College applicants' attitudes and enrollment decisions

One potentially useful multivariate procedure somewhat overlooked in admissions marketing efforts is a linear compensatory model presented by Cook and Zallocco (1983). This model defines an individual's attitude about a particular college or university as the importance the individual attaches to a specific attribute of the school, and the belief that the institution under consideration possesses that attribute. In this study we extend the model by investigating the importance of applicants' attitudes about competitor institutions, and by controlling for demographic and ability factors that may affect attitudes. Our research demonstrates that attitudes have a significant, positive relationship to enrollment decisions. As well, we incorporate an attitude difference measure that contrasts applicants' attitudes about one institution compared to admissions competitors. Addition of this variable to the prediction equation substantially improved our ability to forecast an applicant's matriculation decision.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Association for Institutional Research 1989 Annual Forum.