Studies of the political orientations of 1, 055 college students revealed that the plurality of students in an eastern, big-city, private university was liberal, whereas in a state-supported, southern college, the plurality was conservative. Orientations were independent of the student' s region of origin, and the trends were much more pronounced in seniors than in beginning students. Which of the following hypotheses is best supported by the observations stated above? ['The political orientations of college seniors depend significantly on experiences they have had while in college.', 'College students tend to become more conservative politically as they become older and are confronted with pressures for financial success.', 'The political orientations of college students are more similar to the political orientations of their parents when the students start college than when the students are seniors.', "Whether their college is state-supported or private is the determining factor in college students' political orientations."]