This fall, millions of freshmen will begin their higher education at the thousands of colleges and universities nationwide. Part of the post-Gen X group known as ‘Millennials,’ this group is the subject of a vast amount of study, including a survey published in the college and university faculty magazine Chronicle of Higher Education’s Almanac issue.
The study, a survey filled out by 263,710 incoming freshmen at four-year colleges in fall 2005, gives a glimpse into the freshman class.
Instead of simply looking for a bachelor’s degree, most American freshmen now are aiming for a masters.
Interim Dean of Students Robin Holmes said this represents the Millennials’ self-confident, goal-oriented mindset, but also the trend in American society toward employers looking for graduate studies on resumes.
Nevertheless, more male freshmen would be satisfied simply achieving a bachelors degree than would their female counterparts, but more women freshmen want to get medical degrees.
Again, Holmes said this is part of a national trend visible at the University; females are beginning to outnumber males on college campuses. Men are not seeing college as a goal and those who do attend drop-out more than women. Calling it a crisis, Holmes said the demographic shift toward more females on campus will drastically alter the character and focus of this University and universities nationwide.
Gender proved a dividing line in choice of major as well. While arts and humanities, business, engineering and professional all were popular majors one gender clearly out numbered the other in all cases. More women freshmen plan to pursue arts and humanities and professional degrees than to men, but more so than women, men want degrees in business and engineering – which was chosen by 15.6 percent of male respondents but only 2.6 percent of females.
Politically, most Freshmen nationwide consider themselves “middle of the road” and within those declaring themselves conservative, men out numbered the women and vice versa for the liberals.
Holmes said this is evident of a pendulum shift back from the activism and anti-authority attitudes of the Baby Boom generation. But she cautioned against calling freshmen conservative.
“The term ‘conservative values’ does not grasp the nuances of what’s going on here,” Holmes said.
Having grown-up in part with involved ‘helicopter parents’ and to a great degree in single-parent households, Millennials are more comfortable with authority figures than their predecessors, Holmes said. And then there is the growing religiosity. The vast majority of incoming freshmen – four out of five – reported that in the past year they attended a religious service and performed volunteer work.
Holmes said that, in her 14 years on this campus, she has never seen more vocally conservative students, especially with regard to involvement with religion and spirituality. Holmes said freshmen’s spirituality is part of an idealism characteristic of the young, but unique to the generation – a blend of conservative religion and leftist environmentalism and anti-racism. She also said freshmen have grown more attuned to gender issues and more accepting of lesbian, gay, transgender and queer people. She said freshmen have taken the ideals of equality from the civil rights movement and blended them with the religion’s recent resurgence. But perhaps most telling of freshmen’s idealism is their overwhelming belief in the American dream – that with hard work anyone can succeed in America.
On the issues, freshmen are largely liberal. They support gun-control, higher taxes for the wealthy, same-sex marriage, all-volunteer armed forces, and nationalized health-care. They are against hate speech on campus, believe the government is not working hard enough to protect the environment, and feel that dissent is necessary for the political process to function properly.
All freshmen responded that their most important reasons in deciding schools were academic reputation of the institution and the belief that graduates get good jobs. Offers of financial assistance also enticed freshmen to choose their schools, but most were unconcerned about the advice of relatives, teachers or college counselors.
While only 5.7 percent reported smoking cigarettes in the past year, 43 percent reported having drank beer and 50 percent reported drinking wine or hard alcohol.
Again in some areas, men and women differed as to their responses. Women came out more in favor of same-sex marriage than did men – 50 percent of men support them, while 64 percent of women support the same issue. Men support affirmative action more than do women; they support barring undocumented immigrants from receiving access to public education more than women do, as well. While the belief does not garner a majority of support, significantly more men than women – 42.8 compared with 33.6 percent – support legalizing marijuana. Men also are significantly more in favor of hooking up – noncommittal, casual sexual relationships, often with relative strangers – than are women; 58 percent of men support the practice, compared with only 34 percent of women.
The conservative/liberal blend of the Millennial generation is perhaps best illustrated by their goals for attending college. Their biggest goal in getting a college education was “raising a family.” They reported a close second being making a lot of money, and third place went to “helping others who are in difficulty.”
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