The percentage of students who believe that there is a very good chance they will earn at least a B average in college rose from 52 percent in 1999 to 58 percent in 2000. In 1971, only 26.7 percent of students had expectations that high. UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute has been conducting this national survey of freshman attitudes and plans for the future for 35 years. This year's cohort included 404,667 full-time students at 717 institutions. Female students tend to have less confidence in their computer abilities than male students do, which translates into fewer women going into computer-related fields as a career.
Females also spend less time than males spend in chat rooms and playing computer games.
Only 28.1 percent say they are inclined to keep up with political affairs. This compares with 60.3 percent in 1966, for example. Today's young adults are interested in being affluent, but are not avid to achieve status, recognition or positions of authority in their chosen career fields. The annual AFT Higher Education National Issues Conference is being held in San Francisco, April 20-22. Featured speakers include AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and Elaine Bernard, executive director of the Harvard University trade union program.