The Spectator ● September 9, 2016
Page 16
Freshman Survey Freshman Expectations of Stuyvesant and Future Plans By the end of my Stuyvesant career, I predict that I will be among: Top 10 percent
Top 25 percent
Top 50 percent
Bottom 50 percent
18.8%
47.7%
28.7%
4.9%
54.4% feel prepared for Stuy academics.
continued from page 15 These results affirmed popular stereotypes, with males taking a much greater interest in sports than females, and females taking more interest in the arts than males. Other activities had equal interest from both sexes. White students reported a higher likelihood of participating in sports than other students, with 45.0 percent saying it would be their first choice of an extracurricular. Asian students, on the other hand, were most likely to choose an academic club or publication. In line with Stuyvesant’s reputation as a math and science school, 59.6 percent of students want to go into a STEM-related field. The next largest group, 22.2 percent of the incoming class, said they were unsure or had a choice other than those provided. Of the small remaining pool, 8.7 percent want to pursue finance, business, or management and 8.5 percent are interested in social studies. Only 1.7 percent of students wish to pursue English language studies, making STEM fields 35 times more popular than English. Males were notably more likely than females to want to go into a STEM-related field, with 67.7 percent of males selecting this choice, as opposed to 51.5 percent of females. By contrast, 10.7 percent of females want to go into a social science field, whereas only 2.9 percent of males do. There was no notable racial disparity in career ambition.
Senior Survey Senior Demographics: Understanding Who We Surveyed Race Multiracial Hispanic
12.4% 1.2%
White South Asian
By Sonia Epstein
26.1% 15.5%
East Asian
Gender
47.8% 49.7% Male 2.5% Other
In conducting the Senior Survey, we did not have the luxury of being able to gather the whole Class of 2016 together, as we did with the incoming Class of 2020 Freshman Survey. Instead, we sent the Senior Survey to the entire senior class via stuy.edu e-mail and publicized it on Facebook. Thus, only students who check those platforms and chose to complete the 25-question survey in their own time are represented here. The 161 students who did respond to the survey are split rather evenly between males (49.7 percent) and females (47.8 percent), with more students identifying outside the gender binary than we found in the freshman survey (2.5 percent versus 0.9 percent). This could be a result of our sample size, or a reflection of shifting gender identities among high school students. Racially, our results were an approximate reflection of a typical Stuyvesant class, but skewed more toward white students (26.1 percent of the responses), with a smaller proportion of Asian students 44.7% (60.2 percent), few Hispanics (1.2 percent) and no black students. Because we conducted the Senior Survey online, we were able to add more than five answer choices (the limit on the Scantrons used for the Freshman Survey). This allowed us to break down the large group of students blanketed under the term “Asian” into students of East and South Asian backgrounds (44.7 and 15.5 percent, respectively). Additionally, 12.4 percent of our respondents were multiracial. Female Those surveyed also represented the religious diversity of the class, though they were perhaps disproportionately Jewish (12.4 percent versus 5.4 percent of the freshman surveyed). Five percent identify as Buddhist and 3.7 percent identify as 1.2% Hindu, statistics we don’t have from the Freshman Survey, where Parochial 3.7% students of these religions are lumped into the “Other” category. School Other Of those surveyed, 82.6 percent identify as heterosexual, and 12.4 reported that their perceived sexual orientation changed 8.7% over high school (5 percent were unsure if it had). Private Most students (86.3 percent) came from public schools, with School 8.7 percent coming from private schools. A vast majority of those surveyed (80.1 percent) identified their socioeconomic status as somewhere on the spectrum of 39.1% Type of Selective middle class. Students at the other ends of the spectrum, from Public lower or working class and upper class families, comprised about Middle School 13 and five percent of those surveyed, respectively. School The most notable difference between freshman and senior responses to this question was that by senior year, only 1.9 per47.2% cent of students responded that they were unaware of their soZoned Public cioeconomic background—with freshmen, that number was 20 School percent.
13+16+352952A 39+47+914A 1.9% 5.0% I don’t know Upper Class
13.0% Lower Class
29.2% Uppermiddle Class
Family’s Socialeconomic Status
34.8% Middle Class
16.1% Lowermiddle class
Senior Survey: Stuyvesant Academics Stuyvesant GPA
By Danielle Eisenman Almost 90 percent of the graduated seniors who took this survey had GPAs over 90. The GPAs were heavily concentrated between 85 and 97. A mere 4 percent of students had averages below 85, and even less—2.5 percent—had averages at the other end of the spectrum, above 97. Perhaps the rarity of college applicants with averages above 97 is what makes them so impressive to Ivy League schools, which are among the most elite colleges. The fact that 75 percent of the respondents attending Ivy League schools have GPAs above 97 goes to show that having the highest grades really does matter. Other top ten schools like Stanford, MIT, and the University of Chicago are just as selective (if not more) than the Ivies. However, the respondents attending these schools are more likely to have slightly lower averages (between 95 and 97). The schools that are most popular with Stuyvesant students—SUNYs and CUNYs—are the most popular with respondents whose GPAs hover around the schoolwide average (between 85 and 89). Of the students who filled out our survey, zero students with GPAs above 97 are attending SUNYs. Just over half of the respondents attending SUNYs and CUNYs consider themselves lower-middle class, which makes sense, given the affordability of in-state tuition. However, class was not a barrier: more than a quarter of students attending Ivy League schools consider themselves to be lower or working class. This can probably be attributed to the popularity of scholarship programs for low-income students, like Questbridge, and the abilities Ivy League schools have to “meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need” with their financial aid. In addition, the fact that so many low-income students are attending Ivy League schools goes against the stereotype that everyone at these schools is extremely privileged. However, it may also be because 43 percent of Stuyvesant students receive free lunch (and even more receive reduced lunch), meaning that many members of the student body come from low-income households. The graduated seniors are currently figuring out what they will be studying in college, and just over half of them said that their academic focuses changed during their time at Stuyvesant. While the nature of being a teenager encourages change, so do inspiring teachers. The common wisdom at Stuyvesant is that there are definitely bad teachers, a good amount of average ones, and a couple really amazing ones. Most students said they had either two or three teachers who strongly impacted them.
Below 70
0.6%
70 - 79.999
0.6%
80 - 84.999
2.5%
85 - 88.999
8.1%
89 - 91.999
23.0% 40.4%
92 - 94.999 95 - 97 Above 97
22.4% 2.5%
How many teachers have you had at Stuy that have strongly impacted or inspired you? 0
3.2%
1
3.2% 58.9%
2-3 26.6%
4-5 More than 5
8.2%