Do students factor sustainability into their college decision?
I’m not going to lie — sustainability efforts were not the first thing on my mind when I was thinking about which college to go to three years ago. I guess I might have thought “Oh, cool,” had something about sustainability been mentioned during a tour, but it definitely was not a deciding factor for me. Obviously, that has changed since I’ve been in college. While before it rarely crossed my mind, it is a topic that is brought up in a variety of my classes as well as just around campus in general. Sustainability is no longer something I can ignore.
More and more young people are turning their attention toward making the planet a better place, and this begs the question: does sustainability matter to kids when they are looking at colleges? Julian Dautremont-Smith addresses this question in his article “How do campus sustainability initiatives affect college admissions?” In the article, Dautremont-Smith examines multiple surveys concerning the matter to provide a simple and precise answer.
Before sustainability became a highly recognized effort within our society, it did not matter much to students, which Dautremont-Smith discusses. I do not think it was a top priority at many colleges either, unless they were agricultural-based. However, things began to change. Sustainability became more popular within the media, and people began to take notice.
Dautremont-Smith describes this shift by saying “Many campuses reported that prospective students and their parents were asking questions about campus sustainability with increasing frequency, but there was minimal data on either the breadth or the depth of interest in sustainability among prospective students.” This prompted studies. In a 2008 survey of 240,580 first year, full time college students, “45.3% said that “adopting ‘green’ practices to protect the environment” is “essential” or “very important” to them.” Clearly, this shows that most students take campus sustainability initiatives into consideration when choosing their school. The article mentions this survey as well as two similar studies that suggest a positive correlation between sustainability and effects on admissions.
While the studies that Dautremont-Smith mentions support his case that sustainability initiatives affect college admissions, I believe that the “how” at the beginning of the article should be removed. He does not really discuss how they affect admissions, simply whether or not they do. If he were attempting to discuss how, I think that he should have included more studies that may have shown more change over time. For example, maybe he could have noted a particular university that may have shown an increase in applicants after they made notable advances in sustainability.
Dautremont-Smith could have also addressed why students cared about sustainability and if that affected their decision to attend the college they ended up at. I think this could have made the article more interesting, but he does also note that there are not many studies on the topic yet in the first place so he might not have had much to work with.
“How do campus sustainability initiatives affect college admissions?” was published in 2009. I think that if it were researched again today, a great increase would be shown in students who choose their college based on sustainability efforts. People are realizing just how important these efforts can be to the future of the planet, and universities are stepping up their sustainability game in response.
