Three CUES is GDA Integrated Services’ electronic newsletter. In each edition, we focus on items selected from our College & University Environmental Scanning (CUES) and our GDAIS research. Unlike most higher education newsletters, Three CUES often looks beyond news about colleges and universities to review greater social and marketing trends. Produced on a regular basis, Three CUES not only provides information, but also offers observations and recommendations concerning each topic.
Fall 2010 Edition: Is Your College’s Data Dated?
- Dwindling Interest in College Characteristics
- The “College” Versus the “University”
- Changing Attitudes Toward the College Experience
You’re invited to attend our presentation at NACAC in St. Louis! Session Title: Is the Message Killing Your College? Lost Opportunities for Promoting Smaller Colleges. Session Description: What are the four most important characteristics that college-bound students and their parents attribute to small colleges rather than larger ones? Is your institution presenting “small classes” and “accessible faculty” as effectively as it could? George Dehne and Christopher Small will review the extensive data on small colleges that GDA Integrated Services has collected over the past five years on what messages about a small college have the greatest positive impact on college-bound students. When & Where: 10:00 – 10:45 am, Friday, October 1, in the exhibit hall (exhibitor presentation area). Don’t forget to stop by Booth 916 to talk, see our latest work (print, web, social and more) or pick up one of our many handouts, articles and brochures. |
IS YOUR COLLEGE’S MARKETING DATA DATED?
Often GDA Integrated Services is asked how frequently a college should repeat market research on prospective students. More often, however, we are called into a college when they realize what used to work in student recruitment no longer does.
GDA Integrated Services surveys more than 30,000 college-bound students annually from throughout the United States. We went back into our database and compared the responses of college-bound students with a variety of questions in our 2004 and 2009 surveys that were used in both years. From the roughly 7,000 college-bound students we interviewed by telephone in each year, we selected a sample that reflected the demographics of that year (gender, academic ability, geography, high school type, ethnicity, and so forth). Each sample had 2,200 cases.
Below are some highlights.
Dwindling Interest in College Characteristics
In both years, we read a number of college characteristics and then asked respondents whether these were essential in their choice of a college, very important, somewhat important or not important. The table below just shows the percentage of students who said the characteristic was essential in their choice of a college.
Essential for enrollment |
2004 |
2009 |
A strong department in the major field of interest to you |
58% |
47% |
Quality of teaching |
56% |
47% |
Challenging courses |
44% |
25% |
Excellent academic advising |
41% |
42% |
Concerned about the development of the whole person |
39% |
23% |
Able to personalize your education to meet your special interests and needs |
38% |
23% |
Accessibility of professors |
37% |
25% |
Preparation for graduate or professional school |
34% |
27% |
Small class size |
33% |
10% |
Provides a supportive environment |
32% |
19% |
Emphasizes values and ethics |
30% |
15% |
Overseas study opportunities |
26% |
19% |
Have an active social life |
18% |
18% |
Prestige |
16% |
22% |
Gain a liberal arts education |
16% |
10% |
Well-known nationally |
14% |
20% |
Faculty known for research and publications |
10% |
6% |
Has a high ranking in U.S. News & World Reports college guide |
6% |
8% |
Observations and Recommendations
The table above is telling in many ways:
- On 13 of the 18 characteristics there was a drop from 2004 to 2009 in the percentage considering them essential. In five cases, the drop was at least 15 percentage points. The size of many of the declines was surprising. Our 2010 study, underway now, shows that these declines are continuing. Growing numbers of the newest group of college-bound students say that a whole series of characteristics of colleges and universities deemed essential in the choices of previous generations are now not essential. Perhaps students are not allowing themselves to get too attached to a particular characteristic because of the economy and/or the greater difficulty of being admitted to a highly selective college. Another explanation might be that these students are just not as passionate about anything. Whichever it is, colleges will need some attractive distinctions to get students to take a close look at what they have to offer.
- Notice the declining interest in accessible faculty, small class size, and a supportive environment—the traits of a small college. Perhaps in these tough economic times when students feel their choices are increasingly restricted, more of them have just decided that large, often state-supported, universities are good enough. But, from our point of view, very few small colleges have done a good job of describing the benefits of being small. For example, colleges boast about small classes but allow the student to infer the benefits of small classes. Admission staffs assume students consider “classes are small” to mean that you have to be prepared for class, you need to defend your views, and you will learn from your classmates. But our research shows that students, left to their own devices, infer that offering small classes means “it is easy to get help from the professor.” In fact, when we ask students the difference between a small college and a large university, universities are credited with “academic challenge” while small colleges are said to be “good for students who need academic help.” In some ways, we have the same problem with the use of “liberal arts.” Our research shows that the outcomes of the liberal arts (problem solving, critical thinking, heightened communication skills, etc.) are very attractive to college-bound students, but “liberal arts” means nothing to them.
- Note the continued importance of “excellent academic advising.” This characteristic is continuing to rise in importance for college-bound students partially, in our view, because of the horror stories about taking six to seven years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Ironically and sadly, excellent academic advising should be a hallmark of small colleges, but in our experience with more than 450 colleges and universities, few institutions treat academic advising as a priority.
