We surveyed over 14,000 of this year’s incoming college freshman, the incoming Class of 2021, to find out the status of college admissions in 2017: how they’re searching, how many schools they’re applying to, and how they’re paying for college.

The College Search Process

What’s important when choosing where to apply?

Percent of Class of 2017 who consider these ‘very important’

Our respondents seem to prefer their own research tools (student reviews, net price calculators, and rankings) over person-to-person contact.

What’s important when choosing where to attend?

Percent of Class of 2020 who consider these ‘very important’

About 90% of students are focused on choosing schools that have their major, while cost is still a huge concern with 85% of our respondents.

How many colleges are students applying to, visiting, and getting accepted to?

Almost 1 in 5 students are applying to 9+ schools, while only 8% got accepted to all nine. Still, about 1 in 4 got accepted to 6 schools, making decision time tough.

Averages

Which schools are the college Class of 2017 attending? Check out our Most Popular Colleges of the Class of 2017 list to find out the favorites.

Paying for College

Do kids understand how much they’ll really need for college?

We compared the responses to “Did you fill out your FAFSA?” and “Will you be taking out loans?” to find out if kids understand their financial needs.

Although almost 100% of students filled out their FAFSA, more than a quarter of students are still unsure of whether they will need to take out loans.

How confident are students about repaying their student loans?

In fact, according to The Atlantic: “Two-thirds of the nation’s student-loan debt is held by people over age 30. The economists found that 30- and 40-somethings have the highest loan balances of all borrowers—an average of about $31,000, compared with the overall average of $26,000.”