Analyzing How Students Choose Colleges Is Key Topic at Meeting of Planners

By SCOTT CARLSON

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Defining students merely as "Millennials" is "a handy shorthand for the fact that kids today are different from us," says Ken Steele, senior vice president for education marketing at the Academica Group Inc., a consulting firm. But generalizations about plugged-in students don't get you very far in determining how they choose their colleges.

In a presentation about how prospective students form impressions about colleges, delivered here on Tuesday at the annual conference of the Society for College and University Planning, Mr. Steele proposed a different set of labels for would-be undergraduates: the scholars, the careerists, the conflicted, and the drifters. Those "psychographic clusters" represent students' motivators—either pushed or pulled into college, either to get the college experience or to advance to a career.

Mr. Steele's presentation was based on data from surveys his Ontario-based company has conducted since 1997 among 100,000 applicants to 20 to 30 Canadian universities before those applicants decided where to enroll. Canadian institutions have used the surveys to shape their marketing and enrollment strategies. Although the results reflect the attitudes of Canadian students, many of the points probably apply to students in the United States as well. (Mr. Steele said he hopes to expand the survey to American institutions.)

The student "clusters" he described would be recognizable to any college counselor or admissions dean. Those in the scholars group are interested in education for its own sake, are motivated by altruism, and are likely to go on to graduate school. The careerists attend college as a means to an end: getting a job. The conflicted students are like the careerists but are not sure where they are going. They are pushed into college by society or their parents. The drifters—who are likely to be male, white, and well-off—are interested in the creature comforts of a campus and would rather go to college than get a job.

High-school grades do not vary significantly among the clusters, but the groups are good predictors for college success.

The conflicted and drifter students, who are likely to have been pushed into college, are the most troubling kinds of applicants. "There is a lot of interest in the drifters and how to minimize them," Mr. Steele said. Allowing students to take a year off between high school and college seems to help them figure out what they want out of college and makes them better students, he said. "Pushing people is not wise. If students have got the personal motivation, that is best for the institution and the student."

'Successful Athletic Teams' Ranked Last

Data from Mr. Steele's company show that students decide to go to college well before high school, with girls making that decision earlier than boys do. In the surveys, students often cited career-oriented reasons for applying to college. They most often chose their colleges for academic or career reasons, like the reputation of a program or college or graduates' ability to get good jobs. A college's amenities—like computer labs, latest technology, or social opportunities on the campus or nearby—followed distantly. (The category "successful athletic teams" was rated last among Canadian students; Mr. Steele acknowledged that the category might have more sway across the border.)

Mr. Steele's survey also attempts to figure out how students rate a college's reputation. A program's prestige held sway, and in cases of journalism, fine arts, and education, the prestige of a program was more important than that of its college. Word of mouth was also an influential factor, followed by the location, history, and size of a college. American administrators might be heartened to learn that the college-ranking system of the Canadian magazine Maclean's, similar to that of U.S. News & World Report, came in last as a factor in reputation.

Recommendations of friends and parents played a strong role in influencing college choices, and colleges should be aware of the power of social media like Facebook, Mr. Steele said. Canadian colleges have been ahead of their American peers in using such resources, he said, in part because the Canadian institutions, particularly those in the east, have had to compete for fewer students in recent years.

"Canadian institutions are already seeing the demographic declines that American universities are anticipating," Mr. Steele said.

But traditional ways of reaching out to students continue to be popular, particularly the college Web site and the viewbook. (About 75 percent of students in the surveys said colleges should continue to print viewbooks rather than create online versions.)

College tours are a clincher, and friendly guides rate as the most important factor in a successful tour—above knowledgeable guides, an attractive campus, and the opportunity to meet professors.