Jean Chen
Carmen Williams
Bobby Reis
Office of Institutional Research
March 1, 2002
 A
total of 1,947 new freshmen, 1070 male (54.96%) and 877
(45.04%)
female, enrolled at the
University of North Dakota in the Fall Semester of 2001. While participating
in “Getting Started” during the summer of 2001, 1430 students
(73.5%) completed the 41-item CIRP survey along
with the additional 15-item supplemental questionnaire.
Of
the 1430 respondents, 749 male students (52.4%) and 681 female
students (47.6%) were
represented. The majority of the respondents were white (97.4%), eighteen
years old (56.4%)
and not married (99.6%). Nearly all respondents were US citizens (99.5%)
or permanent
residents (0.4%). More than ninety-nine percent claimed English as their
native language.
Nearly ninety-three percent
of freshmen graduated from public secondary school. Most of them
graduated from high school in the previous spring. Twenty-two percent of the
freshmen were from
areas less than 51 miles away from UND, while 14.6% were 51 to 100 miles and
63.2% were
over 100 miles away. Eighty-five percent of freshmen planned to live in college
dormitories.
More than half (51.1%) of the
respondents reported that their average high school grades were A,
A-, or A+. More than 97% of UND freshmen met or exceeded recommended years
of high school
study in English (4 years), Mathematics (3 years), and History or American
Government (1 year).
There is a gap observed between UND freshmen and national norms in their study
at Foreign
Language (2-year), Physical Science (2-year), and Biological Science (2-year).
More than fifty percent of the
UND freshmen decided to attend UND because of its good
academic reputation and forty-nine percent of the freshmen reported that UND
was the only
school they applied to. More than eighty-eight percent indicated that UND was
their first choice
while four percent were admitted to UND through an Early Action or Early Decision
program.
The total percentage of UND
freshmen (16.9%) and the national norm (15.5%) were very close
for the field of Engineering. A significant increase has occurred in the number
of prospective UND
Education majors. UND freshmen (4.3%) were nearly twice as likely as the national
norm (2.8%)
to choose one of the Physical Sciences as a field of study. To a great degree
the difference can
be accounted for by interest in the field of Atmospherics Sciences (including
Meteorology) in
which UND freshmen (1.9%) were six times more likely to choose as a field of
study than their
counterparts (0.3%). Higher percentages of UND freshmen compared to the national
group in
pursuing Occupational, Physical, and Speech Therapy, Medicine, Dentistry, and
Veterinarian,
Nursing, and Health Technology. However, ten percent of respondents mentioned
that they might
change their major, compared with their national counterparts (16.1%).
More than seventy percent of
freshmen planned to graduate from UND in four years, while 20.8%
said that they plan to graduate in more than four years and 6.4% said they
intended to transfer
elsewhere before they graduate from UND.
More than half of the UND freshmen considered the option of postgraduate education,
with the
majority being interested in a Master’s degree (33.7%) compared to 41.4%
at the national group.
More than nine percent of UND
freshmen felt the highest degree they planned to obtain was a
Ph.D. or Ed.D. compared to 18.3% of the national group.
More than half of UND freshmen drank beer (50.3%) and wine/liquor (50.4%) in
their high school
years. Although UND female smoke as well as drank wine or liquor less than
their national female
counterparts, UND female smoke and drank more than their UND male counterparts.
Thirty-four percent of the UND
freshmen would want employment in North Dakota after
graduation, 22.3% would not, and 44.3% reported being unsure.
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