The American Freshman Survey was administered nationally to approximately 350,000 freshmen from 665 two- and four- year colleges and universities in 1997. It was administered to entering ETSU students during the 1997 two-day orientation sessions. Students that participated in this survey were predominantly traditional age, first-time, and full-time freshmen. Their responses should not be interpreted as a representative sample of our entire entering class, but should be considered as such for our 18- to 19- year old students entering from high school.

The 1,107 students who completed the survey at ETSU are representative of the traditional age (19 or younger), full-time student with respect to gender and race.

The following report is based on the first-time, full-time ETSU responses compared to a similar group from four-year, public colleges.
 
Overwhelming Similarity ETSU and National Norms
Results yielded by the national freshmen survey confirmed much of what we already knew. The overall similarity of our students to students represented by the norm group is very high. ETSU students' responses were consistently within five percentage points of the normative data. We were first made aware of this likeness in 1988, after the administration of The Entering Student Survey. The national freshmen survey underscored similarities such as the students' work patterns, the first generation percentage, and their motivations (i.e., their plans for the future and reasons for being here).
 
Differences: ETSU and Peer Institutions
The 1997 national freshmen survey also confirmed the uniqueness of our students on certain dimensions (i.e., conservative views, alcohol consumption, religion, and race). We already knew that our student body was composed of fewer African- American students and fewer drinkers than peer institutions.

Our students report belonging to the Baptist faith at a higher rate than do students at peer institutions. Catholics are underrepresented. Because we are in the "Bible Belt" and a very Baptist region of the country, this is not surprising.

Students who attend ETSU indicate it was either their first or second choice (93.9%). Our students also apply to fewer schools. Fewer of our students indicate applying to four or more schools than the national norm. Eighty-six percent of our students applied to three or fewer schools (compared to 79.9 percent for the national norm). Therefore, our students "shop around" less than the national norm. It is important to note that our students are attending ETSU because they choose to attend ETSU, not because they are having difficulty being accepted elsewhere.

Academic Disengagement
National normative data report this year's college freshmen exhibiting higher levels of disengagement, both academically and politically, than any previous entering class of students. This "disengagement" is evident by the increasing percentage of students who report being "bored in class," that they "overslept and missed class or an appointment," and by the decreasing amount of time that students report "studying or doing homework." ETSU's 1997 data is consistently lower than the national norm. 

Academic Disengagement

	Norms 1987	Norms 1997	ETSU 1997
Bored in Class	29.5%	38.1%	35.3%
Overslept	30.0%	33.6%	30.5%
Study 6+ hrs/wk	43.7%	31.8%	29.9%

Ironically, the students' disengagement from school is inconsistent with their rising academic aspirations. Among the 1997 freshmen, 43.4 percent of students aspire to master's degrees and 16.2 percent of freshmen plan to earn the Ph.D. In comparison, 38.8 percent of ETSU students aspire to attain master's degrees and 9.3 percent aspire to either the Ph.D. or the Ed.D. While fewer of our students aspire to master's or doctorate degrees, a higher percentage of them (15.5%) aspire to medical degrees than is reported by the national norms (6.7%).

Political Interest Hits New Low
Students are also increasingly disengaged from politics, as the 1997 freshmen demonstrate the lowest levels of political interest in the history of the survey. This political disinterest is evident by the decreasing percentage of students considering "keeping up to date with political affairs" as an essential or very important life goal; saying they "frequently discuss politics"; indicating that they "voted in a student election"; and having "worked on a political campaign." Figures from 1968 have been provided to illustrate the decreasing level of interest nationally.
 

Political Disengagement

	Norms 1968	Norms 1997	ETSU 1997
Up-to-date	52.0%	26.7%	24.9%
Discuss	30.0%	13.7%	16.1%
Voted	76.0%	23.2%	26.9%
Worked	13.5%	7.5%	7.4%

In spite of the students' disinterest in politics, their rate of volunteerism has hit an all-time high. Since 1989, there has been a steady increase in the percent of freshmen volunteering. Sixty-two percent indicated volunteering in 1989, compared to a 74.3 percent in 1997. The responses of ETSU students (71.9%) are consistent with this national measure. This trend "may simply reflect the fact that more high schools are promoting student volunteerism or even requiring it as a condition for graduation" (U.S. Department of Education, 1997). Of these students who indicate volunteering in high school, only 22.3 percent of ETSU students plan to volunteer in the future. This is slightly higher than the national norm of 17.4 percent.

Social Attitudes
The 1997 survey revealed conservative trends on abortion rights, premarital sex, legal status for same sex couples, homosexuality, and abolishing the death penalty. The national trend is more conservative than in years past. However, ETSU students are consistently more conservative on all of these indicators than their peers at four-year, public colleges.
 

Social Attitudes

	ETSU 1997	Group Norms
Abortion Should Be Legal	39.4%	52.0%
Sex OK If People Like Each Other	27.8%	39.9%
Legal Status for Same Sex Couples	32.0%	48.3%
Prohibit Homosexual Relations	46.0%	34.2%
Abolish Death Penalty	16.3%	22.2%

Smoking and Alcohol Consumption
The national report notes that the rate of cigarette smoking among today's freshmen is the highest in 30 years (16.1 percent compared to 14.5 percent last year). ETSU students report frequent cigarette smoking at 13.6 percent, which is similar (slightly higher) than the 13.0 percent of students reporting frequent cigarette smoking from the peer institution group.
 

Smoking & Alcohol

	ETSU 1997	Norm Group
Cigarettes	13.6%	13.0%
Beer	32.4%	49.4%
Wine/Liquor	38.0%	53.0%

Confirming our findings from our previous studies, ETSU students report drinking at a considerably lower rate than students from other institutions.
 
Major: Undecided
Our students who indicate an undeclared major are considerably less decided about their probable career choice than undeclared students at other four-year colleges and universities. Our undeclared majors, when asked what their probable career might be indicate (70.9%) that they are truly undecided. Correspondingly, only 11.6 percent of the norm group "undeclared" majors were undecided about their probable career.

With respect to "objectives considered to be essential or very important," our undeclared majors are less committed to numerous life goals in comparison with the undeclared majors from peer institutions.
 

Essential Life Goals

	ETSU Undeclared	Norm Group Undelcared
Financially Well-Off	66.2%	76%
Own Business	26.2%	39.7%
Contribution to Science	5.3%	16.7%
Administrative Responsibility	28.2%	39.6%
Political Influence	4.7%	16.3%
Colleague Recognition	41.2%	53.5%
Authority in Own Field	48.9%	63.4%

In summary, the information yielded by this survey was not ground breaking news for us. Whereas our students are very much like students at similar institutions, this survey helped focus our attention on some differences.