Thirty-four percent of college freshmen say they finished high school with an A average compared with 32.4 percent in 1998 and 12.5 percent in 1969, according to a fall 1999 survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA's School of Education and Information Studies. Only 12 percent of freshman report a C average compared with 13.4 percent in 1998 and 32.5 percent in 1969. A record-low 31.5 percent of freshmen say they spent six or more hours a week studying or doing homework in their last year of high school, compared with 32.9 percent in 1998 and 43.7 percent when the question was first asked in 1987. Drinking beer and smoking cigarettes appear to be losing popularity with students. That's down from 51.6 percent in 1998 and a high of 75.2 percent in 1981.
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