University Choice And College Choice

Introduction

Situated at the intersection of career development, individual characteristics, socio-economic and cultural contexts, university choice is a complex process with multiple stakeholders and layers of factors interconnected. College choice is defined throughout the literature as the process of selecting from a set of options the higher education institution (HEI) to whom one will enroll.

Tertiary education implies costs for both individuals and society, but these costs should be always considered paired with their benefits for both parties involved. At the level of individual benefits, higher lifetime earnings (OECD, 2009; Perna, 2003) might be the most popular and debated one, but also better career prospects and labor market marketability.

Economic models of college choice are based on Human Capital Investment models (Perna, 2006). These type of inquiries are driven by the assumption that individuals act in a complete rational way when faced with the decision where to enroll. This means that it is expected of the students to take into account the entire palette of variables that would lead to a clear analysis of costs and benefits. Effects of financial variables such as parental income, tuition cost, scholarships, bursaries and financial aid tend to be the focal point of such investigative efforts (Terenzini, Cabrera and Bernal, 2001).

Sociological models of college choice were developed based on models of status attainment (Perna, 2006). This type of models emphasizes the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) and demographics on the decision to enroll in college and the type of college (Hossler, Schmit and Vesper, 1999). While some studies show that parents hold a key role in promoting status attainment to their offspring (Coleman, 1988), it may not suffice to only have the desire for higher status given the existence of different types of access barriers, such as gender, ethnicity, financial resources (Dika and Singh, 2002), that may account for different patterns in access to higher education. Some sociological models emphasize the role of the context in which the decision to enroll in college is taken, showing how the environment in which an individual is living, shapes its