CWU: S TUDENT & P ARENT S URVEY
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DISCUSSION
These surveys were designed to aid CWU administrators in the development of strategies to expand their reach, and increase the number of students applying to CWU. The research objective was to see Central through the eyes of the state’s high school students and their parents as they work through the process of choosing a college. What is important to them as they face this decision? What are they looking for in a college? Where do they look for information? Who do they look to for advice? And, most importantly for these purposes, where is Central in this picture? The overall findings paint a picture of Central Washington University that is, in respondents' minds, incomplete. One-third of respondents could think of no word or phrase to describe CWU. One in five did not participate in the exercise of picking between pairs of descriptive attributes for CWU. This is not significantly different from the response to the peer state colleges, but it does indicate both an opportunity and an imperative to better define CWU’s reputation. It bears repeating that this survey was designed to sample the opinions of relatively motivated students. Only students who had taken a pre-college test were included in this sample. Two-thirds of these students had a GPA of 3.5 or better. Three in four had already applied to college. These results therefore reflect a population more advanced in their thinking about college than the average high school student. The primary analytic strategy was to differentiate between students who are inclined and disinclined to apply to Central Washington University. How are their pictures of college and of CWU different? What are the critical elements that tip some students toward CWU and others away from it? Among the high school students, most were at least aware of Central. Nine in 10 had heard of it. But for 2/3 of these students, all they really knew was the name of the school and maybe its location. The challenge for CWU is to fill in these blanks — to complete the picture students have of the university. It is no small challenge. The cold fact is that about half of these students did not want to know any more. They see themselves as heading to private schools, out of state and/or to the UW and are not much interested in learning more about Central. About 1 in 4 of these students were already planning to apply. Presumably, they too know enough about CWU. That leaves the 1 in 4 classified here as “potentials,” who are open to the idea of applying to CWU. This category represents the most potential for expanding enrollment.
JUNE 2014
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