Art & Science Group, a consulting firm that works with nonprofit educational institutions, surveyed high schoolers, both bound for college and those who decided to skip more school.
A recent survey reinforces the fact that the political climate of a state can impact whether prospective students decide to enroll at colleges there.
Federal funding and enrollment have been upended. But college leaders can take steps to ready their institutions for a changing landscape, consultants say.
Students from underprivileged backgrounds report more stress around the college search and admissions process than their higher-income peers, according to a new report from higher ed consulting firm Art & Science Group.
These campuses are also more likely than other kinds of institutions to enroll students from lower-income families and who are the first in their families to go to college, the Baltimore-based Art & Science Group consulting firm found.
The highest percentage of soon-to-be college students are opting out of attending Texas colleges and universities due to the Lone Star state’s politics, according to a new study.
College applicants are ruling out universities based on the politics of the state they reside in, and LGBTQ+ students are being particularly vigilant. Over a quarter of applicants (28 percent) said that they "exclude schools solely based on political considerations in the state where the institution is located," according to a recent survey from the Art & Science Group.
David Strauss speaks to The Daily Texan about the recent studentPOLL study, outlining the effect state politics have on college-bound students when deciding where to attend school.
According to a poll from the Art & Science Group, 28% of prospective students ruled out attending colleges because of politics, with 75% of liberals ruling out schools because of state policies on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. 66% of conservatives did the same for schools in states they deemed too liberal. Texas was the most commonly excluded state.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The biggest plus was the firm’s experience working with educational institutions and its understanding of the complexities of what goes into an institution’s reputation. A principal of the firm was directly involved in every phase of the project and the firm is small enough that there wasn’t a mass-market, cookie cutter approach.
— Don Filer, Executive Director, Office of International Affairs, Yale University
In our conversations with other colleges, people described Art & Science’s research techniques as first-rate and said the firm’s ability to help institutions identify their defining characteristics was one of its strongest attributes. We found both to be true. A&S provided us a thorough, thought-provoking study and actionable data. We learned new information about Hamilton, confirmed perceptions and were disabused of several persistent myths.
— Mike Debraggio, Executive Writer and Director of Community Relations, Hamilton College
I thought Art & Science Group would come in and test a couple of different ideas. But the research findings revealed that we needed to address size and A&S provided us overarching strategies to grow enrollment. Now we’ve grown enrollment and should reach our goal in a few years. I don’t think I would have been able to drive change without the solid market research A&S provided. The firm really helped us hone in on the major issues we had to address as an institution.
— Robert Wyatt, President, Coker College
Art & Science Group conducted high-quality research. The development of the survey questionnaire was a careful and thorough process. The research results gave us a clear picture of where we needed to improve, including the gap in perceptions in terms of what parents were looking for and what they were actually experiencing at our school...Our design firm told us that the Art & Science Group final report provided the most thorough starting point to guide re-branding and communications efforts that they had ever received.
— Dr. Scott Erickson, Head of School, Phillips Brooks School
