The Adequacy of the Information that Students Utilize when Choosing a College: An Attribute Importance and Information Sufficiency Approach

This study employed a college student sample to retrospectively assess the adequacy of the college-related attribute information they received when deciding to attend college. The assessment separately considered males and females in the study's information sufficiency-importance framework with resulting strategies. The results suggest that when targeting both prospective male and female students, institutions of higher education may want to adopt a rather aggressive "Need To Modify Communications" strategy for the college-related attributes of job placement after graduation, financial aid and scholarships. This strategy was also suggested for females when considering the attributes of campus safety and friendly atmosphere, and for males when considering quality of professors. Alternatively, more moderate strategies of "Limited Attention" was recommended for males when considering the former two attributes, and a "Continue Current Communications" strategy for females when considering quality of professors. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)