Transition from consideration of a college to the decision to apply

Other researchers have found that personal socioeconomic background, measures of the fit between characteristics of institutions and factors students want in colleges they attend, and measures of the quality and location of the high school attended influence aspiration for higher education and/or the matriculation decision. In this study I investigate the effects of similar variables on students' decisions to apply to a particular institution after asking the Educational Testing Service to send their SAT scores to it. The results indicate that the fit between a student's preferences and an institution's characteristics has the most substantial impact on the decision to apply. Within the set of variables measuring this fit, correspondence between location desired, if the location is close to the student's home, and a SAT score either at or above the average score of applicants to the institution stand out as primary predictors.