Latest CIRP Data Confirms Importance of Value

The American Freshman 2011 report has just been released. This CIRP survey is one of our favorite national data sources because it largely asks the same questions annually, allowing us to identify trend lines among first-year college students—and incidentally, that’s also why we invited CIRP director John Pryor to share his research findings at our most recent Summer Seminar, which you can read about starting on page 15 of this issue (.pdf) of The Lawlor Review.

Among the trends revealed with the most recent American Freshman survey results are these:

• More students are reporting that the “current economic situation significantly affected my college choice.” 63.9% agree with that statement (21.5% of whom agree strongly).

• More students are reporting they “have concern about my ability to finance my college education.” 67.4% agree (with 11.9% of them having major concern).

• The lowest percentage of students on record decided to enroll at their first-choice college: 57.9%, despite 76% being accepted.

• The most common response when asked what reasons were very important for going to college was “to be able to get a better job,” cited by 85.9%, which follows an upward trend.

• “This school’s graduates get good jobs” was cited by 54.6% as a reason for choosing their college, which also represents an increase.

These findings certainly reinforce two of the market forces we highlighted earlier this month in our “Trends for 2012” publication: College is becoming unaffordable, and consumers are demanding results.