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September 10, 2012
Today's Students: Same as Always, but More So
By Arthur Levine and Diane Dean
There is a popular expression in Thailand: "same same, but different." It means just about anything the user wants it to mean. In this case, it's a good description of today's undergraduates. After conducting a four-year study of college students, we found them similar to their predecessors of the past 20 years, but also unique in ways that have important implications for higher education.
What is familiar is that current undergraduates are little involved in campus life, disenchanted with politics and government, more issue-oriented than ideological, engaged in community service, utilitarian in their goals for college, weak academically, frequenters of psychological-counseling services, eager consumers, and partial to sex and alcohol. Just more so, in each category, than their predecessors.