Political awareness among entering college students rose for the third year in a row, to the highest level since 1994, according to a key measure of freshman attitudes.

In a survey of 276,449 first-year students at 413 colleges and universities, 33.9 percent felt that "keeping up to date with political affairs" was a very important or essential life goal, up from 32.9 percent last year and the record low of 28.1 percent in 2000. And 20.1 percent of freshmen considered "influencing the political structure" an essential life goal, compared with 19.6 percent last year and 17.1 percent in 1999, the lowest ever in the survey, which began in 1966.

"Students are definitely becoming more interested in the political scene," says Linda Sax, an associate professor of education at the University of California at Los Angeles and director of the survey of freshmen. The shift is especially notable, she says, because students' professed interest in politics had been dropping steadily before 2000, and it remains drastically lower than it was when the survey began. "For so many years we were reporting plummeting political interest."

The survey is administered during freshman orientations or the first week of classes, and is coordinated by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. With questions on a range of topics including study habits and life goals, the survey provides a national snapshot of entering students, as well as an essential base line that participating campuses use to measure the impact of their programs.

Turning Right

The political views of freshmen shifted to the right this year, continuing a recent trend. Only 24.2 percent identified themselves as liberal this year, compared with 25.3 last year, while 21.1 percent said they were conservative, compared with 20.0 last year. About half of students, 50.3 percent, said their views were middle of the road.

"Over time we've seen a general decline in the liberal label, and it's typically been replaced by middle-of-the-road attitudes," says Ms. Sax.

One thing most college students agreed on was the importance of grades.

The majority of freshmen, 59.4 percent, said they expected to get at least a B average in college, roughly the same as last year's all-time high of 60.2 percent. That was about twice as high as in 1971, the year the question was first asked, when only 26.7 percent expected to do that well academically.

"Grade inflation just doesn't seem to stop," says Ms. Sax.

Financial Pinch

About a third of freshmen surveyed, 33.6 percent, said they chose their college because they were offered financial aid, down just slightly from last year's figure of 35.9. Nearly half of freshmen, 47 percent, said there was a "very good chance" they would work to help pay for college, about the same as last year's record high of 47.1 percent.

Race was a significant factor in whether a student was concerned about college costs. While 13 percent of all students surveyed said they had major concerns about paying for college, 22.9 percent of Latinos and 23.2 percent of African-Americans did.

The only new question on the survey this year asked if and when students visited their colleges before enrolling. Most, 57.9 percent, visited campuses before they applied; 12 percent visited after they applied but before hearing a decision; and 15.1 percent visited after they were accepted but before deciding. Fifteen percent chose their colleges sight unseen -- setting foot on campus only after accepting the college's offer of admission.

Randy Giarraputo, director of college counseling at Metairie Park Country Day School and chairman of the admissions-practices committee for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, says that although ideally every applicant would visit a campus, he thought that even more students would have been forced to choose a college before visiting.

"We always encourage individuals to visit the school before they put down their money," he says. "But there are a lot of families who cannot afford those trips."

Drinking and smoking were down among freshmen, reaching the lowest levels in the survey's history. When it came to drinking beer, only 44.8 percent said they partook frequently or occasionally, compared with 46.5 percent last year. Only 6.3 percent of freshmen said they smoked cigarettes frequently. The number of hours spent partying was also down, with 24.1 percent partying six or more hours a week, compared with 25.1 last year.

"Clearly, students have received the message of either having more responsible drinking habits or abstaining altogether," says Ms. Sax, noting that rates of smoking and drinking have declined for the past five years.

But what does it all mean? Fewer students these days bother to ask, according to the survey.

Developing a meaningful philosophy of life has declined as a life goal of college students. Only 39.3 percent listed that as an essential or very important goal this year.

"I'm not sure how students today interpret this item, 'meaningful philosophy of life,'" says Ms. Sax. In the 1970s, Ms. Sax says, college was a time for focusing on developing a philosophy of life, whereas now, "there's a focus not necessarily on what is my meaning, but more on how do I get on to the next level.

"That does not necessarily suggest that this generation is never going to care about meaning and purpose."