Private Education Increasingly Attractive
The 2010 College Decision Impact Survey revealed that students were most interested in attending a public college, especially those seniors who said financial issues had affected their application decisions. However, a notably higher percentage of seniors expressed interest in private education than in last year’s survey. For example, 38 percent of seniors with GPAs of 3.5 or higher expressed interest in attending private institutions versus 29 percent in 2009.
“Many students and families will be willing to invest in colleges and universities that they are convinced will offer the most value or return on their investment,” said Kathleen Dawley, President of Maguire Associates. “The challenge for colleges and universities is how to demonstrate the quality of their institution’s educational experience.”
“Families are increasingly focused on the out-of-pocket cost of the college education,” said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Fastweb.com. “Non-profit colleges have been competing with public colleges by limiting tuition increases and offering more need-based grants in their financial aid packages. Money is having a bigger influence on the final choice of a college, with students switching their aspirations from non-profit colleges to public colleges and vice versa because of financial considerations.”
Assessing Institutional Quality
The most important factors that students considered as measures of institutional quality included the variety and depth of courses in their field of interest, followed by availability/quality of academic facilities, percent of students employed after graduation, graduation rates, and student/faculty ratios.
“The emphasis on graduation rates was striking to us,” said Ms. Dawley. “As the financial impact of student retention becomes increasingly important to colleges, students appear to see it as a measure of an institution’s ability to deliver on its promises.”
Among additional findings:
- Respondents have become increasingly sophisticated about net costs. Among students who preferred to attend a private college or university, the listed tuition had less impact on whether or not they would submit an application in 2010 (33 percent), compared to 2009 (42 percent). And students who preferred a private education agreed most strongly with two statements: 1) they would weigh each college’s financial aid package (particularly the ratio of grants to loans and work-study opportunities) when making their decisions; and 2) they were more concerned with net costs after financial assistance from all sources had been determined.
- Over one-third of the respondents (37 percent) had already used a net price calculator on a college website, and almost half (48 percent) were interested in having that opportunity.
- Students’ willingness to consider alternative arrangements for college was not significantly correlated with their concerns about the status of the U.S. economy. As in 2009, this year’s seniors were most willing to consider working part-time or attending a less expensive public institution located in their home state. Relatively few were likely to consider an online or distance learning program, taking a year off to work, or working full-time and attending college as a part-time student.
Data collection for the 2010 College Decision Impact Survey took place in March 2010; more than 800 high school seniors were surveyed. All participants were Fastweb members at the time of the survey.
