A group of incoming freshmen and their peer leader get acquainted with campus at an orientation session in June. Nearly eight out of 10 incoming freshmen reported that NAU was their first choice for college.

NAU first choice for most freshmen

Nearly eight out of 10 incoming freshmen reported that Northern Arizona University was their first choice for college and that the university's size was one of the determining factors in choosing NAU, a new survey reports.

The freshmen also said the most important reason for attending college was to learn more about things that interested them.

The university participated in a Cooperative Institutional Research Program Survey in the summer of 2006. In addition to securing responses from 2,197 first-time, full-time freshmen at NAU, the university's Office of Planning, Budget and Institutional Research took the survey a step further by obtaining data from other institutions of a similar size and caliber to compare it with NAU's respondents.

"NAU's incoming freshmen are in many aspects very similar to their peers nationwide," said Eva Hatchner, a planning and policy analyst in Planning and Institutional Research. "Some differences can be attributed to the Arizona public school system and some seem to directly reflect the regional population characteristics."

A few notable differences between NAU's incoming freshmen and the comparison groups include:

• NAU incoming freshmen are more confident in their academic ability, report higher average high school grades, expect to earn better grades in college and are more likely to receive a merit-based state scholarship or grant.
• Incoming freshmen are more likely to select their college because of the school size and its distance from home, and less likely to consider the prospects of the college graduates.
• NAU students are less consumed by their future financial and managerial aspirations and peer recognition.
• NAU students are more likely to pay for their college education with part-time jobs on campus and jobs after graduation.

The full report is available online.