BGSU First Year Students: Thirty Years Trends

BGSU has collected survey data to profile the characteristics, attitudes, values, and future goals of the new first year students at the main campus since 1973. This report provides an overview of the thirty years of data from the survey, highlighting the significant changes over the time and discussing the impact that these changes may cause.

Bowling Green State University has collected descriptive information about its new first year students since 1973. This was done via the "Freshman Survey" developed by Dr. Alexander Astin and coordinated by the American Council of Education/University of California at Los Angeles between 1973 and 1979 and between 1990 and 1995, the locally-developed "BGSU Freshman Survey" administered between 1980 and 1989, and the locally-developed "BGSU First Year Student Questionnaire" which has been used since 1997. Although new questions are introduced in the survey each year to reflect changing interests in the community, many of the survey items are comparable across the thirty year interval and they group into three areas: enrollment management-related information, demographic information, and expectations and values information.

This report arrays trend information based on the survey data of 1973, 1978, 1983, 1994*, 1998 and 2003. Significant changes over time and their implications are also discussed.

The results were analyzed by noting the percentages of participants who provided various responses to each questionnaire item. Percentages may not always sum to 100 due to rounding. Since new questions are introduced in the survey each year to reflect changing interests in the community, every question cannot be repeated each year.

Trends in enrollment management-related information are presented in Table 1 through Table 5, Figure 1 and Figure 2.

First year students report applying for admission to a greater number of other institutions besides BGSU in recent years than they did earlier (see Table 1 and Figure 1). While the majority (56%) of 1973 entering freshmen applied to no other college besides BGSU, only 27% of the 2003 entering freshmen did so. Despite more than half of the first year students indicated that they have been admitted to colleges other than BGSU (see Table 2), the University is the overwhelming first choice among colleges to attend (see Table 3).

Table 4 below shows the most important reasons why people chose to go to college in general. While a few items on that table showed little variation over the thirty years interval, the rest showed pronounced changes. For example, the percentages of entering freshmen who note that a very important reason for them to go to college is "to gain a general education and appreciation of ideas" declined between the 1970s and the mid-1990s, but increased between 1994 and 2003 (see Figure 2). During the same period of time, however, the trends of going to college in order "to be able to make more money" and "to be able to get good job" went the opposite way (see Figure 2). In addition, the number of students who stated that a very important reason to attend college are "to learn more about things that interest me" and "I wanted to get away from home" has steadily increased since 1978.

Despite the changes in individual items from time to time, "to learn more about things that interest me", "to gain a general education & appreciation of ideas", "to be able to get a better job", "to meet new and interesting people", "to be able to make more money", and "to prepare for a professional career" remained the top five important reasons for most BGSU first year student to attend college in general.

As for the reasons why students decided to attend BGSU in particular, the University's academic reputation and programs, the friendly and safe community, and BGSU's job or graduate school preparation were considered more important than other factors on the survey list (see Table 5.) The percentage of entering freshmen who indicated that a "very important" reason to attend BGSU is "I was offered financial assistance" increased steadily between 1973 and 2003.

The majority of entering BGSU freshmen consistently reported that their home is between 101 and 500 miles from BGSU (Table 6). A Bachelor’s Degree in education (teacher or administrator), business, other, and undecided remained the most popular occupational choices of first year students across the thirty year interval (see Table 7 and 8). The percentage of freshmen who plan to obtain a master's degree at BGSU has steadily increased since early 70s, from 14% in 1973 to 26% in 2003.

As would be expected due to inflation, there has been a substantial change in students’ reports of their parents’ income; while 89% of first year students in 1973 said their parents’ incomes were below $30,000, more than 60% of those in 2003 tell us that their parents’ incomes are $50,000 or more (Table 13).

Table 13. What is your best estimate of your parents' income?

1973 1978 1983 1988 1994 1998 2003

% % % % % % %

less than $30,000 89 71 44 23 15 10 17

$30,000 to $49,999 9 22 41 44 26 20 21

$50,000 or more 2 7

$50,000 to $74,999 37 36 30

$50,000 to $99,999 14 29

$75,000 to $99,999 12 19 15

$100,000 or more 2 4 10 15 16

Along with the increase of family income in last thirty years, the percentage of first year students who received $1500 or more of financial assistance from their families also rose, and reached an all-time high of 74% in 1998 (see Figure 4). During the same period of time, support from other sources, especially from loans, grants/scholarships, and savings increased as well (see Table 14 and Figure 4). The result is while in the 1970s and 1980s most of the entering freshmen were relied heavily on their families to pay their first year expenses, in the 1990s and 2000s students were more likely to depend on multiple sources of support for their college education. In addition, today's students may have to spend more time working than the students in early years in order to receive $1,500 or more from summer work, part-time employment, and college work study (see Table 14). It's not surprising that the percentage of students who have no concerns about their ability to finance college declined over the years (Table 15)

EXPECTATIONS AND VALUES INFORMATION

Mathematics remained the sole area where a sizeable percentage of entering freshmen expected to need some kind of remedial work (see Table 16). In addition, 2003 first year students were more concerned about their academic preparation than the students in the 1970's and 1980's in most of the subjects listed on the survey.

