In a trend largely motivated by the Great Recession, most incoming college freshmen now say their primary reason for going to college is to be able to get a better job, according to a survey by higher education researchers at UCLA. The trend represents a radical departure from pre-recession years, when most incoming freshmen indicated that their primary reason for going to college was to learn more about things of interest. Specifically, in 2006, before the current recession, the report states, 76.8% of incoming freshmen indicated that learning about things that interested them was “a very important” reason to go to college, whereas only 70.4% indicated the same for getting a better job. Now, 85.9% say getting a job is very important, whereas 82.9% said learning more about things of interest was very important.