New Fact About US College

  • There are almost 20 million students enrolled 
  • In U.S. colleges—a number growing at 4.5 percent a year.
  • Almost 60 percent of college students are women, and 40 percent of college students are over the age of twenty-five.
  • Community colleges are booming: over one-third of college students go to one.
  • The average list price for tuition at a private college is $27,000, at a state university $7,000 (for those who live in that state), and at a community college $2,500—a year. (At some schools, the prices are considerably higher.)
  • College tuition went up by an average of 6 percent last year—and every other year for the last ten.
  • About 75 percent of full-time college students receive financial aid. And there are numerous tax benefits for all students.
  • A recent study pegged the lifetime increased earnings potential of someone with a college degree at $279,893 (not a million dollars, as previously thought).
  • Over 90 percent of college students are on Facebook (MySpace, Hi5, and Friendster are considered uncool). The average college student spends about half an hour a day on social networking.
  • Only about 10 percent of college students belong to a fraternity or sorority.
  • Four of the eight Ivy League presidents are women.
  • Many colleges have new first-year experience courses or freshman seminars to help students find their place in the college community.
  • Many students today fulfill their language requirement with Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, or Japanese—not Spanish, French, or German.
  • The most popular majors are business, psychology, nursing, history and social sciences, biology, education, and communications. (Classics, astronomy, film studies, aviation, and chemical engineering have the fewest takers.)
  • The most lucrative majors are petroleum engineering and civil engineering. (The job prospects aren’t so good in English, classics, philosophy, and art history.)
  • E-textbooks and e-resources are rapidly replacing print books and brick-and-mortar libraries. Many students read their textbooks on e-readers, and some students even rent their books.
  • “Smart” classrooms allow professors to incorporate PowerPoint presentations, videos, and other content into their lectures. Some professors use “clickers” that allow students to offer instant input on how well they’ve understood the lecture.
  • Some college courses are conducted online, either at the university’s own Web site, through iTunesU, the OpenCourseWare initiative, or Academic Earth. (Some students wonder why they should go to class at all.)
  • Many colleges offer service learning programs: you get college credit for volunteering to do community service.
  • Some schools require a year of study abroad: globalization comes to college.
  • The graduation rate at U.S. colleges is only slightly more than 50 percent—something we hope to change with this book.