A study released Monday by University of California at Los Angeles examines how college student attitudes and demographics have changed over the last four decades.,”

Parents always say how different things were when they were in college. Now their children can actually check how true that is.

A study released Monday by University of California at Los Angeles examines how college student attitudes and demographics have changed over the last four decades.

The university's Higher Education Research Institute released the study, titled "American Freshmen: Forty-Year Trends 1966-2006."

The study is a collection of data from the freshmen survey that has been administered to college freshmen across the country by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program each year since 1966.

According to Aaron Pearl, a client services representative for HERI, the survey was started because schools were individually polling students but had no national data to compare to their findings.

Mark McCarthy, dean of student development, said Marquette last participated in the survey in 2004. The survey is given out at Marquette every few years.

"It's helpful for us to take a look at where Marquette students are in relationship to students nationwide, and at other private schools," McCarthy said. "It gives us a better picture of our students."

According to the report, today's freshmen come from families that are more financially advantaged than ever before.

As of 2005, the median income for college freshmen's families was 60 percent higher than the national average. In 1971, the median family income for college freshmen was 46 percent higher than the national average.

"In general there's been a big increase in the median income," said Victor Saenz, a visiting assistant professor at UCLA and a co-author of the study. "It's being reflected in college students because of the higher education's rising costs."

Another issue addressed by the study is diversity in the collective student body.

According to McCarthy, Marquette's diversity has gone up over the past few years. In a poll of this year's freshman class, 18.6 percent of the class identified themselves as minorities, which is up 2.5 percent from 2005.

"Access has increased for underrepresented groups, so the increase (in diversity) isn't really a surprise," Saenz said.

College students are more diverse than they have ever been, but according to the study only 34 percent of students rated promoting racial understanding as a high priority. This is down from 1992's rate of 46.4 percent.

"Students are dealing with issues of differences a lot earlier now, which is good," Saenz said. "That information has to be carefully interpreted."

Saenz also said most students probably think society has reached a good place in terms of race relations, which would explain the low percentage who think racial understanding needs to be improved. Today's students are also more interested in being financially successful, but have the most interest in helping others that they have in 20 years.

"There's been more focus on individualism in the past 20 years," Saenz said. "People are using that as fuel to suggest the younger generation is more materialistic and focused on individual goals, but they are oriented toward the needs of others as well."

Some things, however, have not changed much in the past 40 years. For example, in 1976 and 2006 students said their top reasons for going to college were to learn about things that interested them and to get a better job.

"The increasing complexity of our global economy necessitates that workers be educated and people are getting that message more and more," Saenz said. "Many people understand that they can't stop with just a high school diploma or bachelor's degree."

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