Meeting the demands of a proficient scientific workforce depends on students’ communication skill preparation. To describe students’ self-perceptions of their communication skills, we surveyed 315 students in Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Participants noted they were most proficient in their ability to listen effectively and least proficient in asking effective questions. Each communication skill characteristic showed a statistically significant difference before and after college engagement, but we found no statistically significant difference in the overall communication scores of students. Therefore, we recommend: 1) interviewing employers to understand their perceptions of entry-level employees; 2) investigating when students transition from false sense of confidence to actual confidence; 3) conducting a longitudinal study to investigate students’ perceptions of communication skills throughout their college experience; 4) evaluating faculty’s communication teaching methods across disciplines; and 5) investigating the influence of self-reflection on students’ attained communication skills. Conducting such studies could lead to stronger connections between the academy and the industry, especially as faculty strive to align their teaching with needs of the industry.

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Effective science communication skills are vital to the animal science industry for translating science-focused information to lay audiences. To address the American Society of Animal Science’s (2017) third core principle of communicating research and scientific information in an “open, transparent, and dynamic manner,” we sought to investigate the communication styles of students enrolled in a senior-level animal science (beef cattle production) course at Texas A&M University. To do so, we described students’ preferred communication style(s) and ranching experience levels to assess potential effect of ranching experience levels on communication styles. We used Hartman and McCambridge (2011) communication style assessment to describe the communication styles of amiable, analytical, driver, and expressive for students enrolled in this course during four semesters (N = 188; spring 2018 = 61, summer 2018 = 15, fall 2018 = 55, and spring 2019 = 57). Of these, 124 were females (66%) and all (100%) were animal science majors. Students preferred the amiable communication style (n = 59; 31.4%), while females preferred amiable (n = 124; 32.3%) and males preferred driver (n = 64; 29.3 %). Students were moderately experienced with ranching (M = 3.1, SD = 1.08 on a 1-to-5, lowest to highest, respectively, scale). We used a one-way, between-subjects ANOVA to compare the effect of ranching experience on communication styles at the P < 0.05 level and met the assumption of homogeneity using Levene’s test (P = 0.52). There was no significant effect [F(10, 174) = 0.68, P = 0.74]. Because amiable communicators are generally supportive but not assertive, we recommend implementing decision-making exercises to move them to become more assertive in making decisions. Previous experiences due to familiarity with livestock production were not related to communication styles. Therefore, we recommend investigating students’ communication styles to prepare animal science graduates to meet industry needs.