Dive Brief:
- Vibeffect’s 2015 College Optimizer Index finds that one in five college students can be considered "high thrivers" across three dimensions studied: academic, social, and personal.
- Since last year, the portion of students thriving in the social realm dropped the most, from 74.1% to 72.7%.
- White and Latino students thrive the “highest,” according to the survey results, followed by African-Americans and Asians.
Dive Insight:
Vibeffect has been interviewing college students for its College Optimizer Index since 2013. It aims to present a new way to judge colleges beyond admissions statistics and financial aid awards. For its 2015 study, researchers reached 3,600 households, talking to students from 1,000 four-year colleges and universities. It found low-income, first-generation, and community college transfer students to be more likely to be high-thrivers than the general population.
It is important for colleges and universities to be sensitive to their unique student populations when considering policy initiatives but surveys like this can provide some insight about general student characteristics across higher education.