Acceptance Declined Survey™ (ADS™)

Applicants who rejected your offer of acceptance.

They researched your institution and were attracted by what they found. They applied to your school, perhaps even selecting you as their first choice. They represented a substantial investment of your recruitment efforts. But when the time came to make their final decision and choose where they wanted to go, they opted for another school. Why?

Why do some students apply to you, receive an offer – but then accept elsewhere? Find out directly from “the ones who got away,” with our customized Acceptance Declined Survey™.

Applicant Conversion Insights:

“The UAS is a very comprehensive post-secondary consumer research study. The report delivered by Academica Group provided us with unparalleled insights into the perspectives and thought processes of, not only our own applicants, but higher education applicants across the country. The data gathered from this year’s study has been invaluable to our strategic planning process and will be a great tool for many departments throughout our institution.”
- Jim Vibert, Director, Communications and Marketing, Dalhousie University

Some of Canada’s leading colleges and universities have already benefited from the insight of our proprietary ADS — finding out straight from the students who seriously considered attending, who they preferred and where they came up short.

The ADS extends the market insight of our national applicant studies, examining the flip side of the recruitment coin: focusing not on why potential students apply to your institution, but why those same applicants may not ultimately enrol. Were you their second or third choice? Who did they prefer? Was there anything you could have done differently? Did it boil down to scholarship dollars? program offerings? extracurriculars? your campus tour?

Methodology:

Participating institutions will provide a set of email addresses for applicants who declined acceptance offers, or inquiries who did not in fact apply. Ideally, we recommend that this survey be undertaken in July or early August, when students have made their final decision but are likely still using the same email address, but this is a custom study and timing is at the discretion of the client institution.

Academica will issue customized email invitations to participants, including a login and password, inviting them to participate in the ADS study with several valuable prize incentives. They will also receive a reminder email, two weeks later, inviting them to start or continue the survey where they left off.

Benchmarking:

Part of the unique value of AS subscribers can select their own custom benchmark (consisting of from 3 to 20 other institutions), and will receive a custom report comparing institution-specific results to that benchmark, and the overall average.

Report contents as of March 2006 (but subject to change) will include the following:

Executive Summary Specifically targeted to senior administrative staff and faculty, including key findings and implications as well as selected graphs, charts and cross-tabulations, customized for your institution
Methodology Background and overview of the study, description of the online instrument, scales, procedure, incentives, sample size, response rates and confidence intervals
Applicant Profile

Graphs and charts defining overall and institution-specific respondents and showing key cross-tabulations in four sections:

  • Geographic: Distribution of respondents by region and province
  • Demographic: Distribution of respondents by gender, first language, age, status, nationality, family composition, household income, community size, parental education level, country of origin, and visible minority status
  • Academic: Distribution of respondents by grade average, type of high school, highest intended degree, and program area
  • Psychographic: Segmentation of applicants according to motivations for pursuing post-secondary education: careerism, fulfillment, altruism, expectations, and default.
Influencers Graphs, charts and cross-tabulations showing the influence of third parties on overall and institution-specific applicant choice, charted by gender, age, language, income, program and grade average, including parents, friends, and guidance counselors.
Recruitment Marketing Efforts

Graphs and charts measuring overall and institution-specific applicant use, appeal and helpfulness of various recruitment tactics, cross-tabulated by gender, age, program and grade average. Comparative rankings of institutions on:

  • Websites – including specifics on number of sites visited, influence and appeal rankings, interest in online features, and outstanding features of university websites
  • Viewbooks – including specifics on number of viewbooks consulted, parental use of viewbooks, influence, appeal and helpfulness, and outstanding features of university viewbooks
  • Rankings – including Maclean’s Guide and the Globe & Mail University Report Card
  • Campus Visits – including specifics on the use, number, influence and appeal of campus visits
  • University Fairs – including specifics on the influence and appeal of presentations at university fairs, including analysis of the applicant experience and interaction with representatives
    Plus: Alumni Magazines, Liaison Presentations, Specifics on Web Portals, etc.
Key Decision Factors

In-depth analysis of the process and perceptions involved in the application process, and the factors that are key to formulating that short-list, cross-tabulated by age, gender, grade average and region:

  • Academic Characteristics – analysis of the positive and negative impact of institutional and program academic reputation, student employment and grad school outcomes, etc.
  • University Characteristics – analysis of the positive and negative impact of class size, safety, residence, campus, extra-curriculars, co-op program, entrance averages, athletics and other characteristics
  • Community Characteristics – analysis of the positive and negative impact of size, safety, cultural offerings, industry, proximity to home, and other characteristics of the surrounding community
  • Decision Process – interest in attending college, private career college, out-of-province university, or internationally
  • Key Competitors – other schools considered by your applicants, cross-tabulated by gender, age, program and grade average
Institutional Branding Measurement of applicant awareness of institutions by segment and region. Top-of-mind word associations and brand perceptions for selected Canadian universities. Comparative analysis of key factors attracting applicants to your institution.
Reputation As in former years, the 2006 UAS will include an assessment of selected Canadian universities on “reputation for academic quality”, charted longitudinally since 1998 and cross-tabulated by gender, age, grade average, income, immigration status, visible minority status, geographic region, community size, parental education, Maclean’s readership, degree intention, and first-choice program.
Student Experience New this year will be a dual-axis brand mapping grid, plotting “reputation for student experience” and “reputation for academic quality” together. The result will be a two-dimensional map of the Canadian brand landscape from the applicant perspective.
Nature of Reputation Applicant assessment of the relative importance of key factors in determining institutional reputation, analyzed by various significant cross-tabulations.

Report Options

  • Customized UAS report, approx. 100 pages, comparing results for your own institution with those of a custom-selected benchmark and the overall average
  • Custom question(s) can be added to the UAS (prior to the instrument deadline), to be addressed to all applicants or a targeted segment based on other responses. We will work with your institution to develop the questions, and your report will include proprietary and exclusive results each
  • Open-ended custom questions can be added to the UAS instrument, but fees vary depending upon complexity and anticipated response level. Please call for further information.
  • On-Campus Presentation of results will be provided at no additional charge.
  • Ongoing UAS Updates will be sent to subscribers at no additional charge, exploring new issues and information uncovered.
  • Package Pricing is available for subscribers to other Academica studies in 2006. Please call for further information.