new job title, their employer, their city, and their starting salary. In addition, they rate their satisfaction with the job, how closely it relates to their degree, and how well prepared they feel.

Of those who entered Texas Tech with the goal of employment, over 60% already had a job at graduation time (and 6% changed their original goal from employment to something else such as containing their education.) In a difficult economy only about a third of those seeking employment did not yet have a job at the time of graduation. Separate alumni surveys show that 75% of those having the goal of employment have a job within 3 months of graduation. Less than 3% take more than 6 months to find their job. Eighty-eight percent are satisfied with their new job, and more than half said that their job is "highly related" to their major. (It is unrelated only 11% of the time.)

For this report, which is national in scope, we will just mention a fraction of the national and multinational employers listed: Accenture, Allstate, AFLAC, Alcon Laboratories, Amergy Bank, American Eagle Airlines, Anadarko Petroleum, Anheuser-Busch, Apache Corp., Aramark, Baker-Hughes, Bank of America, BNSF Railway, Boeing, BP America, Cameron International, Cargil, Cessna Aircraft, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Cintas, Coca-Cola, Conoco-Phillips, Concho Resources, Convergys, D Magazine, Dell, Deloitte, Dow Chemical, E&J Gallo Winery,  Ernst & Young, Exxon-Mobile, Fed-Ex, Federal Aviation Administration, Fidelity Investments, Fluor, Frito-Lay, GEICO, General Motors, Goodyear, Grant Thornton, Halliburton, Hershey's, Hess Corp., Hewlett-Packard, Hilton Worldwide, Insight Global, Intel, ISN Software, Jacobs Engineering, KPMB, L-3 Communications, Lennox International, Liberty Mutual, Lierfield Sports, Lockheed-Martin, Luminex, Macy's, Marathon Oil, Metlife, Ministry of Education (Spain), National Instruments, National Oilwell Varco, Neiman-Marcus, Phillips Petroleum, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ryder Systems, school districts and universities throughout the state and country, Schlumberger, Sherwin-Williams, Southwest Airlines, State Farm Insurance, Stryker, Texas Children's Hospital, Texas Department of Public Service, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Instruments, Texas State Comptroller, United Airlines, U.S. House of Representatives, USAA, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Walt Disney, and Wells-Fargo. The full list runs from Adobe interior design to Zimmer medical devices.

Those continuing their education report which additional degree(s) they are going to be pursuing and where they will be going to school. Follow-up alumni surveys show which degrees have been earned. Texas Tech graduates are attending or have graduated from nearly 400 different institutions ranging (in alphabetical order) from Academy of Art University to Yale University. Alumni have studied internationally from Cambridge to Hong Kong. Former Tech students are found in the Ivy League (Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, etc.), at many of the state flagship and land-grant schools (Pennsylvania, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maryland, North Carolina, NC-State, Ohio State, etc.), at major church-affiliated schools and theological seminaries (Notre Dame, Brigham Young, Asbury, etc.), at major medical and dental schools (Texas Southwestern, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Baylor College of Dentistry, etc.), at prominent universities of science and engineering (MIT, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, etc.) and at various schools and institutes of law, design, culinary arts, sports medicine, etc. Many alumni continue their studies in graduate and professional programs in the state of Texas. The alumni surveys show that students are well prepared for additional education and they rate a degree from Texas Tech as above average when comparing themselves to those with degrees from other institutions.

Distribution of Future Plans:


(Graduating Student Survey for December 2013 through August 2014) 
Employment 73%
Starting or Raising a Family 1%
Military Service 1%
Volunteer Service 0%
Further Undergraduate Study            1%
Graduate or Professional Study                        24%
Other 0%

    VSA Early Adopter



 

 SAMPLE SURVEYS

 


Texas Tech University Administration Building

Institutional Research

  • Address

    Texas Tech Plaza, Suite 401 | 1901 University Ave. | MS2017 Lubbock, TX. 79410
  • Phone

    806.742.2166
  • Email

    irim@ttu.edu