Three metrics were statistically different between college students and grads: “Difficulty,” “Stress,” and “Usefulness”. College students had average ratings that were not only above the benchmark, but also above those of grads.

In other words, if you are in college, you tend to think your experience is more difficult, stressful, and useful than someone who has graduated.

Why?



Hypothesis 1: College has become harder.

One possible explanation is that the college experience has actually changed over time. Current students think that college is more difficult, stressful, and useful because college is more difficult, stressful, and useful.

This effect was controlled for in the survey because everyone gave ratings relative to the “typical college experience”. If college has gotten more challenging over time, people’s definition of a “typical college experience” would have adapted as well. So while this effect is possible, it would not have caused the ratings difference between students and grads.

Hypothesis 2: Changing College Memories

Another possible explanation is that people’s memories about college change. Our memories are about as reliable as a Senior attending a 9AM class. Studies have been shown that our memories change every time we recall an event so perhaps stressful memories, such as that Biology final junior year, have softened over time and altered our perceptions about our college experience.

This hypothesis is difficult to perfectly test, but if changing memories have significantly affected the ratings of college grads, you might expect different ratings depending on when they graduated.

I separated college grads into two groups – very recent graduates (graduated 5 or less years ago) and older graduates (graduated 10 or more years ago). I then compared their ratings.

As it turns out, none of the five metrics were statistically different. So although our memories are being distorted, it’s not the primary driver behind the ratings difference.

Hypothesis 3: Changing Perspectives

The third possibility is that people’s perspective about college change after graduation. It’s not the college memories that morph, but how we judge those memories.

Most college students have little to no experience working a full-time job, paying bills, or raising a family. Because of this, every project, assignment, and exam during college seems like a daunting task.

Upon graduation, grads realize college is easy compared to “real life”. As a result, college grads tend to view college as less stressful, difficult, and useful because their standards have been raised for what those dimensions mean.

One indicator supporting this hypothesis is that people who graduated within the last three years gave college a significantly lower “Difficulty” rating than current students (6.18 vs. 4.95). Three years is not enough time for the college experience to dramatically change and it is unlikely that peoples’ memories would have been significantly distorted either. This suggests that a few years out in the real world has affected people’s definition of what “Difficult” really means.

College was as enjoyable as you remember it, and also worth that annual $40,000 price tag.

College students and college grads had two ratings that were similar – enjoyableness and worthwhileness. How much we think we enjoyed college is fairly close to how much we actually enjoyed college. Asher Roth famously said “I Love College” and apparently, you never forget it.

Although usefulness went down once people graduated, worthwhileness did not. In fact, “Worthwhile” had the highest scores relative to the other metrics for both students and grads. Apparently, whether you will use what you learned in Shakespearian Philosophy 101 doesn’t affect whether you think college is worthwhile.



Different Ratings for Different Folks