In a trend largely motivated by the Great Recession, most incoming college freshmen now say their primary reason for going to college is to be able to get a better job, according to a survey by higher education researchers at UCLA. The trend represents a radical departure from pre-recession years, when most incoming freshmen indicated that their primary reason for going to college was to learn more about things of interest. Specifically, in 2006, before the current recession, the report states, 76.8 percent of incoming freshmen indicated that learning about things that interested them was “a very important” reason to go to college, whereas only 70.4 percent indicated the same for getting a better job. Now, 85.9 percent say getting a job is very important, whereas 82.9 percent said learning more about things of interest was very important. The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2011 was prepared by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, or (CIRP), at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA.
