Princeton Undergraduate Student Government

The Analysis of Princetonian Attitudes Committee (APAC) announces the release of three papers with additional results from the COMBO I and COMBO II surveys given in May 2007 and April 2009. These surveys were designed to test the impact of background on the Princeton experience. The papers

1. Compare dining options in 2007 and 2009;
2. Look at happiness in both years; and
   
3. Take a closer look at the bicker process and choosing a major, focusing primarily on the COMBO I survey.

The newly released analyses primarily focus on the impact of self-reported ethnicity and parental income on these aspects of student life, both of which are widely used demographic variables. A previous analysis of the COMBO I survey released in October 2008 looked at the impact of self-reported social class. Only the aggregate data from COMBO II had been previously released.
The major findings from the three new reports are as follows:

Background and Dining Options: Changes between 2007 and 2009

• Keeping other factors constant, being white and having higher parental income both increased the likelihood of being in an eating club. But in percentage terms, sign-in clubs showed relatively small income and ethnicity differences.
• The 2009 survey did suggest that the income disparity of dining options has weakened since 2007, a possible impact of eating club financial aid and the four-year colleges. Still, income differences using 2009 data were quite large: keeping white and non-white students separate, those from the highest income category were still about twice as likely to be in a bicker club and half as likely as students from the lowest-income families to not be in a club at all.
• The effect of income has shrunk because lower-income students are staying put or leaving eating clubs in smaller numbers than students from higher-income families. A greater proportion of students have chosen not to join an eating club since 2007.
• About 55% of white students in the surveys came from families making over $150,000/year compared with about 15% from families making under $75,000/year; among non-white students (American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, and Multiethnic), about 1/3 were in each category.

Happiness in 2007 and 2009

• The happiness question analyzed differed between the two years, although the results were broadly similar. White students and those of higher incomes generally reported more frequent or greater happiness, although only some differences were statistically significant. In 2009, the most significant difference was that white students were much more likely to say they were "very happy" than non-white students at the same income levels.
• In both surveys, black students stood out as being less happy than their peers. Considering fewer than 100 black students took the survey each time, this finding is not absolutely definitive, but it is strongly suggestive that there is some gap in well-being. Some of the differences were quite large; compared with white students, black students in 2009 were about ¼ as likely to say they were "very happy" and almost twice as likely to say they were "not too happy." Using 2009 data, differences in the income, grade of the student, and family experience with education appear to explain at most a small part of why black students reported lower happiness. Black students seem to get less enjoyment from their classes and academic work, which may provide some clues.
• Students in 2009 who reported they were "not too happy" seem to have been more isolated than the rest of the student body, as a larger percentage reported social isolation and problems with friends and fewer reported enjoyment of extracurricular activities.
• In both years, seniors reported being the happiest followed by freshmen, sophomores and then finally juniors, who were the least happy. The timing with theses and JPs likely influenced the finding.

Effect of Background on Bicker and Major Choices

• In both COMBO I and II, while income strongly influenced the choice to bicker, ethnicity seemed to be more important in terms of the probability of getting into a bicker club. White students who bickered were more likely to report being in bicker clubs. However, part or all of this ethnicity effect may have been due to other factors: 1) white students in 2007 were more likely to have attended private schools and those in bicker clubs were generally less likely to have attended public schools even keeping ethnic and income categories constant; and 2) certain extracurricular activities that seem to encourage and give an advantage in the bicker process like fraternities and sororities already have more white students and those from wealthier backgrounds.
• Somewhat surprisingly, attending a public school and income were almost completely unrelated in 2007. Only students with parental incomes over $500,000/year were more likely to have attended private schools.
• In COMBO I, higher income was associated with a greater likelihood of majoring in the social sciences (especially the biggest three majors of Economics, History, and Politics), slightly negatively associated with engineering and the natural sciences, and relatively unrelated to the humanities. Asian/Pacific Islander students were more likely to major in engineering and pick a major based on the likelihood of getting into graduate/professional school and less likely to major in the humanities.
• In 2007, about half of engineering students reported that at least part of their reason for choosing their major was expected financial prospects compared with a quarter of social science majors and less than 10% of humanities majors. About 2/3 of those majoring in ORFE or Economics reported this motivation. However, the vast majority of students indicated that academic passion (including 2/3 of ORFE and Economics majors) influenced them.

The data is available below for students wishing to further analyze them for a JP, senior thesis or statistical project.

Download the "Eating Club Changes" document
Download the "Effect of Background on Bicker and Academics Report" document
Download the "Happiness Between 2007 and 2009" document

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please e-mail James Coan.