What’s the Problem with How the College Selection Process Works Today?
The current colleges selection process is still very much based on parent-biased paradigms and campus tour euphoria. When recounting the college selection process, most parents still talk about how their child’s experience compared to their own (25 – 35 years ago), the school’s reputation (based on no measurable data) and how a campus “just felt right” during a campus tour.
Even when families attempt to do more due diligence on schools, they find most independent college websites and printed guides are not that helpful. Four pound printed college guides and websites filled with misinformation only further confuse the college selection process.
Take a Look at Parents’ Concerns:
- The value of a 4 year college education is being questioned – in the press and in parents’ minds. Only 40% of parents say the higher education system provides good value.
- Parents want their child to graduate on time. College is expensive and taking more time to graduate only increases the cost. Outside of a short list of schools, less than half of students will actually graduate within 5 years.
- Parents and students don’t trust campus produced marketing materials. In fact, 27% of first-year students felt the admissions or recruitment materials did not accurately portray life on campus.
A Smarter Choice
The Voice of the Student research by the College Research Council provides better information from an independent, authentic and credible third party source. We discuss the value of a college education and provide students and parents with insights into life on campus and the real educational experience.
This research puts in black and white the real differences between schools based on actual student input.
Perhaps most importantly, this research make it easy for students to discover schools that are a great fit and they would not have previously considered in their search.
The “Big 6” Factors to a Successful College Experience
The Voice of the Student research reveals the 6 factors you need to know to pick a college where your child will be embraced by the community and will feel safe on campus… even at night. Based on “insider information” directly from over 10,000 college students, knowledge of these “Big 6” factors helps ensure your son or daughter doesn’t experience the “Freshman Flop” and not return for their second year in college.
At the core of this research is the question about student recommendation.
We asked students whether or not they would recommend their college to prospective high school seniors. This is a better question than to ask students if they are “satisfied” with their college (and, of course, we still ask that question for comparison purposes).
And, after digging deeper into the recommendation data, we uncovered the “Big 6” factors… the most important factors to a success liberal arts college experience.
Here’s a count down of the “Big 6” factors.
Factor #6: Professors Get Students Excited About Learning
Students who strongly agreed they had at least one professor who makes them excited about learning were nearly twice as likely to promote their college as students who merely agreed, and more than three times as likely as those who disagreed.
As agreement with this question decreased, a student’s likelihood of recommending their school dropped markedly.
Factor #5: Close Professor Relationships
Relationships with professors are another critical factor in a positive student experience, with a notable difference even when those relationships are “somewhat close” rather than close. 61 percent of students who said they felt “close” to their professors were big promoters of their college.
Factor #4: Collaborative Academic Environment
A highly collaborative academic environment also emerged as a positive correlation with recommendation. 71 percent of liberal arts college students who said their school’s academic environment was “highly collaborative” gave their institutions high marks. This is a highly influential category in determining which schools provide a great college experience.
Factor #3: Feeling Safe on Campus
When liberal arts college students indicated they felt “very safe” on campus, they were nearly three times as likely to recommend their school as students who said they felt “unsafe” on campus, and they were still nearly twice as likely to be net promoters as those who said they felt “somewhat safe.”
When liberal arts college students indicated they felt “very safe” on campus, they were nearly three times as likely to recommend their school as students who said they felt “unsafe” on campus, and they were still nearly twice as likely to be net promoters as those who said they felt “somewhat safe.”
This makes sense, right? If a student doesn’t feel safe, it’s tough for them to focus on their studies and building friendships.
Factor #2: Not Feeling Discriminated Against
The college environment is meant to encourage students to explore and to increase their awareness and acceptance of people unlike themselves, but there is a learning curve. When college students “sometimes” feel discriminated against, they are nearly three times less likely recommend their school. When they feel discriminated against “often,” they are nearly five times less likely.
Of course, this factor impacts certain student groups more than others. Students of color, international students, certain religious groups, and members of the LBGTQ+ community are often those most affected by discrimination.
And, when the detailed open-ended responses were analyzed, the researchers found evidence of discrimination originating not just from others students but sometimes from professors as well. It is important to note that those guilty of discriminating behavior are often not aware that their behavior is, in fact, discriminatory.
Factor #1: Sense of Community
The most important factor, head and shoulders above the others, is sense of community. When liberal arts college students rated the sense of community on campus as “very strong,” they were far more likely to recommend their campus to others.
“Sense of community” is defined as a feeling that members have that they belong and they matter to one another and to the group.
At the core of this issue is the human need to belong, to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.
And, isn’t that what both parents and students want from the college experience?
So, when looking at different colleges, be sure to look at how their students rate the sense of community on campus. And, when looking at colleges outside the liberal arts colleges, encourage your student to ask many students to describe the sense of community on campus.
No other factor will be more important to their odds of success.
