CIRP Freshman Survey
More Ten Year Trends
by Larry Smith, J.D., Planning Associate

In this DATAWave issue we are looking at more ten year trends revealed by the Cooperative Institute Research Project (CIRP) Freshman Survey at Eastern New Mexico University.  As enrollment at the University has declined in the last four years, it is thought that recruitment and retention efforts might be aided by considering the reasons why students choose to attend Eastern or, for that matter, other colleges or universities.

The data examined is from responses to the question:   In deciding to go to college, how important to you was each of the following reasons?  We have provided line graphs showing the percentage of freshmen responding to the following reasons as being "very important" in their decision:

I could not find a job

My parents wanted me to go

To preapre for graduate school

To be able to get a better job

To be able to make more money

To learn more about things that interst me

To make me a more cultured person

To gain a general education and appreciation of ideas

To imporve my reading and study skills

Although we have referred to "ten year trends," you will note that our graphics range from responses that were available from eight to eleven of the last eleven years.  The only response that was not available in the 1997 survey was "to prepare for graduate school."

Over a nine year period, the percentage of responses that not being able to find a job was a very important part of their decision has constantly hovered around 10%.  It may be that job availability has no direct effect on university enrollment unless it can be shown that job availability has remained constant for the last nine years.

The survey seems to clearly indicate that parents’ influence remains a significant influence on students’ decisions to attend a college or university.  The fact that the figure went from just below 40% in 1989 to just above that figure in 1997 seems even more significant if one postulates that: a) even though 52% of the freshmen surveyed were "traditional" freshmen of 17 or 18 years of age, they are often disinclined to admit that their parents still influence their lives; b) the 29% that were 19 years old are even less likely to admit such influence; and c) it is understandably unlikely that their parents' influence would be a "very important" factor for the non-traditional students surveyed (13%) who were 21 or older.

Although the answer has not been available on the survey since 1995, it is interesting to note that the percentage of freshmen who list preparation for graduate school as a very important part of their decision to attend college hovered near 60% for 1989 through 1993, though the percentage dropped to just above 50% in 1994.  When one considers that the retention rate for Eastern’s freshmen hovers at 54% - 58%, there may be a lack of realism in freshmen expectations with regard to their ability to enter graduate school.   In the last DATAWave, Vol. 7, No.1, we showed a similar lack of realism with regard to freshmen understanding of their chances of having to temporarily or permanently drop out of college.

When taken as a composite, the remaining six responses may be indicators of reasons why general education requirements present a problem to many students.

The responses "to be able to get a better job" and "to be able to make more money," as well as "to learn more about things that interest me" (emphasis ours) soar above the 70% line.

In contrast, the responses to "make me a more cultured person" never reached 50% and plunged to just above 20% in 1997; the responses to "gain a general education and appreciation of ideas" never really approached 70% and plunged to an eleven year low near 50% by 1997; and the responses to "improve my reading and study skills" only topped 50% once and plunged to an eleven year low below 40% in 1997.

In a June 17, 1996, editorial comment in Newsweek magazine, Kurt Wiesenfeld, a Georgia Tech physics professor, laments the trend that has led to treating a university degree as a commodity, possession of which means one can get a job and, thus, money.   He does not fault the students for wanting the job, but for not understanding that it is the acquisition of knowledge and understanding that makes them a person who can do a job well, rather than just assume the position, and enables them to assume the responsibilities of that job and of useful participation in society.  He points to the student disconnection between acquisition of a degree and the acquisition of knowledge and understanding.

The sometimes whimsical observation of Dr. Wiesenfeld is mere anecdotal evidence of one university professor.  However, the evidence of the six CIRP responses discussed in this issue suggests some statistical evidence of the disconnection Dr. Wiesenfeld points to in his Newsweek editorial lament.  Such responses tend to show that in recent years students have diminishing understanding that it is the acquisition of knowledge and understanding that makes them more valuable in the marketplace, in society, and to themselves; and that any degree they receive is mere evidence of what they have achieved, not the achievement itself.

More directly pertinent to Eastern, the responses raise the question: Do freshmen understand that improving reading and study skills, gaining a general education and understanding of ideas, and becoming more cultured are part of the process of attending a university and earning a degree?  Here at Eastern, one might ask, what are we to do?  Are not the subject six responses of the freshmen in the CIRP surveys likely the results of forces to which these students have been subjected for years and over which we at Eastern have no control?  The answer is probably yes.   However, if we are to retain more than 58% of these freshmen and, more important, if we are to assist in the real education of these freshmen, we must examine the suggested phenomenon, and our role in it, very carefully.

Assessment Resource Office, Station 9
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, NM 88130