More than 95 percent of students in the Class of 2016 identified getting good grades as “very important” to them upon arriving at the College, according to the 2012 New Student survey, released last week by the Office of Institutional Research.
The New Student survey was emailed to incoming freshmen for the first time in 2012 and posed questions ranging from high school social and academic experiences to new students’ expectations and goals for college. More than 82 percent of students in the class completed the survey, with a slightly higher response rate from women.
Associate provost for institutional research Alicia Betsinger did not respond to multiple requests for comment by press time.
Academic Skills Center director Carl Thum said that students’ emphasis on grades was not surprising due to the competitive nature of the college application process.
“To do well is really important if you want to apply and have a fighting chance to be accepted to a school like this,” Thum said.
Dartmouth has conducted similar surveys since at least 2006, but the 2012 survey was the first conducted electronically. Seventy-seven percent of the incoming Class of 2014 participated in the 2010 survey.
Although the report is the first in several years not labeled a Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey — a long-running survey created in 1966 by the Higher Education Research Institute — the 2012 questionnaire featured similar questions.
In 2010, just over 60 percent of respondents said financial security was essential or very important to their life and future, while in 2012, 81 percent reported the same, and that response rose from the fourth most important to second most important life goal for the average student. In 2012 around 50 percent said they revised papers two or more times, while in 2010 about 65 percent of respondents often or very often revised a paper to improve writing.
About 90 percent of the respondents in both surveys planned on getting an advanced degree after college. Around 75 percent of respondents in both surveys said that raising a family is very important or essential to their life and future.
In 2012, 62 percent said they wanted a doctorate or master’s degree, 27 percent of students said they were planning to study for an MBA degree, 26 percent said they wanted to obtain a medical degree and 16 percent said they wanted to go to law school.
In the 2012 survey, three-quarters of respondents said that they were prepared to balance multiple commitments in college.
Time management is the most difficult part of adjusting to college life, Thum said, explaining that college students no longer have the external structure of their high school and home life.
“Some students are poised and ready for this and [it] comes to them naturally, and for others it’s a complete and utter disaster. Those are the polar extremes, and then there’s everybody in between,” he said. “For some it takes a couple of months, and for some it takes a couple of years.”
The commitments students juggle in college are different than in high school, Tiantian Zhang ’16 said, considering adjusting to time management at the College.
“In college you have a lot more control over your schedule, while as in high school this was set for you,” she said. “Here, since you have so much flexibility, it’s your responsibility to manage all of your time really well. It’s an advantage and a disadvantage.”
Toni Aguiar ’16 said she sees students’ responsibilities to take care of themselves as important as they transition to college life.
Time management and sleep are integrally connected, Thum said, and healthy sleeping habits often collapse in college.
Trey Rebman ’16 said that learning time management can be difficult for incoming freshmen.
“Time management skills in high school were easier because you had your parents to manage your time,” Rebman said. “I know freshman year I had trouble managing everything, but you kind of learn how to balance with the extra freedom to do whatever you want.”
More than 70 percent of survey participants said they planned to study abroad. While she feels that the College makes it easy for students to study abroad, unforeseen inflexibility in one’s schedule can cause students not to study abroad, Zhang said.
“I think people realize later after coming here how rigid their schedules can be,” she said. “Coming in as a freshman you don’t realize that, even though the D-Plan is very flexible, there are things that prevent you from taking advantage of the flexibility.”
Three-quarters of students surveyed said they were prepared to live away from home.
Living away from home can lead to necessary adjustments, Joe Wang ’16 said.
The University of Pennsylvania conducts a comparable freshman survey, where 53 percent of Penn respondents reported in 2010 that they frequently or occasionally drank wine or liquor in high school, and 48 percent said they frequently or occasionally drank beer. By contrast, only 10 percent of Dartmouth respondents reported that they often drank beer, wine or liquor in high school in the 2012 report. In 2010, 37 percent of incoming Penn students said they often failed to complete homework on time in high school, while only 5 percent of incoming Dartmouth students reported the same in 2012.
At both Dartmouth and Cornell University, which conducted a similar new student survey in 2012, similar percentages — almost 100 percent — responded that getting the best grades possible is very important. About 95 percent at both schools also said they prefer interesting courses even if difficult, and around 80 percent at both institutions said they would work hard in a course to learn the material even if the work would not translate into better grades.
Around 70 percent of Dartmouth respondents preferred classes that featured discussion while only 60 percent of Cornell respondents did.
