College Accession Research: New Variables in an Old Equation

ABSTRACT With something of a sort of lagged effects of demographic shifts and decline in Federal Funds, Enrollment Planning Research that was once a nonsubject on most American campuses has reached a status of a “thoughtware” for the institutions of higher learning. In descriptive terms Enrollment research has become a growth industry in American higher education sector. Research surveys are on the rise each day that make claims to have discovered critical variables used by the students in their choice process for the colleges. Counterclaims of still new variables in the old equation are equally abundant in student's attitudinal and motivational studies. The author has joined this bandwagon in polling a sample of students and asking them to reveal their inner Whys about their colleges and universities. The uniqueness of this survey is that the questionnaire itself was designed by the students and it does contain some provocative variables important to students which are generally omitted in a traditional survey. Statistical analysis based on the data generated from a proportionality sample of 550 students is presented along with the marketing implications thereof. The findings indicate that there is a visible relationship between students status and perceived performance of the college. Other demographic variables tested show little effect on the perceptual measures investigated. The instrument designed was found to be a reasonably good measure of students attitude toward their selection process of the college and their images of other competing institutions.