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

This study examined the factors that influence the college choice decisions of high school seniors to matriculate in a cooperative education institution of higher education. This study used the statistical technique logistic regression to estimate the probability that a student would attend a cooperative education institution. A sample of 465 high school seniors was drawn from a database of 25,500 Pennsylvania high school seniors, who had their SAT scores sent to various cooperative education institutions for acceptance in the Fall of 1986. The results indicate that 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. The findings suggest that mobile students (students applying to primarily regional and national institutions) see cooperative education as having high utility. These students are relatively less sensitive to price changes, such that a modest increase in the net price of the co-op institution will not drive them to choose one of the other alternatives in their choice set. The economic substitution effect is minimal, because these high school seniors see few public college or public university alternatives for cooperative education. They are willing and able to pay more to attend a cooperative education institution. Less mobile students (applied to primarily local and instate institutions) with only public alternatives in their choice sets appear to exhibit the opposite behavior. They are highly sensitive to price changes. Mobile students\u27 college choice behavior is predicated upon the institutional attributes of price rather than the cooperativeness of the institutions in their choice set. The results suggest that less mobile students are price shopping for institutions, substituting higher cost institutions with lower cost institutions. The primary conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that a decrease in financial aid to mobile students with only public alternatives, would only modestly alter the probability they will attend a co-op institution. While, for less mobile students, with only public alternatives, an increase in financial aid modestly increases the probability they will enroll in a co-op institution