College freshmen are discussing politics more than they have in 40 years. A record proportion--23.9 percent--call themselves conservative, and not since 1975 have there been as many liberals, at 28.4 percent. This article reports on the findings coming from the annual national survey of freshmen conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. The survey is a widely cited source of data on college demographics and attitudinal trends. With the findings, many colleges may discover they were not their students' first choice. One-third of freshmen surveyed did not attend their first-choice institution. For many students, the reasons were financial. Twenty percent of those attending their second-choice college said they could not afford their first choice. In fact, a majority of freshmen--64.1 percent--said they were concerned about their ability to pay for college. More of them than in previous years planned to have part- or full-time jobs while earning their degrees.