- 69% of college students say having an occupation that contributes to society is “extremely” or “very” important to them
- 40% say truck drivers contribute “a lot” to the well being of society vs. 15% who say the same of politicians.
- 61% of white students vs. 45% of black or African-American students say members of law enforcement contribute “a lot” to society.
One of the most stressful parts of college is deciding what profession you want to pursue after graduation. Most students (69 percent) say having an occupation that contributes to society is “extremely” or “very” important to them, but many jobs don’t measure up when it comes to how much students think they contribute to the well-being of society.
A recent College Pulse poll, conducted among 20,116 students currently attending four-year colleges or universities across the United States, asked how much students think different professions contribute to society’s well-being. Those who responded had the option to choose “a lot,” “some,” “not very much,” “nothing at all,” or “don’t know” for each. The results show that students think highly of medical doctors and engineers, but not so much politicians and entrepreneurs.
How Your Industry Measures Up
College students believe truck drivers contribute more to society’s well-being than politicians, journalists, entrepreneurs, or people working in financial services. Politicians and consultants get an especially bad rap, ranking the lowest among all 16 occupations included.
“Fresh food around the country wouldn’t be possible without these boys,” a student from the University of Colorado, Boulder says of truck drivers. Another student from the University of Texas at El Paso adds that their peers wouldn’t have iPhones or Samsungs “if it weren’t for truckers.”
College students overall put the most faith in medical doctors, engineers, and teachers. Just 3 percent say doctors and engineers contribute “not very much” or “nothing at all,” and 4 percent say the same for teachers. Meanwhile, 47 percent of students say politicians contribute “not very much” or “nothing at all.”
“Politicians contribute to their own well-being through the stuffing of their pockets,” a student from Oklahoma State University says.
Who Ranks Your Industry The Highest
The College Pulse team used College Pulse Insights — the company’s predictive intelligence and statistical analysis platform — to correlate this survey’s questions with the more than 15,000 variables in its database. It uncovered other interesting relationships, including a strong correlation between a university’s U.S. News & World Report ranking and the student body’s opinion of the financial services industry. Students from the top 50 universities are twice as likely as other students to say people who work in financial services contribute “not very much” or “nothing at all” to society.
Men and women’s feelings diverge slightly, and the gender divide is particularly wide when it comes to entrepreneurs — 40 percent of men believe entrepreneurs contribute “a lot” to society’s well-being, compared to 30 percent of women. More women than men think teachers contribute “a lot” (84 percent vs. 78 percent).
More non-binary students think artists contribute “a lot” to society, compared to students overall (45 percent vs. 24 percent). The same is true of journalists (36 percent vs. 26 percent).
Race also plays a role in how students perceive different industries. The largest racial gap exists for members of law enforcement: 61 percent of white students believe members of law enforcement contribute “a lot” to society’s well-being, compared to 45 percent of black or African-American students. Native Hawaiian students are more likely than students overall to think artists contribute “a lot” to society’s well-being (41 percent vs. 24 percent). And black or African-American students are less likely than students overall to think scientists contribute “a lot” (67 percent vs. 74 percent).
College Pulse Insights also shows that students who believe it’s “extremely” important to find a profession that contributes to the well-being of society are significantly more likely to think religious leaders, politicians, and entrepreneurs contribute “a lot.”
However, the majority of students think doctors, engineers, teachers, and scientists contribute far more.
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Methodology: This poll was designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of 20,116 full-time and part-time students attending four-year colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel. To reduce the effects of any non-response bias, a post-stratification adjustment was applied based on demographic distributions from the 2017 Current Population Survey (CPS). The post-stratification weight rebalanced the sample based on the following benchmarks: age, race and ethnicity, and gender. The sample weighting was accomplished using an iterative proportional fitting (IFP) process that simultaneously balances the distributions of all variables. Weights were trimmed to prevent individual interviews from having too much influence on the final results.
About College Pulse: College Pulse is a leading online survey and analytics company dedicated to understanding the attitudes, preferences, and behaviors of today’s college students. College Pulse offers custom data-driven marketing and research solutions, utilizing its unique American College Student Panel and online analytics platform which provides insight to brands, companies, and organizations. College Pulse’s platform includes 240,000 undergraduate college student respondents from more than 800 four-year colleges and universities in all 50 states. To learn more about College Pulse, please contact Jake@collegepulse.com.
