Part 1: Population Summary
Our book defines an information behavior as, “information seeking as well as the totality of other unintentional or passive behaviors, as well as purposive behaviors that do not involve seeking” (Case 5). I chose to research and write about the information behaviors of college applicants. I’m interested in this population because of my job as the Office of Admissions web designer and technical support specialist. I believe that if I know more about this populations information needs, I should be able to do a better job designing the website and helping applicants in trouble.
The population is actually a lot more diverse than just high school seniors which is our most predominant user. There are international applicants, applicants over the age of fifty, and many transfer applicants in their twenties. Basically anyone that has a high school diploma is eligible to apply. For the purposes of this paper, I will be focusing on the United States population and more specifically those students who consider applying to Florida State University (FSU).
Since I’ve already had the job for over three years, I am already quite knowledgeable about college applicants and the processes they go through. In this time, I’ve already redesigned the entire admissions website and made many improvements to all aspects of the admissions experience. No matter how easy I try to make everything, there is always going to be something that goes wrong. Whether it’s the applicant being confused or the technology malfunctioning, there is always between two to fifty problems that I confront each work day. These problems come to me in a variety of mediums like email messages, phone calls, and error log reports. It’s very important that I help the applicants find the information they need or fix the problem they are encountering in the most efficient manner.
Part 2: Past Research
External Factors
Post secondary schooling is a major prerequisite for many careers and has an important bearing on lifestyles, aspirations, and social status in general (Manski). Out of the many factors that influence college applicants, I believe that the external factors are one of the most important. The external influences on college applicants are significant persons, college characteristics, and college efforts to communicate with students.
Significant persons like friends and family have a huge influence on student college choice. “In selecting a college, students are strongly persuaded by the comments and advice of their friends and family” (Chapman). It’s even more influential when there is a legacy, tradition or your family attended a particular school, because they usually expect their siblings to attend the same school. “Research also shows a positive relationship between the parents’ education level and the child’s education level, as well as students’ educational expectations” (Shaw). Friends can also be very influential because applicants don’t want to leave their childhood friends and they will often apply to the same college to stay together.
There has been extensive research based on the affects of static university characteristics on college applicants. College characteristics such as cost (financial aid), location, and program availability are some of the most influential factors for prospective students. “The two primary factors associated with the decision of high school seniors to attend a cooperative education institution of higher education are net price and the selectivity of institutions in their choice set” (Hopey). The cost of tuition is usually offset by financial aid and students almost always choose based on the financial aid offered. An interesting study conducted by Delaney found, “several significant relationships between students’ income and the college choice process, with higher income students attributing more importance to the college’s surroundings and lower income students focusing more on substantive issues such as opportunities for internships, the academic program, and costs” (Delaney). Location is also a very important factor to consider because of proximity to family, climate, and lifestyle. Prospective students who have a good idea what they want to study are known to select an institution based on the specific academic program reputation and ranking. Students simply don’t apply to Institutions that don’t offer their desired programs, but a lot of students don’t even know what they want to study before applying to college.
The college’s efforts to communicate with prospective applicants are also essential. A study by Johnson investigates the reading difficulty level of college recruitment literature and the ability of college bound high school students to understand the terminology frequently used by college admissions. His methodology included collecting over 42 random college catalogs for review and then computing their reading difficulty using the Flesch Reading Ease Formula. The results showed that on average the reading difficulty was rated at difficult to very difficult, which is appropriate for an advanced college student or college graduate (Johnson). Some of the most common communication channels used by admissions include catalogs, emails, website, high school recruitment visits, and campus visits.
Internal Factors
Student characteristics like level of educational aspiration and academic performance are probably the most influential factors. The individual choice by the applicant for which school they want to attend is usually much more important than the college admission decisions in determination of acceptance. Contrary to popular belief, most applicants are admitted to their first choice schools and only a few of them are denied. Students are certainly aware of what schools they think will accept them. The only problem is that they usually have a hard time choosing a college and also accepting a decision. Nurnberg studies the question, “Which offer of admission does the student accept?” (Nurnberg). Nurnberg states that variables such as applicant quality, race, geographic origin, plus the student’s artistic, athletic and academic interests, are strong predictors of whether or not the student will accept. Most admissions departments have done a good job of avoiding problems with discrimination. For example, one study by Kane states, “university admissions departments have actively worked to encourage the enrollment of African-American students” (Kane).
How well a student performs in high school and on their standardized test scores will greatly influence their choices for college admission. The high school education is the basis for going into college, there is a direct correlation between performance in high school and in college. The quality of the high school also matters because there are big differences between all schools, especially between private and public schools. Education can also affect how well the student does on the standardized testing required. Every college applicant is required to take either the SAT or the ACT aptitude tests. Weller writes, “a substantial part of the explanation of why students do not apply lies in a large deviation between the SAT scores they obtain and the scores of students who actually do apply to this institution” (Weller).
