Earlham's First Year Students

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey is given to entering students at Earlham and many other colleges and universities each fall. In 1999, 183 of Earlham's first-year students completed the survey. As usual, Earlham students are characterized by high academic standards with 39% of the entering first-year students who completed the form reporting an average high school grade of A or A-. They were compared with freshmen in a national sample of 261,217 new students at 462 institutions concerning their personal history, family characteristics, educational goals, values, attitudes on social issues, behavioral patterns, perceptions of their parents, and a variety of other issues.

Women comprise 60% of Earlham's first-year student sample. Eighty-two percent of Earlham first year students intend to pursue a Bachelor's degree. An M.A. degree is the eventual educational goal of 41% of Earlhamites; 32% plan to seek an Ed.D. or Ph.D. (versus 14% nationally); an additional 9% of these entering students expect to earn a doctorate in a medical field.

In religious preference, 14% are Quaker (versus 0.2% nationally), 7% are Catholic, 9% Baptist, 7% Methodist, and 2% Jewish. There were 12% who responded that they are "other Christian" and 12% who said "other religion." The most common religious preference among entering Earlham students was "none," cited by 25% compared to 15% of the national sample.

The proportion of African-American students in the class is 9%. The proportion at the national level this year for all institutions is also 9%. Although 86% identified themselves as White/Caucasian, the minority categories, including African-Americans, totals 25%. This reflects students' indicating more than one racial category.

Parental income below $25,000 was reported by 13% of these new students at Earlham; income of $50,000 or more by 67%. Thirty percent of these students' parents are divorced or separated. Nationally, 25% surveyed come from divorced or separated families. Death has claimed at least one parent of 3% of the entering class at Earlham this year.

About 6% of the class lives within five miles of Earlham; 21% report living 6 to 100 miles away. Thirty-four percent live within 101 and 500 miles of the college, and 40% are more than 500 miles away from home. These figures confirm that Earlham continues to be a "national" institution. Nationwide, a mere 9% of students attend an institution more than 500 miles from their home.

How did students spend their time in the senior year in high school? We see that the biggest block of time was spent socializing with friends. More than three-quarters (78%) of Earlham's entering students spent six or more hours per week socializing, while 32% spent sixteen or more hours per week. Thankfully, none of the students reported spending no time socializing. More than half of students (54%) spent more than six hours a week studying or doing homework. Fourteen percent of these students spent more than sixteen hours a week studying. These figures are quite higher than the national ones. Only 32% of students nationally reported spending more than six hours studying, and a mere 7% spent over sixteen hours a week on homework. Many of the Earlham students held a job during the last year. Twenty-four percent of the soon-to-be Earlham students spent sixteen or more hours working for pay each week while 45% spent six or more hours doing the same. Students also spent time in extracurricular activities. Sixty-eight percent of the students spent time in one or more student organizations.

Earlham students tend to come from well-educated families. Forty-seven percent of the fathers of entering students hold graduate degrees (compared to 18% nationally). Fourteen percent of the fathers have had a formal education of high school or less (the figure is 35% for the national group). A total of 8% are educators; 6% are college teachers. Sixteen percent have jobs in the helping professions (such as clergy, health care workers, social workers, nurses, doctors and lawyers). For the mothers of entering students, 36% hold graduate degrees (14% nationally) and 16% a formal education of high school or less (35% nationally). Mothers' careers are varied -- 7% are full-time homemakers, whereas 19% work in the field of education as college teachers/administrators, in elementary education, or in secondary schools. Elementary Education was the most common career for the mothers (11%). An additional 26% are employed in the helping professions listed previously.

As usual, Earlham students tend to be much more liberal than their national counterparts. The number of students reporting "far left" or "liberal" political views is very high comparatively, while the percentage of "middle of the road" responses is approximately less than half the national figure. Not surprisingly, very few new Earlham students report being conservative or "far right".

Earlham students are much more likely to want to be foreign service workers or conservationists than those in the national sample. They also are more interested in careers as writers/ journalists or college teachers. Business executive or business owner and engineer are popular career goals for the national sample but are not as common among the Earlham sample. Earlham students are twice as likely as their national counterparts to be undecided about a career. Gender differences in several career areas - business executive, computer programmer  (typically male), elementary school teacher and physician (typically female) - fit traditional norms. The relatively equal number of males and females opting for careers as journalists or writers, secondary school teachers, scientific researchers, or social/welfare workers reflect changing sex roles. Another indication of changing sex roles is seen in the fact that more females than males are choosing careers in medicine.

As we restructure the General Education program at Earlham, we need to take note that 83% of the incoming students came to college to gain a general education compared to 60% nationwide. Earlham students are also considerably more likely than their national counterparts to be in college to learn more about things and to become a more cultured person. They are less interested in the benefit of making more money which was quite important to students in the national sample. This trend has varied somewhat over the years as can be seen by the CIRP trends chart at http://www.earlham.edu/~ir/cirp_trends/college_reason.htm but has remained well under the national average.

The two things which seem to have influenced most students to come to Earlham are the size of the college and its good academic reputation. The small size of Earlham was very important to 65% of the incoming students in choosing to come here. Only 31% of the national sample felt the size of the college was very important in choosing a college. Sixty-three percent of Earlham students noted Earlham's good academic reputation as a very important reason for choosing Earlham, whereas 48% of the national sample of students considered academic reputation an important reason for choosing their college. Financial assistance was also important to students . The early-action program, religious affiliation, and educational programs that the college offers were more important for students in choosing Earlham than for students in the national sample. Low tuition, the desire to live close to home and the fact that graduates get good jobs were more important to students in the national sample than to students at Earlham. To compare these responses with previous year responses, see CIRP trends at http://www.earlham.edu/~ir/cirp_trends/earlham_reason.htm
 
 

In terms of probable majors of this group of entering students, the social sciences continue to make a strong showing here. Humanities remain a less frequent choice. Notable major preferences this year include Biology, Political Science, Eduation, Business and the Health Professions.

