A study of 174 applicants to the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School was conducted to identify factors in student choice of graduate schools and to determine if enrollment intent could be predicted. A 20-item survey based on the motivational and cognitive decision making theory of Janis and Mann (1977) was constructed. Applicants were surveyed on two scales regarding: (a) the importance of factors represented in the 20-item survey; and (b) which graduate school better matched those factors. Respondents to the survey were sorted into four groups: (a) accepted; (b) denied; (c) accepted, intending to enroll at URI; and (d) accepted, not intending to enroll at URI. These respondents chose nine of the 20 items as important factors in deciding which graduate school to attend. From these ratings three strong, psychologically interpretable factors matched the Janis and Mann constructs used to develop the survey: (a) Self Approval; (b) Utilitarian Costs; and (c) Concern for Others. A one way analysis discriminated between the "Will Enroll" and the "Will Not Enroll" respondents as the "Will Enroll" group assigned higher ratings of importance to three factors at the.05 level of significance: (a) affordability; (b) closeness to home; and (c) being able to better support family upon graduation. Of eight factors identified by chi-square statistics, only one, "better academic program", differed between the two groups in terms of school choice. Through discriminant analysis, responses to the 20 item survey were classified into "Will Enroll" and "Will Not Enroll" with 78 percent accuracy. (Discriminant analysis results may be inflated, on account of a single sample of respondents. The research results have (a) identified factors salient to a group of graduate school applicants in their decision to attend one graduate school as opposed to another; (b) measured the degree of importance these factors had in that decision; (c) identified significant differences between the "Will Enroll" and "Will Not Enroll" groups; and (d) predicted group membership. In addition, a base for determining the applicability of Janis and Mann's decision making constructs appears to have been established. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-5179 |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| Creators | TURCOTTE, ROBERT B |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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