Evolution
Stealth applicants and application inflation are new occurrences that have emerged recently in college admissions. Dupaul’s article explains the recent phenomenon known as stealth applicants. A stealth applicant is an applicant who’s only interaction with the university is online. As more and more college applications and information is offered online the applicants get less or no real interaction with the university. “In 2010, stealth applicants represented 30% of college applications” (Dupaul). Stealth applicants are interesting because they are college applicants that only use the online recruitment material to make a college decision.
Application inflation occurs when the enrollment criteria rise along with the number of quality applications. Hoover’s paper talks mainly about the problem with application inflation. Each year admissions offices choose the incoming class that has the highest test scores, GPA, etc. It makes sense because their goal is to improve the institutions reputation and productivity. However, it’s starting to get out of control for the most competitive institutions. For example, in Fall 2010 “Stanford received a record 32,022 applications from students it called simply amazing and only accepted 7 percent of them” (Hoover). I believe this occurs because of the enhancements in education, technology, and lifestyle.
Part 3: Questions
#1 – What factors affect college choice?
All of the research I reviewed discussed the classic external and internal factors that influence college admissions such as location, finances, academic achievement, and extracurricular interests. These are the primary influences that affect the college choice process especially location and price because applicants almost always choose based on their financial limitations and the distance from home. I can certainly relate to this because I made my college decision based largely on the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship requirements. The Bright Futures Scholarship is only valid for public Florida universities and covers over seventy five percent of tuition costs, which is a big factor when considering financial aspects of attending a university.
Even though these factors have already been researched in some detail it’s important to keep them up to date. Over time the factors certainly change and the research must accommodate for these changes. Shaw says that, “students applying to college have changed quite dramatically since the 1980s, theorists and practitioners continue to rely on older models of college choice that are in need of updating to reflect the current student population” (Shaw).
#2 – What causes application inflation?
There is a lot of evidence supporting application inflation due to advancements in education, society, culture, and technology. Application inflation occurs when each year the admissions criteria gets higher and more competitive. “Bigger numbers mean better students, colleges says. But when is enough enough?” (Hoover) The education and academic systems have made many improvements in the last twenty years. I believe this is due to the abundance of information published on the Internet and the advancements in technology. Our modern society and culture puts so much pressure on our youth to achieve bigger and better things. Choosing a college can be one of the most stressful decisions a person will ever make and the decision can affect the rest of their life.
#3 – What changes have been made to the application process?
Online applications are much different than in-person interviews and paper applications. “Few can argue with the assertion that today’s college student is dramatically different than the college student of yesteryear” (Southerland). The phenomenon known as “Stealth Applicants” now exists. Stealth applicants are prospective students that never visit the institution. Most of the time these prospective students barely know anything about the school. Almost every institution requires an online application because of paperless initiatives, data analysis, and large volumes of applicants. The FSU Office of Admissions no longer sends notification letters in the mail. They reduced costs by using email and online forms. All of the applicant data is collected electronically and it is easier to perform data analysis to resolve the accepted students criteria. In general, admissions decisions are now based more on the data and less on personal impression.
Part 4: Future Research Study
What research methodologies would you use?
It would make sense for the FSU Office of Admissions to sponsor this research study in an effort to improve our services. Therefore, I would like to use the actual applicants as my sample population by incorporating a survey into the application and interviewing parents or applicants. By using the applicants, I can tie all of the other admissions information collected about them in the application like race, gender, age, etc. Having all of the admissions data I needed would help improve the categorization and granularity of the research. The only problem I see is being partial to FSU Admissions, because the research won’t be able to include those students who don’t apply to FSU.
I believe that my first question would be best suited for the survey and the last two questions would be easier to answer using the interview methodology. The parents would hopefully be able to answer questions about changes to the application process because that would be difficult for the applicant. I believe the last two questions are very specific so they will require the face-to-face interaction for suitable results, because otherwise the data could be misinterpreted.
What questions would you ask? How would you analyze the data you gather?
The questions in the survey would be based on the basic factors that affected their college choice. For example, please rate how influential each item was while choosing to apply to college from 1 to 5. The items would include things like location, price, family, reputation, and program availability. Since the survey would be collected electronically with the application data I would be able to analyze the data using complex queries I choose to design. The queries can be complex because of the wealth of information available on the applicant through the application questions.
