From the most popular TV streaming services to St. Patrick’s Day, here are this week’s top college student insights.
TV Streaming
Everyone has spent more time at home over the past year, and a new survey of 690 undergraduates finds that 30% say the amount of time they spend watching TV shows and/or movies has gone way up during the pandemic. Another third (34%) of students say their screen time has increased slightly, compared to 30% who say it’s stayed the same.
An overwhelming majority (85%) of students watch Netflix, while about two-thirds (65%) watch Hulu. Half of students watch Amazon Prime (54%) and Disney+ (53%), and only about one-quarter (27%) watch HBO. However, students of color are less likely than their white peers to watch Hulu (58% vs. 70%) and Disney+ (45% vs. 59%) and more likely to watch HBO (33% vs. 23%).
Many college students are on tight budgets, and just 13% of students report paying for all of their streaming services themselves while 43% pay for at least one. Another 4 in 10 (40%) exclusively use family members’ accounts, but students of color are twice as likely as their white classmates to pay for all of their own accounts (18% vs. 8%).
While a majority of students play TV shows and/or movies during other activities, female students are more likely to report multitasking with the TV on. Nearly 3 in 10 (28%) students overall say they watch TV while studying, compared to 42% who watch it while cleaning and 33% who watch it while cooking. Female students are more likely than male students to say they watch TV while cleaning (50% vs. 30%) and twice as likely to report doing so while cooking (43% vs. 20%).
Do you pay for your streaming services, or do you use someone else’s accounts?
St. Patrick’s Day
While almost half (54%) of college students will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year, Catholic students (77%) in particular are more likely to mark the occasion. Wearing green is the most popular form of celebration among students, with 27% of students overall and 37% of Catholic students saying they’ll wear green on Wednesday.
Graduate School
In a recent survey of 950 students, 4 in 10 (41%) report plans to go to graduate school. Roughly 3 in 10 are either unsure (30%) or do not plan to pursue a higher degree (28%). Male students are more likely than female students to say they are unsure about going to graduate school (36% vs. 26%), while female students are slightly more likely to report grad school plans (43% vs. 38%).
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Methodology: All surveys were designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
