College student satisfaction: a comparative study of selected foreign and American students at Iowa State University

The perceptions of foreign students regarding their satisfaction with different aspects of the college environment and the ways in which their perceptions differ from those of American students were compared. Information was gathered from Iowa State University students, 80 foreign and 80 native, by means of the College Student Satisfaction Questionnaire. The general null hypotheses were that: (1) There are no significant differences in satisfaction with selected aspects of college life between foreign and American students, (2) There is no significant relationship between foreign and American student satisfaction, when the effects of selected independent variables (including interaction effects) are considered. Besides type of student, several other independent variables were added to the questionnaire to determine whether they are related to satisfaction. These variables are sex, age, marital status, type of residence, academic classification, grade point average and curriculum;Statistical analysis revealed that satisfaction of foreign students and American students with college life differs significantly on social life and working conditions, with American students responding more favorably. In social life, these differences were found to hold across different categories of sex and age. In working conditions, these differences were also found to hold across different levels of type of residence and marital status. No significant differences were found between those two groups on satisfaction with compensation, recognition and quality of education. However, when the above five scales were combined to form a total satisfaction score, the American students were observed as being significantly more satisfied than foreign students