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Appendixes: Appendix A, Appendix B

Student career patterns have changed over the last 75 years. In the 1930s students continued to move from families engaged in business and trade to professional careers. Teaching was the most popular choice (40 percent) for graduating seniors, while only 20 percent indicated a preference for business and 6 percent for the ministry. Business and banking, however, became more attractive to male graduates beginning around 1910, a trend that accelerated after World War II. In 1962, about one-third of the alumni who were gainfully employed reported careers in business and industry.

After World War II the GI Bill temporarily maintained opportunities for young men of varied social backgrounds to obtain an education at DePauw. The Great Depression had reduced the impact of the Rector Scholarships, however, and there were few changes in the residence or religious preferences of DePauw students during the 1940s and 1950s.

Other long-term developments were helping to stabilize the social composition of students and the campus culture at DePauw. More and more students came from similar social backgrounds and had increasingly predictable academic patterns. The age range of the student body had narrowed considerably by the early 20th century. The Academy, successor to the preparatory department, closed, and a minimum age of 16 was established for admission as college freshmen.

After 1915 all students admitted were high school graduates who came to DePauw with similar educational experiences. The closing of the professional schools also eliminated most older students from the campus. Accordingly, the student body became increasingly concentrated in the 18 to 22 year range.

Family backgrounds of the students became more homogeneous. By the 1930s, over 70 percent of DePauw students' fathers were professionals or businessmen. Recent students were also more likely to have college-educated parents, many of whom had attended DePauw. Today about one-fourth of the entering freshmen have some family ties to the university.

The steady rise in tuition, which has increased more than 20-fold from $350 in 1945 to $8200 in 1986, along with a quintupling of living expenses in the same period-not quite matched by gains in scholarship and loan funds-has meant that many students today come from more affluent families and are financially dependent upon their parents. For these young men and women the "DePauw experience" has become a continuation of, rather than a departure from, family tradition.

Contributing to the growing homogenity of the student body was the fact that a larger proportion of the student body remained on campus for four years. In the 1920s only about 40 percent of the entering freshmen stayed until graduation; this became 55 percent by the end of World War II and reached 70 percent in the 1980s. By the early 20th century DePauw had become a predominantly residential campus, with virtually all freshman women and unaffiliated students in university dormitories and fraternity and sorority members living in nearby chapter houses.

Approximately three-fourths of the student body were affiliated with national fraternities and sororities, a proportion that has remained remarkably steady down to the present. Peer culture and the campus social environment, including Greek living units, athletics, and students activities of all kinds, increasingly shape the undergraduate experience as much as does the classroom.

The most important changes in the last two decades have been in students' geographic origins and religious preferences. Although the proportion of Hoosiers has risen from 35 percent in 1961 to 42 percent in 1986, partly because of the availability of Indiana state scholarships, DePauw students in general come today from a broader geographic base than ever. For example, 24 percent are from midwestern states outside of Indiana and Illinois and 16 percent from states outside the midwest.

Foreign students comprise only 1.4 percent of the population, but this is a higher proportion than any other period. Even more dramatic is the decline in students claiming a Methodist religious preference, from 36 percent in 1961 to under 20 percent in 1986. There has also been a significant drop in the proportion of Presbyterians and Congregationalists. On the other hand Roman Catholics students have increased from only seven percent in 1961 to slightly more than 22 percent today, making them the largest single religious group in the student body. Since most of them share similar backgrounds with their Protestant counterparts, it seems likely that this newest wave of students will enhance rather than transform the dominant contours of campus life and social organization at DePauw.

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Appendixes: Appendix A, Appendix B