The economic crisis is pushing growing numbers of college freshmen to look for part-time jobs, scrounge for financial aid and turn down admission offers from schools that were their dream campuses, according to a national survey by UCLA researchers.
Even in the early days of the current recession, money worries were evident among the students polled for UCLA's 43rd annual "American Freshman" survey, which is being released today. The study found that 43% of students viewed financial aid as very important or essential to their choice of a college. That figure was up from 39.7% last year and was the highest in the 36 years the question has been asked.
A record proportion, more than 49%, reported that they will need a job this year to help pay expenses, up from 47% the previous year. And 8.5% of students said their ultimate choice of college was strongly affected by not being offered financial aid by their first-choice campus, the highest such response since the question was first asked 24 years ago.
"When you've got these economically tough times, students are forced to see the impact of that," said John H. Pryor, managing director of UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, which conducts the survey, the nation's oldest and most comprehensive assessment of student attitudes. This year's report was based on responses from 240,580 freshmen at 340 four-year colleges and universities.
In other trends, the survey also found the class of 2013 to be increasingly liberal and politically engaged compared with students in recent years. This year's freshmen voiced more support than did previous classes for legalizing gay marriage and marijuana, but less interest in boosting defense spending. They also reported drinking beer and liquor somewhat less in high school than their predecessors did.
Most students answered the questions during freshman orientation, as the national financial crisis was beginning this past summer and fall but was not at its worst, Pryor said. He said he expected the next survey to show students' financial concerns growing "drastically higher unless there is some miraculous turnaround."
The economic findings resonated with Stephanie Tardif, a junior at Occidental College. Tardif has worked various jobs during college, including as a server at Starbucks and an usher at Dodger Stadium, but said she was feeling the recession's effect in Los Angeles. "It's pretty difficult finding a part-time job now," she said.
