Graduating from a college is a milestone achievement for any young person and also a time for recent grads to reflect on their collegiate experience. MidAmerica Nazarene University recently surveyed 2,000 college seniors and recent grads to ask them about their overall collegiate experience, their views on the current job market and mostly importantly, student loans! The broke down the results in a comprehensive infographic that can be seen below. Let’s take a deeper look into the findings from the 2019 college senior survey.
The first part of the survey looked at the process of applying to college. The big question in this area centered around how many colleges the average student applied to when selecting a college to attend. On average the typical college student applied to 4 colleges. Only 30% of students said they applied to five or more colleges and only 16% applied to only one college. The second part of this section looked at the number of colleges that accepted the typical college student. On average that number was 2 colleges. The survey did find that 35% of students said they wish they attended a different school than they one they choose and 28% actually ended up transferring to another school all together.
The survey also asked about the reasons why students didn’t like their school of choice for higer education. The top reason was cost. This was followed by students wanting to change major/studies during their time in college. Some students said they just didn’t enjoy campus life like they thought they would. 20% of those students said they did not study a major they had originally intended to pursue. There were many reasons listed for this. Listed below are the top reasons why students don’t pursue the major they want to:
1. Lack of jobs/opportunity (38%)
2. Too difficult to study (26%)
3. Pressure from family/friends to change major (25%)
4. College didn’t offer the major (11%)
The next part of the survey focused on the current job market and the students outlook on it. 62% of college seniors said the job market influenced the major they selected. 55% of students said that they would have pursued a different major or career if money was not a factor. 55% of graduates also said they have a negative feeling about the current job market. Only 37% of students had a job lined up before they graduated, although 62% of students said their current job actually relates to their major.
The final part of the survey focused on student debt which is something that impacts most if not all recent graduates. Nearly three quarters of all recent grads took out some student loans to finance their schooling. The average student loan amount is just shy of $30,000 dollars! 41% of all tuition is financed by student loans. Recent graduates believe it will take almost a decade before they are able to fully repay their student loans and most feel they will be close to 40 years old when that actually happens. To see the full analysis from MidAmerica Nazarene University, check out the infographic below.
