National Survey of College Graduates

[Opti]

The 2010 National Survey of College Graduates started last year and per their latest snail mail letter supposedly ends in April 2011.

I got selected to participate and supposedly participation is optional.
But it really isn't. It appears they can hassle you more than collectors can just because they designed their survey badly and refuse to live without you as a specific data point.

From the internet on the last survey:
c. Data collection techniques
The Bureau of the Census conducted the NSCG for NSF. Initial data collection was done through the use of a self-administered mail survey using a prenotification letter, a first mailing, a reminder letter, and a second mailing. If the sample person did not respond to any of the various mailings, automated reminder phone calls were made using a software package called Phone Tree.

Nonrespondents to the mail questionnaire were followed up using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. If the paper questionnaire was not returned and telephone follow-up attempts failed, for certain selected cases, a personal visit (CAPI) was conducted.
Information in the 2003 survey was collected for the week of October 1, 2003. Data collection took place between October 2003 and August 2004.


Collectors legally by law cannot hassle you in person at home. Apparently the NSF can.

I do not want to do this survey for many reasons the least of which I think the design is terribly flawed to capture useful information like my career path experience and it will not be quick to fill out for me as I am unemployed currently and have no clue how to rate my last position which
has little to do with my degrees or prior chosen career path but I was able to get based on the fact my first job out of college was in the telecom industry.


This survey is supposed to optional. In actual practice and collection techniques it appears not to be. If you have kids that may rely on data like this be aware that forced participation results in non response rates, so I've read on the internet, of up to 10% on certain questions and like the required census survey I expect people lie.

I so should have not opened my mail until tomorrow. I apoligize if my complaint disturbs anyone but hope it is informative to other selected souls or people who may use the information collected.

[phil5185]

I do not want to do this survey for many reasons the least of which I think the design is terribly flawed to capture useful information like my career path experience and it will not be quick to fill out for me as I am unemployed currently and have no clue how to rate my last position which
has little to do with my degrees or prior chosen career path

Census takers have the problem that 'fringe' residents of the US are disgruntled and displeased with the US Govt in general - so they refuse to cooperate or provide info. Conversely, the happy well-employed couple with 2.3 beautiful children (who get straight "A's") are happy with their lives and are happy to share their info with the Census folks. And this response tendency drastically skews the Census data making it only marginally useful. So the Census Bureau uses strong-arm tactics to insure compliance - and to obtain more accurate results.
Maybe the College Survey is experiencing the same tendency?

[robbase]

there is no rule saying you have to open your door (unless its the police or something), answer your phone, respond to email, etc...

I am in the DOD and ignore official anonymous surveys all the time. Even when they send reminders and stuff (umm if you are sending reminders I guess it is not anonymous because somehow you know that I did not fill it out)

[Opti]

"So the Census Bureau uses strong-arm tactics to insure compliance - and to obtain more accurate results.
Maybe the College Survey is experiencing the same tendency? "

Phil I'm sure this is true. The difference though is a law has been passed to require all citizens to fill out the census so you are required to fill it out. My complaint is this survey is advertised as voluntary where it appears in practice it is not. I've probably received more than 5 pieces of mail from this survey and more than double that of automated phone calls. Answering and saying I do not want to participate doesn't stop the calls and given what I posted won't stop the harassment.

I sympathasize slightly that they didn't design their survey so they could replace in others who fit the demographics as well as the non responders but that's not my problem. If they would offer me some of the money they are spending on the survey and to harass me maybe I'd fill it out. I'm unemployed and reviewing the survey it will be much more than the 25 minutes they advertise to fill it out for me unless of course I just lie or put in marginally useful information.

I got selected for the long form census as well. It took me over an hour as
my former job had a weird pay schedule and I was hourly plus the added annoyance of their pay period was different than my employer. Actually had
to find old time sheets to get accurate numbers.

Rob, this is not an anonymous survey. They have specifically selected each
person for whatever reason based on census data cross-referenced with I think school data. Since I correctly answered the census that I am a degree
holder they will not drop me out of the sample.

[Opti]

Some more interesting info on the selection process based on what's written about the 2003 survey. If you get the long form of the census you are in the pool that can be selected for this.

The initial sample size of the 2003 NSCG was set at 201,220. After the cases with blank names and addresses were removed, 197,834 cases remained in the sample. The final sample size was reduced to 177,320 for interviewing due to cost reasons. After data collection, analysis showed that a disproportionate number of cases requiring personal follow-up who had been imputed as college degree holders on the 2000 Census data actually did not have at least a bachelor's degree. To address concerns about coverage bias related to the imputed degree cases being identified as ineligible (i.e., no bachelor's degree), all cases with imputed educational attainment data on the Census were removed from the sample to increase the probability that all the necessary sampling criteria were satisfied. There were 6,523 of these "imputed degree" cases in the sample resulting in a final 2003 survey sample size of 170,797.

Maybe I should hope to part of the lucky 20,000 or so from last time.
Looks like they wanted input from 197,834 and settled for 177,320
of which they dropped 6523 from the sample based on personal
visits that showed the people shouldn't have been selected in the first
place.