StudentProspector, a leading Internet resource for college planning that matches prospective students with the right schools, commissioned a third-party survey of parents of high school students likely to attend college to determine how families are involved in the college-visit process. Here are the survey's key findings:
StudentProspector Survey Key Findings:
- Visiting schools: High school students shopping for colleges will visit an average of 3.5 schools as part of their search.
- Parents are highly involved in the college process. Two in three parents (66%) of soon-to-be college students say they are "extremely" (28%) or "very" (38%) involved in their child's college search. Only 5 percent of parents said they were "not very involved" (3%) or "not involved at all" (2%) in their kids' college search.
- Almost half (45%) of parents insist that they visit the campuses themselves before they would allow their child to attend. Of this group, 52 percent noted a sense of curiosity and the need to see what the school was like. Meanwhile, 15 percent said they were "concerned with safety."
- Get an interview for your student or tour the grounds. Half of parents surveyed (50%) think the most important aspect of the college visit is the admissions office interview. Touring the grounds was deemed the second most important part of the visit at 21 percent. Only 2 percent of parents said "seeing the dorms" was a top priority on the campus visit.
- From where do families seek information on college visits? Almost one-third (32%) of parents say they turn to a college's official Web site for information, followed next by calling/emailing the college directly (27%). Another 21 percent say they count on Web sites with a collection of college-related information.
The nationwide, online survey of 578 parents of high school-aged students likely to attend college was conducted by Ipsos, an independent market research company based in Minneapolis, from February 12 -16, 2007. The margin of error is +/- 4% with a 95 percent confidence level.
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