Five shifts among college freshmen: For one, they're more studious

A survey of college freshmen reports an uptick in study time and a bit less partying. Here's a look at ways first-time freshmen depart from previous freshman classes.

2. Partying and tardiness on the wane

Andy Manis/AP/File
Bars near the University of Wisconsin at Madison are one way local students can obtain alcohol. UW-Madison is one of 10 colleges to take part in an American Medical Association-led initiative to curb binge drinking.

The percentage of students who spent time partying during the week in their senior year of high school declined from nearly 70 percent in 2009 to just over 65 percent in 2011. 

The percentages who drank occasionally or frequently also went down a few points in recent years, with about 41 percent drinking wine or liquor and just over 35 percent drinking beer. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, more than 70 percent reported frequent alcohol use. 

Fewer students say they came late to class as high-school seniors: 54.7 percent, compared with 57.5 percent in 2010.

2 of 5

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.