Table 16. Subjects you feel you will need tutoring or remedial work

1973 1978 1983 1988 1994 1998 2003

% % % % % % %

Mathematics NA 24 31 36 NA NA 37

Foreign Language NA 12 14 11 NA NA 22

Science NA 13 14 15 NA NA 20

English NA 13 12 11 NA NA 16

Reading NA 6 10 6 NA NA 7

Social Studies NA 3 3 3 NA NA 5

Despite the apparent increase in demanding college preparation in recent years, today's entering freshmen seem to have more positive views of their academic as well as other abilities than previous freshmen (see Table 17). For example, first year students' ratings of their chance that they will get a bachelor's degree, make at least a "B" average, and graduate with honors generally grew stronger in last thirty years. The percentage of entering freshmen who think that the chances are very good for them to find a job in their major field after graduation, get a job to help pay for college expenses, and anticipate in volunteer or community service work when attend school also increased. Moreover, most of the numbers in Table 17 reach an all time high or low in 2003, indicating that the 21st century first year students were most likely to have high expectations of their college life compared with the previous BGSU freshmen.

Table 17. What is your estimate of the chance that you will… (Percent "Very Good")

1973 1978 1983 1988 1994 1998 2003

% % % % % % %

Get a bachelor's degree 77 78 NA NA 82 82 90

Find a job in your major field after graduation 58 69 NA NA NA 74 76

Be satisfied with BGSU 64 57 NA NA 61 65 70

Get a job to help pay for college expenses NA 48 NA NA 57 57 62

Make at least a "B" average 36 42 NA NA 52 54 56

Participate in volunteer/community service work NA NA NA NA 17 24 33

Join a social club, fraternity, or sorority 19 19 NA NA 17 21 26

Graduate with honors 6 6 NA NA 13 13 20

Join a student professional or student government organization NA NA NA NA NA 8 13

Play varsity/intercollegiate athletics NA NA NA NA 12 12 12

Change your major 18 15 NA NA 14 15 11

Be elected to an academic honor society 3 5 NA NA 7 9 9

Change your career choice 17 15 NA NA 13 15 9

Participate in student protests/demonstrations NA 2 NA NA 4 4 7

Need extra time to complete your degree 3 4 NA NA 7 6 6

Work full-time while attending college NA NA NA NA 4 3 6

Be elected to a student office 1 1 NA NA 2 2 3

Get married while in college 8 5 NA NA 3 2 3

Transfer to another college before graduation 9 8 NA NA 3 3 2

Fail one or more courses 2 1 NA NA 1 0 1

Drop out of college permanently 1 1 NA NA 0 0 0

Drop out of college temporarily 1 1 NA NA 0 0 0

Table 18 and Figure 5 shows the value changes of first year student in last thirty years. Although many of the value statements on the table have waxed and waned in popularity over time, "raising a family", "being very well off financially", "helping others who are in difficulty", "becoming an authority in my field" and "obtaining recognition from my colleagues for my contributions" have remained the very important or essential life goals for most of the BGSU entering freshmen since 1973. The values showing the greatest upward trends in students' interest are "raising a family", "being very well off financially", "influencing social values", "helping to promote racial understanding", and "having administrative responsibility for the work of others". The value showing the most precipitous changes in student endorsement is "developing a meaningful philosophy of life". As shown in Table 18, it was the most popular value in 1973 and endorsed by 72% of the the first year students. It declined sharply between 1973 and 1983, and stayed in its lowest point of 43% for about 10 years before starting increase after 1994.

