Record Share of College Freshmen Plan to Volunteer, and Their Political Involvement Is Up, Survey Finds
By ERIC HOOVER
Washington
Two out of three college freshmen say it is essential or very important to help others who are in difficulty, the highest percentage in a quarter-century, and a record number -- 83 percent -- say they volunteered at least occasionally during their senior year of high school.
Those are among the findings of the annual national survey of incoming freshmen, which is part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Project conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. The results were released on Wednesday.
The largest-ever proportion of freshmen -- 26.3 percent -- said there was a very good chance that they would volunteer while attending college, up 2.2 percentage points from last year. And 25.6 percent said it was essential or very important for them to participate in community service, the highest proportion since 1996.
John H. Pryor, director of the survey, speculated that recent natural disasters may have influenced students' interest in social outreach.
"Because of the nature of their experience with Hurricane Katrina, which occurred right as many of them began college," Mr. Pryor said, "they have seen a great need to serve in their community."
More than 263,000 incoming freshmen completed UCLA's comprehensive survey at the beginning of the fall semester, answering hundreds of questions on such topics as their values, recreational habits, political preferences, family situations, and personal finances. The survey is a widely cited source of data on college demographics and attitudinal trends. Each of the 385 participating colleges receives a profile of its students' answers.
This year's results were presented here at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Carol Geary Schneider, the association's president, said she was encouraged by the findings on students' interest in volunteerism, but she noted that many students did not consider community service an important part of their college experience.
"The glass may be half full," Ms. Schneider said. "There's a gap between the missions we espouse and students' actions. We have a long way to go to fulfill the promise this class holds out to us."
Why They Go, and Where
This year's survey also explored the differences between how men and women view higher education. Slightly more men than women said making more money was a "very important" factor in attending college and choosing a particular college (73.5 percent to 69 percent). More women than men said a top reason was "to learn more about things that interest me" (81.4 percent to 73.1 percent).
An equal proportion of men and women said they had decided to attend college to get a better job (72.1 and 72.2 percent, respectively), but their expectations for intellectual and personal development differed. For instance, 48.3 percent of women said becoming a more cultured person was an important motive for attending college, compared with 35.3 percent of men. Seventy-one percent of women, but only 58.3 percent of men, cited gaining a general education and appreciation of ideas as a top motivation.
More students than ever -- 18.7 percent -- said living near home was an important reason for choosing their college, while the proportion who said getting away from home was a factor remained constant, at about 22 percent.
Nearly half of students who were the first in their families to attend college chose an institution within 50 miles of their home, compared with just 35.5 percent of students whose parents had attended college. Forty-one percent of first-generation college students said advice from a teacher or high-school counselor had been important in choosing their college, compared with 33.7 percent of other students.
More first-generation students expected to work full time while attending college than did their peers (36.7 percent to 24.7 percent), and more planned to live off-campus during their first year of college (30.7 percent to 16 percent).
Politics, Beer, and Religion
This year's survey found an increased level of political involvement among students. More than a third of freshmen said it was important or essential to keep up to date with politics, the highest proportion in a decade. Twelve percent of students said they had worked for a local, state, or national campaign during high school -- the most since 1971.
Concerns about the war in Iraq were also evident among freshmen, two-thirds of whom disagreed with the statement that "federal military spending should be increased." Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 45 percent of freshmen had said they supported increased military spending.
A new question on this year's survey revealed that 63 percent of freshmen agreed with the statement that "dissent is a critical component of the political process." Nearly 50 percent of the students said they had participated in an organized protest in high school -- the largest proportion in the survey's 40-year history.
While more students were plugging in to politics, fewer were cracking open beer bottles. The proportion of incoming freshmen who said they drank beer frequently or occasionally as high-school seniors dropped to an all-time low, to 43.4 percent from 45.5 percent. (The all-time high of 73.7 percent was in 1982.) Yet that decline in consumption has not led to a significant drop in heavy drinking among students once they enter college: Forty-four percent of college students drink heavily, according to recent national studies.
And the gap between the rate of drinking for men and for women continued to narrow. This year 49.1 percent of men reported drinking beer frequently or occasionally as high-school seniors, compared with 38.8 percent of women. The survey did not ask how much students normally consumed when they drank.
This year's survey also revealed long-term shifts in students' attitudes about religion. Nearly 80 percent of freshmen said they attended religious services frequently or occasionally during their senior year of high school, down from a high of 85.4 percent in 1997. This year 17.4 percent of freshmen reported "none" for their religious preference, an increase from 8.3 percent in 1978.
Nonetheless, more freshmen are talking about spirituality. Thirty-five percent said they frequently discussed religion in high school, an increase of 5.4 percentage points over 2003, the last year the question was asked.
Copies of a report on this year's survey are available on the institute's Web site. Selected data from the report will be posted on Monday on The Chronicle's Web site.