Inside Iowa State

April 28, 2006

ISU freshmen: Then and now

Selected results from the Freshmen Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. Freshmen at Iowa State most recently were surveyed in fall 2005.

Reasons for attending college
(indicated as very important)	1995	2005
To be able to get a better job	76.6%	79.8%
To learn more about things that interest me	76.0	79.2
To be able to make more money	69.9	78.0
To get training for a specific career	--	71.3
To gain a general education	54.8	59.4
To find my purpose in life	--	44.5
To prepare for graduate/professional school	46.9	43.7
To become a more cultured person	29.9	35.2
Reasons for selecting Iowa State
(indicated as very important)	1995	2005
Good academic reputation	65.6	63.9
Grads get good jobs	53.8	57.4
A visit to the campus	--	36.8
Good social reputation	29.0	32.8
Size of college	19.8	26.9
Graduates gain admission to top grad/prof'l schools	23.9	24.3
Offered financial assistance	20.9	22.7
The cost of attending this college	26.1	21.5
Rankings in national magazines	7.01	14.5
Life goals
(considered essential or very important)	1995	2005
Raising a family	70.1	78.5
Being very well off financially	73.4	74.9
Helping others who are in difficulty	50.5	54.3
Becoming an authority in my field	65.4	54.2
Obtaining recognition from colleagues	55.5	52.4
Developing a meaningful philosophy of life	40.7	38.9
Having administrative responsibility for others	38.5	38.4
Becoming successful in own business	40.8	38.3
Likelihood of staying in Iowa
	2001	2005
Very good chance	16.1	20.4
Some chance	41.5	44.2
Very little chance	31.8	26.7
No chance	10.3	8.2

More than 60 percent of ISU freshmen say they may stay in Iowa after graduation, an increase of more than five percent from 10 years ago.