But in part because they have more options, out-of-state students are often slower to commit, and the months ahead will determine whether come autumn they constitute 36% of the freshmen class at the main campus at University Park, as they did last autumn.

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At the University at Illinois, 13% of this year's freshmen are foreign students.

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Another poll, by the University of California at Los Angeles, found that 45% of freshmen supported an increase in military spending, more than double the figure in 1992.

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In one study involving African-American and white college freshmen in a predominantly white university, the intervention, delivered in the first year of college, changed the trajectory of minority students' achievement by steadily improving their grades all the way through senior year.

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Others point out that registration figures for the University of California as a whole, despite the ban on preferences, show 50 more black freshmen this year than last, and 68 more Latinos.

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