Snapshot of First Year Survey results for Class of 2018
Snapshot of First Year Survey results for Class of 2018
MIT recently administered the annual First Year Survey to members of the class of 2018. The survey aims to gain a better insight into the class’s “demographic characteristics, expectations of the college experience, secondary school experiences, degree goals and career plans, college finances, attitudes, values, and life goals, and reasons for attending college,” according the survey’s description provided by MIT Institutional Research (IR).
This year’s survey asked students to rate the importance of various aspects of their personal, academic, and professional lives, among other things.
Notably, most students ranked “contributing to science and innovation” as being of high importance among various future goals, with about 59 percent of students ranking it as “Essential.” Students ranked “Participating in politics or community affairs” and “participating in religious activities” as much less important. The former was “Essential” to just 5.5 percent of respondents, while the latter was ranked “not important at all” by a majority of the students surveyed.
—William Navarre