Students

This study compares the educational aspirations of college freshmen students in public and private two-year colleges around the nation. Surveying a sample of over 13,000 first-time, full-time students from a national database elicited the following results: about half of students at public and private two year colleges aspired to obtain the baccalaureate degree; 24.7 % of students at the public two-year colleges aspired toward the master's degree compared with 27.9 % at private two-year colleges; and almost 10 % of public and 14 % of private two-year college students indicated that they aspire to obtain a doctorate. The study also examined the extent to which academic aspiration is influenced by factors such as background characteristics, high school experiences, and other affective measures. For each of the two groups, being female, father's education, mother's education, and parental income revealed positive associations with high aspirations for students at public and private two-year colleges. Additionally, younger students were more likely than older students to have higher academic aspirations. High school experiences such as years of mathematics, foreign language, and biological science, high self-ratings of academic ability, drive to achieve, and intellectual self-confidence were significant variables. (Contains 34 references.) (JA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document