How colleges Influence Student Enrollment

From the 1970s through today, colleges have developed two basic market-oriented desires. They want to plan and forecast their enrollment more effectively, and they want to influence the college-going decision-making process of desired students. The study of college choice behavior is of great practical importance for administrators in promoting greater effectiveness in these two areas. The study of enrollment behavior of students in groups (macro-level) indicates how changes in environmental and institutional characteristics affect an institution’s total enrollment. The study of the college choice behavior of individual students (micro-level) indicates the ways in which environmental, institutional, and student characteristics affect a student’s choices about whether or not to attend college and which college to attend. It is the results of these studies which provide the fundamental knowledge bases for enhancing the effectiveness of enrollment planning activities and student marketing and recruitment activities (Hossler 1984).