An interesting article was recently published by insidehighered.com. The article emphasizes some statistics about college freshmen. The article highlights that freshmen are claiming affordability to be a driving factor in which college they choose to attend. "The proportion of students accepted by their first-choice college but attending another institution increased from 16.5 percent in 2007 to 17.1 percent in 2008, with financial issues being the main driver in those decisions."

Now, .6% may not some like that large of an increase, but with tuition continuing to increase and private student loans becoming harder to get, students are trying to find other ways to make that "right" school affordable. The report finds they are still forced to rely on family assistance as much as they did back in 2001, but that close to 50% (an all-time high) will look to work while in school as well.

I'm interested to hear if this is/was an issue during your college search. Has the cost of college paired with a low financial aid package caused you to look elsewhere? Or have you decided to work part-time in order to pay the tuition bill?

I also found the statistics on students' political involvement to be interesting. No doubt due to the 2008 election, 35.6% of students reported "frequently discussing politics" which is the highest percentage since 1968! Personally, I think this is great, but I'd love to hear your feedback. Are you seeing this on your campus or at your high school? Are you involved with any political programs?

To read the complete article click here.