Are Financial Worries Making College Students Sick?

The American Freshman: National Norms for 2010 presents troubling results about the financial concerns college freshman face.  The Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA reports that 4.9 percent of incoming college freshman say their father is unemployed, a record number.   The incoming students surveyed also report emotional health at its lowest point since UCLA first asked the question, 25 years ago.

More Incoming Students Face Financial Stressors

The recession seems to be affecting student’s choice of colleges.  In its latest survey, UCLA found that nearly two-thirds of incoming students reported that the “current economic situation significantly affected my college choice”.  Those students were much less likely to be attending their first-choice college and were more likely to also have “major” financial concerns about financing their education.  Apparently, a lack of adequate financial support influenced incoming freshman in their choice of school.

The study finds that rising numbers of students must draw upon more than one source to finance their educations.  For example, the recent study found that 73.4 percent of incoming college freshman received grants and scholarships to attend college, a higher percentage than in the last 10 years.

Meanwhile, 53.1 percent of incoming students report using loans to attend college.

Emotional Health of Incoming College Students at All Time Low

Self-rated emotional health for incoming first-year students is at the lowest point since UCLA began its annual survey 25 years ago.  Student responses show that while emotional health has decreased, feeling overwhelmed has increased.  More women report feeling overwhelmed than men, and fewer women than men report their emotional health as high.

Most College Freshman Expect College to Pay Off

More than 84 percent of the surveyed college freshman reported that they attend college in order to get a better job.  Most incoming college students agree that “the chief benefit of college is that it increases one’s earning power” and that earning power was a “very important” factor in their decision to go to college.

But Student Debt Levels for College Graduates Continue to Rise

Although the UCLA study demonstrates that students are hopeful that college will them find their way out of the financial difficulties they face, many of those students will graduate with significant debt burdens.  The Project on Student Debt reports that college seniors who graduated in 2009 carried an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up 6% from the previous year.

Meanwhile, unemployment for recent college graduates climbed from 5.8% in 2008 to 8.7% in 2009 – the highest annual rate on record for college graduates aged 20 to 24.

How does graduating debt at your college stack up?

Look up average graduating debt for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and more than 1,000 public and private nonprofit four-year colleges in the Project on Student Debt Report:  Student Debt and the Class of 2009 with companion interactive map.

Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA Report: The American Freshman: National Norms for 2010