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Backstory: College life by the numbers
As colleges reopen, here's a statistical snapshot of life on campus – from tuition costs to faculty politics – without any calculus thrown in.
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20.3 percent have some college, but no degree.
17.2 percent have a bachelor's degree.
9.8 percent have a graduate degree.
Earning power
$74,602 is the average annual earnings of workers with an advanced degree.
$51,206 is the average for those with bachelor's degrees.
$27,915 for those with a high school diploma only.
$18,734 for those with no high school diploma.
Speaking up
62 percent of college freshmen say they often ask questions in class or contribute to class discussions.
75 percent say they speak up senior year.
Speaking out
63 percent of last year's freshmen agreed dissent is critical to the political process.
49.7 percent participated in an organized demonstration as high school seniors.
Campus political hues
51.3 percent of full-time professors consider their own political views to be liberal or far left.
19.5 percent of faculty members consider their views to be conservative or far right.
30.5 percent of last year's entering freshmen considered their own political views to be liberal or far left.
24.5 percent of last year's entering freshmen considered their views to be conservative or far right.
Back-to-school shopping
$5.78 billion is how much Americans are expected to spend on back-to-college clothing and accessories.
$11.69 billion is how much college students are expected to spend on textbooks.
Parsed tongues
Breakdown of foreign-language study (2002):
1. Spanish – 53.4 percent
2. French – 14.5 percent
3. German – 6.5 percent
4. Italian – 4.6 percent
5. American Sign Language – 4.4 percent
Student spirituality
80 percent of freshmen last year said they have an interest in spirituality.
64 percent said their spirituality was a source of joy.
47 percent sought opportunities to help them grow spiritually.
Zeitgeist of class of 2010
Most freshmen entering college this fall were born in 1988. Therefore, according to Beloit College:
•Thanks to pervasive headphones in the back seat, parents have always been able to speak freely in the front.
•Dolphin-free canned tuna has always been on sale.
•The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is as scary as the student union.
•Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents' attics.
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