There are six mindsets students commonly have that influence their approach to college. STUDENT MINDSETS
making their decisions,” notes the study. A recent report by Niche on col- lege choice found that 19 percent of students used an institution’s rankings as a reason to pursue it, but college visits and the attitudes of counselors, parents, and friends were among their top-three preferred ways of making a choice. Further, after surveying 800 stu- dents, Art&Science Group found that while 58 percent of high school seniors considered rankings in their search, only 5 percent thought they could recall what the U.S. News rank- ing was for their first-choice school, and even fewer were correct. “It echoes what research has shown,” James Murphy, deputy direc- tor of Ed Reform Now, said in an Social: These students want to gain meaningful friendships. They want to engage in every connect- ing activity possible and the social environment is most critical to their choice. Career Pragmatists: These stu- dents are looking for immediate ROI. They are highly sensitive to affordability and are looking for a job right away. They are not neces- sarily focused on a career. Grad School Bound: Graduate or professional school is the goal. Scientific and technical skills and undergraduate research are key experiences, and academic quality and academic environment drive choice.
Experiential: These students desire a career and want to get hands-on with internships and employment. They are highly sen- sitive to affordability. Career Through Academics: These students are looking for long-term careers and see strong academics integrated with career preparation as the path. They are level-headed decision-makers. Exploration and Meaning: These students want to make an impact on the world and are wide open to liberal arts outcomes. They are global butterflies and could make an impassioned choice.
Many students today already have strong
ideas about certain colleges. Darryl Calkins Director of College Counseling John Burroughs School (MO) NACAC Private School Counselors SIG Co-Leader
Source: Eduventures Research
COLLEGE RANKINGS College rankings may influence institutions’ brands, and even though more lists exist today than in years past, students seem to value rankings less and less. Recent research by the higher edu- cation consulting firm Arts&Science Group suggests, for instance, that col- lege leaders place much more faith in the value of rankings than students do. “Our findings offer the most com- pelling evidence yet that there is indeed a stark gap between the pre- mium many college leaders place on U.S. News Best Colleges and a college-bound market that, broadly speaking, appears to approach rank- ings more as a generalized fact-find- ing process than a discrete factor in
Communications with parents after enrollment improves retention but also improves the brand image of a school,” Kerge said. A college’s brand and word- of-mouth reputation is especially important in rural communities, said Megan Roberts, manager of the U.P. Scholars Program for the University of Michigan, a scholarship program that supports students from Michigan’s rural Upper Peninsula. “Especially in rural and small towns, people may know a student who attended that college who told them about their experience,” she said. “Students learn about colleges from the opinions of those around them. It is a strong form of knowl- edge-sharing about higher education in rural communities.”
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