The three state-supported universities are starting to get a clearer picture of why freshmen students leave school after their first year. On average about 18-percent of freshmen leave school after their first year, but until a recent survey, the universities never asked detailed questions about why they left. Diana Gonzalez of the Board of Regents staff says the survey included students who weren’t booted out because of low grades. She says three choices came out among the 30 options presented to students to explain why they left school. She says increases in tuition was the top reason, transferring to a cheaper school was second, and “did not achieve a feeling of belonging” was the third. Gonzalez says the survey is a starting point for the schools.She says based on the number of responses, the information should only be used with other data. Regents president Owen Newlin says it will take more surveys to build a database they can use in figuring out what actions to take to keep students in school.Gonzalez says the reasons given in the survey of Iowa schools mirrored many of the surveys done at other institutions.