While it’s fun to generalize about generations, the College Board (those folks who bring us the SAT, AP Tests, etc.) sent up a loud cautionary note in May. As one of the few organizations who have studied college students over time, they are in a position to know. According to StudentPoll data, an ongoing study of incoming freshmen, CB maintains Millennials are not that different from other generations in their goals, aspirations, values and college choice criteria.
Millennial Myth: Student interest in “making a contribution to society” is on the rise while interest in “having lots of money” is declining. studentPOLL’s Freshman Survey data conclusively show that interest in “being financially well off” remains high and at levels comparable to previous generations.
Millennial Myth: Students are more intellectually oriented and less career focused than previous generations.Again, studentPOLL’s findings and CIRP’s data demonstrate that students are very much career focused, but equally interested in the academic aspects of college that challenge them intellectually.
Millennial Myth: Millennials associate themselves with the name “Millennial Generation.” Despite the public and media hype about the “Millennial Generation,” only 6 percent of students associated their generation with the name “Millennials.” In fact, 43 percent reported that they didn’t know or that none of the six generational names tested was the name used to describe their own generation, and as many identified themselves as Generation X or Y.
Millennial Fact: Raising a family tops the list of life objectives that are “essential” or “very important” to Millennials—even more so than their parents’ generation. Seventy-seven percent of the 272,000 students surveyed indicated that “raising a family” was an “essential” or “very important” life objective to them. In 1977, only 59 percent of students gave the same level of importance to raising a family, although this figure has remained relatively constant since the early 1990s.
Millennial Fact: College Bound Seniors welcome parental involvement in college planning. Ninety-five percent of students indicated that their parents were either “very involved” or “involved” in their college plans but, contrary to anecdotal suggestions, the students reported very little unwanted, intrusive behavior on the part of their parents. In fact, nearly 30 percent of students want more, not less, parental involvement.
