Freshmen Politics. The Higher Education Research Institute of the University of California, Los Angeles, publishes information on characteristics of incoming college freshmen in The American Freshman. In 2000, 27.7% of incoming freshmen characterized their political views as liberal, 51.9% as moderate, and 20.4% as conservative. For this year, a random sample of 500 incoming college freshmen yielded the following frequency distribution for political views.

Political view Frequency Liberal 147 Moderate 237 Conservative 116