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The impact of marketer -controlled factors on college-choice decisions by students at a public research university
Abstract
The study examined college-choice decisions by students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The purpose of the study was to determine whether marketing factors controlled by the University have a greater impact on college choice than external environmental factors uncontrollable by the University. The literature showed evidence of considerable research on college choice, student recruitment, and use of marketing strategies in higher education. However, there was no evidence of research comparing the effectiveness of student-recruitment marketing efforts controlled by an institution to factors impacting college choice over which an institution has little or no control. In view of the expanding use of marketing strategies in higher education today, this represents a significant research void. The present research also examined student demographic characteristics as they relate to college choice, and the importance of institutional attributes in the college-choice process. Four hundred fifty-three UMass freshmen ('04) completed the survey. The results showed that non-marketing factors were more influential on the respondents' college-choice decisions than marketing factors. The most strongly influential marketing factors were the campus visit and information about a specific major. The most strongly influential non-marketing factors were parents and friends. Price emerged as the most strongly influential institutional attribute on college choice. Significant differences were found between male and female respondents, in-state and out-of-state respondents, and white and non-white respondents in terms of how each group rated the influence of marketing and non-marketing factors on their college-choice decisions. Females rated marketing factors as more strongly influential than males. With the exception of television and radio ads, out-of-state students rated marketing factors as more strongly influential on their college-choice decisions than in-state students. White students rated parents as significantly more influential on their college-choice decision than non-white students.
Subject Area
Higher education|Marketing
Recommended Citation
Donnellan, John, "The impact of marketer -controlled factors on college-choice decisions by students at a public research university" (2002). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI3039350.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3039350