For the interview I would prepare a few questions in order to answer my questions about what causes application inflation and what changes have been made to the application process. For application inflation I would ask things like, “Do you think that technologies like the Internet have improved your ability to apply to college?” Analyzing the data for the interviews is going to be much harder than the survey. It would help if we recorded the interview using a sound recorder or video might be even better. That way the responses and questions can be analyzed in more detail after the interview takes place.
How might the results of your analysis improve our understanding of this population’s (or others) information behavior?
The results of my analysis will shed light on some of the changes that have occurred to this population’s information behavior. There has already been a substantial amount of research done for this population. However, a lot of the research I found was out dated and did not account for changes in technology, society, economy, and education. One major concern lately is the problem with inflation of tuition rates. “Faced with budget cuts, institutions of higher education have increased tuition in an effort to shore up finances” (DesJardins). I want to make sure to cover the changes in tuition costs and the affects they might have on the college applicants information behaviors. By asking questions about the changes in technology and their affect on the college application process. I hope to improve our understanding of this population’s information behavior and how it relates to advances in technology.
How might the results of your analysis be used to improve information services to this population (or others!)?
The research suggests that prospective students are looking online for most of their information. “Technological advances have improved the dissemination of information about colleges and universities” (Shaw 3). The classic factors that influence college applicants like finances, academic achievement, and program availability are also the most wanted and viewed information online. By prioritizing and emphasizing those links and pages on the admissions website it makes it easier for applicants to find the information that they need. For example, the admissions requirements page is one of the most important pages for applicants. It should clearly display all of the minimum requirements as well as the average GPA, SAT, and ACT scores of accepted applicants. This information gives applicants an idea of their chances of getting admitted and it can help them make a decision whether or not it is worth it to apply.
The University image, branding, and reputation can be a big influence on the students perception. “Through the systematic application of marketing principles, a college can attract students who might otherwise not consider that institution” (Johnson 10). Admissions recruiting and campus visits are probably the most important influences on student college choice. Admissions officers and campus tour guides have to be informative, charismatic, and engaging in order to attract the attention of prospective students. The training and dissemination of information between admissions officers and university representatives is critical to improving their services to applicants. Tokuhama also talks about branding associated with colleges and how they promote a particular lifestyle, rather than serve as a distributor of education. The University’s image and reputation takes a long time to build and it can be torn down with one bad event so it’s important to keep the staff and faculty happy and productive.
References
Case, D. (2006). Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior. San Diego: Academic Press.
Chapman, D. W. (September 01, 1981). A Model of Student College Choice. Journal of Higher Education, 52, 2, 490-505.
Delaney, A. M. (1998). Parental Income and Students’ College Choice Process: Research Findings To Guide Recruitment Strategies. AIR 1998 Annual Forum Paper.
DesJardins, S. L., Ahlburg, D. A., & McCall, B. P. (June 01, 2006). An Integrated Model of Application, Admission, Enrollment, and Financial Aid. Journal of Higher Education, 77, 3, 381-429.
Dupaul, S., & University of Alabama. (2010). Understanding the behaviors of stealth applicants in the college search process. Tuscaloosa, Ala: University of Alabama Libraries.
Hoover, E. (2010). Application Inflation. (Cover story). Chronicle Of Higher Education, 57(12), A1-A22.
Hopey, Christopher Edward. (1998). The college choice process: An analysis of the factors that influence the college choice decisions of high school seniors to matriculate in a cooperative education institution of higher education. ScholarlyCommons.
Johnson, R. H., & Chapman, D. W. (1979). An Assessment of College Recruitment Literature: Does the High School Senior Understand It? AIR Forum 1979 Paper.
Kane, J., & Spizman, L. M. (January 01, 1994). Race, Financial Aid Awards and College Attendance: Parents and Geography Matter. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 53, 1, 85-97.
Manski, C. F., & Wise, D. A. (1983). College choice in America. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Nurnberg, P., Schapiro, M., & Zimmerman, D. (2010). Students choosing colleges: Understanding the matriculation decision at a highly selective private institution. Cambridge, Mass: NBER.
Shaw, E. J., Kobrin, J. L., Packman, S. F., & Schmidt, A. (2009). Describing Students Involved in the Search Phase of the College Choice Process: A Cluster Analysis Study. Journal Of Advanced Academics, 20(4), 662-700.
Southerland, J. N. (2006). Formulating a New Model of College Choice and Persistence.
Tokuhama, C. (2011). Consumption, a Modern Affliction: Branding Culture, Youth Identity and College Admission. Journal Of College Admission, (210), 32-38.
Weiler, W. C. (December 01, 1994). Transition from Consideration of a College to the Decision to Apply. Research in Higher Education, 35, 6, 631-46.