CWU: S TUDENT & P ARENT S URVEY 56 The parents who saw CWU as a poor fit for their child shared those perceptions of Central. Their lack of knowledge about CWU, its location, and its lack of specific programs were cited as the chief reasons to bypass it. Potential Applicants Given a segment of students who are already inclined to apply to CWU and another segment who are unlikely to do so, the most potential to expand is among students who have not given CWU much thought but who are open to it. In this survey 1 in 4 students had not named CWU as a school they planned to apply to, but when prompted, said they would “seriously consider” applying to CWU or “could see myself going there.” These potential applicants, not surprisingly, tended to fall in between the CWU inclined and disinclined on several measures. They had slightly better grades than the inclined, but not as good as the disinclined. They were slightly more likely to have college- educated parents than were the inclined, but not nearly as likely as the disinclined. Their incomes were closer to the inclined than to the disinclined. They rated the availability of programs as the #1 factor when considering a college – as did the disinclined. In fact, their top four considerations matched the top four of those who would not consider CWU. The potentials’ top three factors were in a tighter cluster (scored more similarly) than they were by either of the other categories. This indicates that, for potential CWU prospects, choosing the right college is a slightly more complicated decision than it is for the definitely CWU inclined or disinclined. Like the CWU applicants, they named health care related fields as their top interests. But unlike the applicants – and like the disinclined – they rated engineering/math/computer science and hard sciences among their top four interests. Parents in the middle — who described CWU as “acceptable” for their child (as opposed to a good or poor fit) — ranked cost #1 and teaching quality #2. Parents who did not know whether CWU would be a fit for their child ranked the same factors first and second. The presence of cost at the top of the list for these parents distinguishes them from both parents who believe CWU is either a clearly good or a clearly poor fit for their child. This suggests that they are more in the mode of “value shopping,” and that “fit” involves more than just what is best for the student, but what is workable for the family as well. As would be expected, these potential applicants were in between the inclined and the disinclined in their descriptions of CWU. They scored it as more welcoming than the disinclined, but not so much as the inclined. They were in the center of the scale between good location v. isolated, too big v. too small. They rated CWU as slightly less intense than either the inclined or disinclined, although more challenging and more prestigious than either of the other categories. Parents in the middle displayed the same pattern. Their highest-rated attributes for CWU were: welcoming and friendly, attractive campus, fun and focused on teaching.
JUNE 2014
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