First Destination Update
First Destination is a project to collect data about what recent graduates are doing after graduation – whether employment, graduate school, military, or service. Recent undergraduate alumni from all seven campuses in the University of Maine System received invitations to participate in the long form of the First Destination survey on August 28th. Graduates were invited via email, and by postcards sent in the mail.
Data collection for Summer 2022, Fall 2022, and Spring 2023 graduates will continue through November, via reminder emails, phone calls, and data from National Student Clearinghouse and LinkedIn. More than 300 University of Maine and University of Maine-Machias graduates have responded, and we hope to improve on the knowledge rates we achieved last year (48.9% for University of Maine, 47.0% for University of Maine at Machias, and 44.4% system-wide).
This is the second cohort of graduates about whom we have collected data using a unified system-wide process. UMaine and UMaine Machias results from the 2021-2022 cohort can be found on this page. College summaries have been provided to deans. For more detailed requests, please submit through the OIRA Data Request Form.
For the first time this year, a few academic departments included custom survey questions to meet accreditation needs. We are hopeful this collaboration will lead to higher response rates. For more information on how to add custom questions for your unit, please contact Nate Flint (nathan.flint@maine.edu).