CWU: S TUDENT & P ARENT S URVEY
13 When “probably” is added, however, the mix of people students would talk to is more diverse, with 6 in 10 saying they would “probably” look to each these categories of people for information and advice. These finding suggest that students talk about the decision with a variety of people who could have useful information, but most turn to their parents first and foremost for advice. Parents, for their part, expect to be very involved and influential in this decision: 44% said they would be “very involved” in the decision, including discussing the pros & cons and Similarly, 9 in 10 parents (90%) expected they would influence their son or daughter’s decision about where to attend college, including 41%who said they expected to be “very influential” in that decision. Campus Visits Are the Most Useful Sources of Information Visits to prospective campuses were by far the most useful sources of information for both students and their parents. Again using Maximum Differential Scaling, both parents and teachers were presented a list of information sources and asked to rank their utility. The parents again were given a slightly longer list – 13 sources vs. 10 for the students. Campus visits topped the list in both samples by a substantial degree. Four other sources were tightly clustered behind campus visits for the students: contacts with faculty; contacts with current students; the college web site and visits to the high school by staff from the college. The bottom half of the students’ list consisted of contact with alumni, college publications, college videos, email from the college and social media. The parents’ second tier consisted of contact with current students and the college web site. A third tier was comprised of contact with faculty, contact with recruiters and contact with alumni. The bottom half of the parents’ list consisted of personal experience, family and friends, email form the college, college-produced videos, contact with employers, social media and newspapers at the bottom. Details of these findings are presented in the graphs on the following pages. visiting campuses, and “asking my own questions of colleges.” Another 24% said they would be “guiding the discussion,” including setting limits and guidelines on options.
JUNE 2014
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