Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archives
    • By Issue
    • By Article
    • By PDF (2008-14)
    • By PDF (1985-97)
    • All Articles
  • Sections
    • Current Research
    • Findings & Footnotes
    • On/File
  • Google Search
You are here: Home / Archive / Class of 2001 — service-oriented, moderately religious

Class of 2001 — service-oriented, moderately religious

March 1, 1998 by Richard Cimino

Print-friendly

A recent survey of students from the first college graduating class of the new millennium has found this class of 2001 is learning-oriented, service-motivated, and fairly religious.

The survey, which was conducted by Lou Harris and Associates, found that these students, now in their freshman year, are conventional in its domestic interests,  looks forward to marriage (96 percent by age 26) and children (91 percent). The class expresses a desire to do work that helps others (65 percent).  That desire could come from a religious orientation. Nearly nine out of ten class members believe in God (89 percent), and 74 percent believe in life after death, according to a  report from Sightings (Feb. 23), the computer newsletter of the Public Religion Project.

Even if the class is motivated by religious interests, none of them listed religion as a future profession. Among class members who have decided on a college major,  business tops the list, followed by the natural sciences, engineering, psychology, and sociology.  Medicine is the top career choice for the class. Other interests of  this class include: preserving the environment; learning as a lifelong priority, and staying physically fit. Only 3 percent feel that “money buys happiness.”

When asked how they spend their time in a typical week (in hours), there is no reference to religious activities, even though to a question regarding church attendance, more than half indicate that they attend religious services, while 32% say they never attend services.

Print-friendly

Filed Under: Archive

Also in this issue

  • On/File: March 1998
  • Findings & Footnotes: March 1998
  • Middle class Indians religious in their own fashion
  • A Dutch Catholic revival?
  • Restrictions unifying Russian evangelicals?
  • Solutions to Christian Science ills pose new problems
  • Protestant seminaries face major turmoil
  • Litigation discouraging clergy counseling
  • The religious right’s internal crisis
  • UCC Evangelicals forging a post-denominational identity?
  • A ‘nascent religious revival’ on campus?
  • Eastern Orthodoxy in US — fragmented or just American?

Search the Site

Download the first issue of RELIGION WATCH (1980)

Download the first issue of RELIGION WATCH (1980)

Click on the image for downloading

© 2016-2023 Richard Cimino / Religioscope
·News Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress