In order to obtain some indication of the reasons for attending the University, the graduates were given a list of nine factors from which they could designate the primary reason for attending UConn. While the level of tuition and fees has always been reported as the top reason for attending the University, the percentage of respondents identifying this factor as the major reason for attending has declined consistently since 1989, when 36.1 percent of respondents identified this factor. Reasons for attending vary importantly by school. Tuition was most important to Liberal Arts, Business, Engineering and Family Studies. Variety and quality of programs is the most important reason only for engineering students.
Location is most important reason for continuing education students.
The survey also asked graduates about the importance of a range of potential benefits of collegiate education, and whether they believed that UConn provided these benefits for them. Although the two questions are not exactly the same, the results reveal that students would have liked their collegiate experience to provide more of all the mentioned types of benefits. That said, UConn met students' expectations better in some areas than others. Recommending UConn also varied from school to school, as did the percent of graduates who believed in retrospect that they should have attended UConn because of the educational programs. This may reflect trends in graduates' experiences of the labor market, cultural trends among young people, or trends at the University itself.