Cost Is Most Important Factor In Attending College

It's an eye-opening survey. UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute found that for the first time in nearly 40 years, college freshmen attending their first choice school dropped to the lowest level since the mid-1970's.

Cost and the availability of financial aid were the most influential factors in deciding where to enroll. A record 46 percent of students said that cost was the most important factor in where they ended up going to college, compared with only 31 percent nine years ago.

A business career topped the path most college freshmen chose, followed by 10 percent doctors; five percent classroom teachers; four percent actors, artists and musicians; and three percent lawyers and judges.

Was cost an important part of where you chose to attend college?