Fewer attend 1st college choice
By Mary Beth Marklein
USA Today
Fewer college freshman are attending their top choice of schools, and many appear to be doing so not because they were rejected by their first choice but for financial reasons, a national survey shows.
More than two-thirds (67.3 percent) are attending their No. 1 choice, the survey says. But of those who are not, 52.6 percent said they were accepted and opted not to go.
That was "quite surprising," says John Pryor, director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, which conducted the survey released recently. "The general assumption is that if you're not going to your first choice, it's because you didn't get in."
The survey, an annual snapshot of student behavior and beliefs, is based on responses of 271,441 first-time, full-time students attending 393 four-year colleges and universities and adjusted to reflect the 1.3 million freshmen who entered four-year colleges last fall.
Most students cited "academic reputation" and evidence that graduates "get good jobs" as "very important" reasons for attending the college where they're now enrolled. But for students attending a school other than their first choice, "the cost of higher education is the trump card," says survey research manager Victor Saenz.
The number of students attending their top choice has fluctuated over the years, but has generally declined from 77.2 percent in 1974 when the question was first asked. This year, the number attending a choice other than their first is up 2.5 percentage points from last year and 4.2 percentage points from a decade ago.
Rising tuitions likely explain some of the attention to finances. Second- or third-choice colleges may also be luring top students away from their top choice by offering merit aid, says David Hawkins of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
An increase in the numbers of college-bound low-income students is also a factor. While 64.1 percent of students said they have "some" or "major" concerns about paying for their education, low- and middle-income students were most likely to choose a college based on financial issues, Pryor says.