Finally, for the table above, we see a slight uptick in interest of the 2009 group regarding the importance of “prestige” and that a college is “known nationally.” Our research this year (2010) is showing some acceleration in this interest. There is a very small increase in the importance of the U.S. News rankings among those interviewed in 2009. Yet it is amazing to us that so many colleges still fixate on the U.S. News rankings when college-bound students pay so little attention to them.
The “College” Versus the “University”
Perhaps not surprisingly, college-bound students want it all when choosing a college. Rarely do they tell us they don’t care at all about any college characteristic. Of course, traditional-age college-bound students often really don’t know yet what is most important to them.
For this reason, we often “make” students choose from a pair of options. The table below shows how the college-bound students of 2004 and 2009 compare on some forced pairs.
|
2004 |
2009 |
|
|
2004 |
2009 |
A College |
31% |
19% |
OR |
A University |
60% |
81% |
A public college or university |
47% |
57% |
OR |
A private college or university |
53% |
43% |
Only full-time professors teach |
71% |
62% |
OR |
Graduate students assist with teaching. |
29% |
36% |
Only undergraduate students attend |
23% |
10% |
OR |
Both undergraduates & graduate students attend |
77% |
90% |
Observations and Recommendations
- None of these trends is particularly good news for smaller institutions.
- The growing popularity of the “university” and the declining interest in the “college” is a continuing trend. It explains why many colleges are changing their status to university. Universities, in our research, are credited with being larger, having stronger majors, offering more options, having greater student diversity and being a better path to graduate or professional schools.
- The shift toward public universities is attributable almost entirely to cost. Our research continues to show, on the other hand, that private institutions are still viewed as higher quality by the majority of students we survey. This may be a case of “If I can’t afford it, I don’t want it.” Pushed by state legislatures, many public institutions are trying to make themselves more attractive to undergraduates. Ironically, the idea of a small college is losing favor among prospective students just as larger universities are trying to make themselves look smaller. Think “honors colleges.”
- Most senior officers at small private colleges cannot believe that one out of three college-bound students prefers “graduate students assisting with teaching” over a situation where “only full-time professors teach.” In some ways, the interest in graduate teaching assistants may be a rationale for choosing a large university, but many college-bound students see graduate students as more approachable and understanding of the undergraduate experience than full-time professors. Colleges must do a better job of explaining, or better yet, they must demonstrate the value of a full-time professor.
- The growing interest in institutions that enroll both undergraduates and graduates has three causes in our view. First, more students are interested in and opting for large research universities. Second, interest in attending graduate and professional school has increased significantly in five years and our research shows that many students believe it is easier to be admitted to a graduate or professional program if they have attended as undergraduates an institution with graduate programs. Third, our research on what prospective students believe makes a strong major shows that many courses in the field and a known graduate program in their field of interest are viewed as two of the top characteristics of a strong major.
Changing Attitudes Toward the College Experience
We read a number of statements and asked each respondent their level of agreement. Did they strongly agree with the statement, agree with the statement, feel neutral, disagree or strongly disagree? In the table below, we show only the percentage of students who strongly agreed with the statement.
Strongly Agree |
2004 College-Bound |
2009 |
I expect college to be a total experience that blends my academic, social, and residential lives together. |
60% |
46% |
I learn better when I can participate in class discussions. |
54% |
40% |
I expect to learn as much from my out-of-class activities as I do from my academic program. |
45% |
31% |
Getting a job is the most important outcome of a college education. |
34% |
52% |
Observations and Recommendations
The table above also provides insights regarding the 2009 college-bound students:
- Compared with the college-bound students of 2004, the 2009 students have less interest in the total experience and they are less likely to expect much learning from their out-of-class experience. We suspect part of this is due to the turn toward more students opting for low-cost and few-frills community colleges and a greater number of commuters generally. But these trends do not bode well for the residential college. It is our view that the survival of the residential college depends on its ability to recognize and reward all kinds of learning both in and out-of-class and on or off-campus. For the most part, community colleges and most large institutions cannot make this claim.
- Note the apparent decline of interest in class discussion participation. This, of course, is related to the decline of interest in small classes and accessible faculty. But it also might indicate the change in how students think they learn—electronically. Why participate in class discussions when you can get into a worldwide chat or get an opinion on anything by using Google?
- The increased interest in career preparation is no surprise given the high perceived cost of college and the uncertainty of the job market. It may also reflect the growing number and kind of students who now expect to attend college. At last count, national research tells us that 80 percent of high school sophomores said they expect to attend college and it is even higher among Hispanic students. Yet only about six out of ten actually attend college, but that is still 20 percent greater than in the 1980s. Many from past decades came from families that simply expected them to attend college because “it was good for them.” This generation of college students, however, includes far more students who see college as the path to a good and preferably high- paying job.
Conclusion
Consider this a reminder that the college-bound student market can change relatively quickly. While research tells us that older citizens’ views and opinions change little in a five-year span, the impact of the economy, peer pressure, social networks, and greater selectivity at some colleges can change the college-bound student market in only a few years. Will the trends outlined above continue? We don’t know, but we do know that “the only thing that is constant is change.”