A Profile of Selected Characteristics of the Spring 1990 Western Washington University Graduating Class

Executive Summary: This report contains an analysis of two different sets of data: one obtained from the Registrar\u27s student information data base, the other from the Office of Assessment and Testing\u27s data base. From the Registrar\u27s student information data base, the report finds that Western graduated 991 students in June of 1990. A majority were women (56%) and transfer students (56.2%); most were Caucasians (83%) and in-state residents (95%). Ethnic¬ minority students made up 5.8% of the graduates and were mostly transfers (70.2%). Three different GPA\u27s were analyzed: high school, transfer, and university. June 1990 graduates had a mean high school GPA of 3.19, a mean transfer GPA of 3.01, and a mean university GPA of 3.08. Females scored higher than males in all categories. Most other comparisons showed little differentiation, except in two areas: disabled students had a considerable improvement from transfer to university GPA; and older students had a dramatic improvement from high school to university GPA. A majority of June 1990 graduates studied in the College of Arts & Sciences (64.4%). A considerably higher percentage of men than women graduated from the College of Business & Economics; a considerably higher percentage of women than men graduated from the Woodring College of Education. June 1990 graduates spent an average of 12 quarters at Western. Credits were transferred from other institutions not only by transfer students, but by 44.6% of the 1990 native graduates as well. Most graduates earned a BA degree. The second half of the report analyzed information gathered from the UCLA/CIRP survey taken in 1985 by 70 of the June 1990 graduates. That survey indicated, among other points, that the fathers of those graduates were mostly better educated than mothers, but that female graduates had better educated mothers than their male counterparts. The UCLA-CIRP survey indicated that in 1985 a majority of the 1990 graduates were politically middle-of-the-road. To the question regarding personal objectives, the most frequent response of very important was to become an authority in the students chosen field of study. As to why they chose to attend college, 100% responded as very important to two choices: to gain a general education and appreciation of ideas, ant to learn about things that interest me (sic). When asked to rate a number of personality traits, the ranking of above average occurred most frequently in the area of academic ability