Table 18. How important are each of the following to you? (Percent "Essential" or "Very Important")

1973 1978 1983 1988 1994 1998 2003

% % % % % % %

Raising a family 58 66 64 67 75 79 80

Being very well off financially 51 60 68 72 74 77 77

Helping others who are in difficulty 65 65 60 65 65 73 73

Becoming an authority in my field 64 75 78 82 66 64 65

Developing a meaningful philosophy of life 72 56 43 43 43 50 62

Obtaining recognition from my colleagues for my contributions NA 50 54 57 55 53 52

Influencing social values 29 30 29 39 42 53 51

Helping to promote racial understanding NA 28 17 21 32 38 49

Having administrative responsibility for the work of others 23 35 44 45 38 43 45

Becoming successful in a business of my own 33 43 44 48 34 42 38

Keeping up to date with political affairs 44 36 29 38 32 32 36

Participating in a community action program NA 26 21 22 20 32 36

Becoming a community leader 29 NA NA NA 28 29 32

Creating artistic work (painting, etc.) NA 14 10 11 12 21 26

Influencing the political structure 11 10 8 14 14 18 26

Writing original works (poems, novels, etc.) NA 12 10 12 10 19 24

Becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment 26 21 NA NA 23 29 21

Becoming accomplished in the performing arts (acting, dancing, etc.) 21 13 10 11 11 18 18

Making a contribution to science NA 8 9 9 10 18 17

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This study describes the changes of BGSU main campus first year students over the past thirty years based on the data collected by Office of Institutional Research. A summary of the major trends is offered below.

BGSU entering freshmen of the last thirty years are mostly from middle class families in Ohio. Their mothers are less often homemakers now than before, and their mothers' highest level of education is increasingly a college degree and less often high school graduation. Instead of depending heavily on their family to support their college education as in the 1970's, today's first year students are more likely to rely on multiple sources, especially family, loans, and grants/scholarships, to cover their first year expenses. Moreover, increasing numbers of freshmen were expected they get $1,500 or more of support from summer work, part-time employment, and college work study. About 80% of the entering freshmen in 2003 have some level of concerns about their ability to finance their college education compared with about 70% or less in the 1970's and 72% in the 1980's and 1990's.

BGSU first year freshmen in recent years have applied to a greater number of other institutions besides BGSU than they did in early years. Although fifty percent or more of the entering freshmen stated that they have been admitted to colleges other than BGSU for the past thirty years, 77% or more of them consistently indicated that the University is their first choice among colleges to attend. BGSU's academic reputation and unique educational programs, the friendly and safe community, and the University's job or graduate school preparation remained the top reasons for attending BGSU. In addition, the percentage of first year students who stated that I choose BGSU because "I was offered financial assistance" has nearly quadrupled over the time, from 8% in the 1970s to about 30% in recent years.

The percentage of freshmen who plan to obtain a master's degree at BGSU has steadily increased since the early 1970's. However, a Bachelor's degree in education, business, other, and undecided remains the most popular occupational choices for BGSU freshmen over the time.

Perhaps the greatest changes revealed in our data of thirty years are student's expectations and values. First of all, compared with the students in early years, 2003 entering freshmen were more concerned about their academic preparation in math, foreign language, science, English, and social studies, and yet had more positive views of their academic abilities ( such as "get a bachelor's degree", "make at least a "B" average", and "graduate with honors") as well as other abilities. Second, while students' interest in raising a family and being very well off financially has increased steadily since 1973, their interest in developing a meaningful philosophy of life has waned between 1973 and 1983 (72% in 1973 vs. 43% in 1983), stabilized during 1983 - 1993, and waxed in recent years (45% in 1994 vs. 62% in 2003). Third, first year students are becoming increasingly interested in altruistic activities (such as helping others who are in difficulty and helping to promote racial understanding), bringing about social change, as well as having administrative responsibilities.

Despite the changing popularities of students' values and expectations, "raising a family", "being very well off financially", "helping others who are in difficulty", "becoming an authority in my field", and "obtaining recognition from my colleagues for my contributions" remain the essential or very important life goals for most of the entering BGSU freshmen over the time, and the majority of them think that chances are very good for them to get a bachelor's degree, find a job in their major field after graduation, and be satisfied with BGSU.

Students, on average, may have a more difficult or stressful college life now than before as noted by the fact that in recent years:

they have ever higher academic expectations and yet greater demand of remedial work
they are more likely to rely on multiple sources besides family to support their college education, which may be overly optimistic at the time of matriculation
they may need to spend more time working in order to support their college education

It should be remembered that none of the changes above can be attributed to policies and practices at BGSU; They represent students' characteristics and beliefs as they enter the University. The task of the institution is to structure its activities to respond to these trends in a positive way, and to support student's needs as much as possible, academically, socially, and financially.

As always, the Office of Institutional Research welcomes feedback concerning this report and other studies and how they can continue to be improved.