ACE Brief Explores Factors Affecting Students' College Decisions

These are among the findings in the ACE brief Factors Affecting First-Year Students' College Decisions, the final product in a four-part series of briefs utilizing data from surveys administered by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI).

This brief uses data from the 2023 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey (TFS) to examine student perspectives on making application decisions, financing college, and choosing to attend their particular institution. Additionally, the authors encourage senior leaders to use insights from the report and their internal data to ask themselves:

• How has data informed recruitment and retention strategies at your institution, and how has data helped in tailoring these strategies to different student groups?

• With overwhelming financial anxiety among students of color, first-generation students, and low-income students, what bold actions will your institution take to ensure your policies do not perpetuate inequity or deter talented students?

• What is your institution doing to bridge the gap between the credentials offered and the career success that students envision?

The authors also provide a variety of resources that leaders could find useful, including ACE's Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: 2024 Status Report and the What Works for Improving Mental Health in Higher Education report.

"As senior leaders contend with concerns around enrollment, perceptions of college value, and issues of college affordability, data from the CIRP Freshman Survey can provide insights into what factors impact students' decisions to apply, enroll, and attend postsecondary education," the authors write.

Since 1966, TFS has collected important insights from incoming first-year students prior to the start of their postsecondary studies. TFS includes data on a variety of topics, including academic preparedness, expectations of college, student values and goals, and interactions with peers and faculty.

Earlier briefs in the series used insights from the Diverse Learning Environments Survey to analyze students' perceptions of their learning environments and why they consider stopping out. They also applied findings from the Faculty Survey to highlight differences in faculty perceptions of their student-facing roles.

Last year, ACE and the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies (UCLA Ed&IS) announced a partnership to strengthen and lead HERI, administered by CRESST, a research and development center within UCLA Ed&IS. ACE and UCLA Ed&IS are working to elevate and expand HERI's research and reach through ACE's extensive capacity and expertise in faculty and presidential-level data collection and research.

ACE and HERI plan to release a joint publication on TFS 2024 data in early 2025. Additionally, the groundbreaking 60th administration of the CIRP Freshman Survey will take place in 2025. Institutions interested in administering TFS on their campus can read more about it here.