Helping others in difficulty is the most important life goal for the first year students at Earlham. This goal is also important to the students in the national sample, but somewhat less so. Influencing social values and keeping up-to-date with political affairs are goals of Earlham students which are not nearly as important to students in the national sample. Helping to promote racial understanding has always been considered of greater importance to Earlham students compared to the national average, though recent years show there has been less importance place on this issue than in the early 1990's. The entering Earlham students this year continue the  trend towards more importance being placed on financial status that we began to see in the past few years.  41% of the Earlham sample consider being very well off financially an essential or important objective compared to the national sample's 73%. Raising a family was somewhat more important to students on the national level. In an example of what Earlham students consider to be more essential than their national counterparts, averaging the percentage of students in the last two years indicates that 44% of the entering Earlham students felt it was important to be involved in community action programs compared to 22% from the national sample for the last two years. In general, the importance of each goal to the Earlham students was much different than the importance to the national sample, once again confirming the distinctiveness of the Earlham population. Trends for past years can be found at http://www.earlham.edu/~ir/cirp_trends/objectives.htm

Earlham students' views on the death penalty are quite different from those of the national sample. Fifty-three percent of Earlham's entering students in 1999 felt that colleges should prohibit racist/sexist speech on campus, comparable to 52% of the students entering Earlham in 1998. Comparing students views on this issue over the last four years, 53% of Earlham students felt racist/sexist speech should be prohibited on campus compared with the average national percentage of 63%. Earlham students in general have very liberal views on issues of government and institutions. Females in the Earlham sample tend to be even more liberal than their male counterparts, but both sexes are more liberal than their national peers.

It is interesting that 26% of first-year students at Earlham agree strongly or somewhat that realistically, an individual can do little to bring about changes in our society. This is a slight increase from last year, when 22% of incoming Earlham students agreed with this statement. It is therefore not surprising that only 24% of this year's students are planning on participating in student protests or demonstrations (See Table 11). Nationally, 32% agree strongly or somewhat that an individual can do little to bring about changes in our society and only 4% of these students indicated that chances are very good that they will participate in student protests or demonstrations.

79% of Earlham students agree that same sex couples should have the right to legal marital status, but just 56% of the national sample agree with this idea. The majority of the new Earlham students also agree that abortion and marijuana should be legalized. These views contrast considerably with the national group. In issues regarding homosexual relationships and sex with a short-term partner, there are striking gender differences among the Earlham students, similar to the national sample. The findings that more men (77%) support sex with a short-term partner then their female counterparts (39%) can result in more opportunity for misunderstandings and confusion about behavior among the Earlham male students. Previous year data on this topic can be seen on a CIRP trends chart at http://www.earlham.edu/~ir/cirp_trends/agree.htm

The most common activities among Earlham students during the past year were attending a recital or concert, studying with other students, performing volunteer work, and visiting an art gallery or museum. Earlham students were more than twice as likely to have discussed politics than their national counterparts. They were guests in teachers' homes or asked a teacher for advice, performed volunteer work, and participated in organized demonstrations more frequently. Fifty-two percent of both men and women drank beer, whereas 53% of the men and 59% of the women consumed wine or liquor. The gender difference in the national sample is less significant with 53% of men and 54% of women consuming wine or liquor. A slightly larger percentage (81%) of students from the national sample attended a religious service compared to the Earlham sample (79%), but 42% of Earlham students frequently discussed religion compared to 27% of their national counterparts. There were fewer Earlham students (50%) who used the internet for research or homework compared to 63% nationally. Frequent smoking is equal among Earlham men and women (19% for both), and a slightly larger percentage than the national sample (14%).
 
 

Self-ratings of academic abilities continue to remain high among the Earlham students. They also rated themselves considerably higher than the national sample in their writing ability, artistic ability and creativity. They see themselves as slightly uncompetitive in comparison to the national sample, but similar to the national norm in cooperativeness. Earlham men saw themselves better in mathematics and computer skills. Earlham women reported themselves as less competitive than the men. The women also rated themselves as having understanding of others than the men, and the precentage was also higher than the national norm. Data on academic and mathematical self ratings from previous years may be seen on a CIRP trends charts at http://www.earlham.edu/~ir/cirp_trends/academicability.htm

The new Earlham first-year students think they are much more likely than the national sample to participate in students protests and volunteer work. Students in the national survey are less likely to change their major or career choice than Earlham students. As usual, gender differences are striking here.

Earlham was the first choice for 77% of these students. Interestingly, some students (2%) already think that there is a "very good chance" that they will drop out temporarily (the survey was given during New Student Week). Only 56% believe that the likelihood is very good that they will be satisfied with Earlham.

Looking at diversity issues, it was encouraging to find that 70% of the entering Earlham students had frequently socialized with a different ethnic group during the past year. It was troubling to find that only 54% of Earlham first-year students considered helping promote racial understanding an essential or very important objective. However, the figures shows that only 28% of the national sample considered promoting racial understanding an essential objective. 11 percent of Earlham students agreed that racial discrimination is no longer a major problem in America compared to 23% nationally. Earlham will need to continue to find ways to promote diversity and awareness on campus.

CONCLUSION

These data provide a baseline picture of the 1999 entering group of Earlham students. Once again, this group stands out as very distinctive from the national comparison sample. It will be very important to follow up this group of students to ascertain the ways in which this distinctiveness continues to graduation and beyond.