College
students are starting to head off to school for the fall term. For most of
them, cost played a pivotal role in deciding which campus to attend.
According
to NACS OnCampus Research’s Student Panel survey conducted in April 2017,
students investigated an average of six institutions before applying to three.
Some students put their school search into hyperdrive, with 17.5% exploring
10-plus schools and 18.6% applying to half a dozen or more of those.
In the
criteria used for reviewing these schools, more students pointed to cost
(71.2%) than any other consideration. Fairly close behind were specific
academic programs (66.3%), appeal of the school’s location (66.3%), and
distance from home (65.8%). A little more than half of students (51.2%) took
the amount of financial aid offered into account in sizing up schools.
As
their assessment of prospective schools progressed, 60.3% of students ended up
not enrolling in the school that had been at the top of their list originally.
Cost was the reason—or at least among the reasons—most often mentioned (by
38.8% of students). The second most-common reason was that their first-choice
school didn’t accept them (22.9%).
However,
when asked which factor ultimately had the most impact on where they eventually
attended, cost was named by just 20% of respondents. The financial-aid package
was the most important for approximately 11% of survey-takers.
Those
results indicate students may use cost to filter their initial list of schools before
they decide where to apply and attend based on other elements.
