In their first year on campus, students of color and students from lower income households are less likely to be satisfied with their college experience. And a third feel as though they’ve been discriminated against because of their identities, according to a new EAB report.
Michael Koppenheffer
The report draws on responses to EAB’s 2024 First-Year Experience Survey, which asked almost 13,000 2023 high school graduates a series of questions related to overall college student perspectives, experiences, and satisfaction.
Despite college satisfaction among students now recovering to pre-pandemic rates – 84% expressed satisfaction in 2024 compared to 68% in 2020 – students of various demographics reported differing levels of satisfaction, according to the report.
Students who identified as white were most likely to express satisfaction with their college experience at 86%, the 2024 survey revealed. Hispanic and Latine students (84%) and Asian students (83%) were close behind, but a noticeable decrease was observed for Black students (79%).
College satisfaction also only decreased as household income did. Students coming from households making more than $120,000 annually were more likely to be satisfied with their college experience (87%) than those from households making $60,000 to $120,000 (85%) and households with incomes of less than $60,000 (82%).
Approximately one in three of the surveyed college first-years reported feeling targeted, criticized, or excluded due to their identity, with some specific identities being subject to these kinds of negative experiences more often than others.
