A growing number of college freshmen are having a hard time to continue their studies on university campuses due to the worsening economic crisis, according to a new survey.
For lack of funds, more and more college freshmen are looking for part-time jobs, scrounging for financial aid and turning down admission offers from schools that were their dream campuses, said the survey conducted by researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
According to the UCLA's 43rd annual "American Freshman" survey published by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, 43 per cent of students viewed financial aid as very important or essential to their choice of a college.
That figure was up from 39.7 per cent last year and was the highest in the 36 years the question has been asked, said the survey, the nation's oldest and most comprehensive assessment of student attitudes.
The survey found that a record number of students, more than 49 per cent, said they would need a job this year to help pay expenses, up from 47 per cent the previous year. And 8.5 per cent of students said their ultimate choice of college was strongly affected by not being offered financial aid by their first-choice campus, the highest such response since the question was first asked 24 years ago.
"When you've got these economically tough times, students are forced to see the impact of that," said John H. Pryor, Managing Director of UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, which conducts the survey.
This year's report was based on responses from 240,580 freshmen at 340 four-year colleges and universities.