This year’s college freshmen are more studious than their counterparts of the past few years, says an annual survey released today on their high school academic habits.
More of them took notes in class, did homework and took more demanding coursework as high school seniors, and fewer said they drank alcohol, partied or showed up late for class.
Those and other trends point toward an entering college freshman class that has a better chance of succeeding academically, say researchers who conducted the survey.
Some of the year-to-year changes are slight, the study says. But when coupled with continued worries about college costs and employment prospects, the overall portrait of today’s traditional first-year student may reflect “the increased complexity of going to college during a recession,” says John Pryor, director of UCLA’s Cooperative Institutional Research Program, which has conducted the study each year since 1966. “What we’re seeing, perhaps, is a little more (seriousness about) what you’re called to do in college.”
The survey, conducted last fall, is based on responses of nearly 204,000 first-time, full-time college students at 270 colleges and universities nationwide. It found that fewer students received scholarships and that the number of those receiving scholarships of $10,000 or more also dropped.
In each of the past three years, increasing numbers of entering students have said getting “a better job” was their top reason for going to college. A desire “to learn more about things that interest me,” the second-most-cited reason, held the top spot for the first half of the past decade.
The survey also corroborated federal research showing declines in alcohol use among high school students. It also saw a drop, to 65.3%, in the proportion who said they spent at least some time partying each week as high school seniors, down from 69.7% in 2009. Respondents also were less likely to say they came to class late or were frequently bored in class than in recent years.
Among other promising changes:
•71% said they had taken at least one Advanced Placement course, up from 67.9% in 2009, and those who had taken five or more AP courses increased from 18.7% to 21.7% in that period.
•39.5% reported spending six or more hours a week studying or doing homework as high school seniors, up from 34.7% in 2009 and 37.3% in 2010. That figure has been inching upward since 2005, when a record-low 31.9% said they spent six or more hours studying.
•69.2% said they frequently took notes during class as high school seniors, up from 66.5% in 2009 and 67% in 2010. Also, 36.4% reported being frequently bored in class, down from 38.6% in 2009 and 39.2% in 2010.
