COMBO II: Princeton Stereotypes All Completely True

Stereotypes tend to be nasty conjectures, and Princeton has plenty of them. But recently released survey results from the USG seem to indicate that many campus stereotypes are more or less true. The COMBO II survey was administered in spring 2009 (the first COMBO was administered in 2007), an anonymous survey that looks at the effects and relationship of family income, high school type, eating club membership, ethnicity, happiness, and academic major choices.A lot of the findings (analyzed by ORF 245 and James Coan '09) are quite interesting and even troubling. For the most part, they just confirm everything we've always suspected. A summary of the survey findings (with graphs!):

• Income and ethnicity strongly impact which dining option students choose
  • Wealthier students and white students are more likely to join an eating club
  • White students tend to be from wealthier families than non-white students

• Choosing to bicker:
  • In both 2007 and 2009 surveys, income level significantly affected students' decision to bicker, while ethnicity did not significantly affect decision to bicker
  • In both years, however, ethnicity affected probability of getting into a bicker club, while income level did not have much effect on probability of getting into a bicker club. According to the 2007 survey, overall bicker acceptance rate was 60%, but 25% for Asian students.

• • Effects of income and ethnicity on deciding to bicker and probability of getting in may be strongly influenced by prior associations such like Greek organizations and varsity athletic teams
    • For instance, income had strong effect on Greek membership:

• Asians were much more likely to be engineering majors:

• Engineering students were very likely to choose their majors for future financial prospects:

• Econ/ORFE majors were even more likely to choose their majors for future financial prospects. The report said, "The p-value was so low that it should be expressed as 0.":

• The report found that "the students in the two groups most likely to say they chose the major for financial gain (engineering and social sciences) are least likely to say they chose it because of academic passion, and the opposite was true for students majoring in the humanities."

• Student Happiness:
  • White students were much more likely to say they were “very happy” than non-white students at every income level
  • Black students in particular were much more likely to be unhappy than non-black students, including other ethnic minority groups
    • Adjusting for income, grade (i.e. freshman, senior) of student, and family's education background failed to explain happiness disparity between black and non-black students

For more information, you can download the three reports from here.(image source: http://usg.princeton.edu/, James Coan '09, Analysis of Princetonian Attitudes Committee)