Instead, one of the biggest factors apparently driving the top students’ choice of college is “academic rigor’’ - defined as small classes, accomplished professors, national rankings, and the like. Those students said it accounted for a quarter of their decision on where to attend, surpassed in importance only by financial aid. When aid was excluded as a factor, the students’ emphasis on academic rigor doubled.
Meanwhile, the survey found that “campus life’’ - the category that includes housing, dining, and that resort-style gym - accounted for just 7 percent of the choice.
The survey is small, with 1,000 respondents, and it focuses on high-achieving applicants, not American students at large. Extrapolating from it is tricky.
But its findings may point to a broad trend in higher education that has popped up in larger studies, too, said outside observers. With tuition high and jobs scarce, many students seem less concerned with the creature comforts they will enjoy during their four years and more concerned with being well-equipped for life afterward.
“For me, it was mostly about finding a college with a good biomedical engineering department, and they’re in the top 10,’’ said Carrie Cramer, a high school senior from Florida who will enroll at BU next year.“The new dorms and the lazy river and the gym certainly help, but academics are the most important thing.’’
A national survey of incoming freshmen in 2010 found 56.5 percent of students said their chance of getting a good job was a “very important’’ influence on their choice of college - the highest percentage of students to say so since 1983.
