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According to a recent survey [PDF file] conducted by ORC International on behalf of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, 56 percent of teens said big name private universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Northwestern, offer better preparation for the workforce than state schools do. In comparison, only 34 percent of adults agreed with that statement.

"Bleak job reports are no doubt a cause for concern among young people as they think about their post-college years, an issue that is likely contributing to these attitudes," Stuart Rubinstein, managing director of online engagement at TD Ameritrade, Inc., said in a statement. "But the silver lining among teens is the eagerness to further their education, and their instincts to start saving now."

Fully 91 percent of teens surveyed are enrolled or plan to enroll in college, and 80 percent say a college education is essential to future success.

Ninety-three percent of surveyed teens receive money from allowances, gifts or earnings, and 75 percent say they put some of that money away in savings. Among teen savers, 68 percent are saving a portion of their own money to pay for college, and 48 percent say their parents regularly put aside money to pay for their college tuition. Eight-seven percent of today's teens expect to pay for some or all of their college tuition.

That's a significant shift from the previous generation. Seventy-two percent of adults surveyed said they had attended a higher education program, and 60 percent said they thought a college education was essential to future success when they were teens. Only 26 percent of adults surveyed said their parents had saved money for their college education when they were teens.

Sixty percent of today's teens expect to use scholarships and/or grants to help pay for their college tuition, while only 37 percent of adults said they had done so when they were in college. Nineteen percent of adults completely agree that education expenses were their parents' or guardians' responsibility when they were teens, while only 8 percent of teens today agree with that statement.

The telephone survey of 691 adults ages 20 to 59 and 304 teenagers age 14 to 19 was conducted from May 19 to 23, 2011.

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