PHASE IV RESEARCH REPORT  

& RECOMMENDATIONS 
by Jocelyn Clendening, Natasha Osses-König, Jordan Frazman, & Ryan Nolan

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Table of Contents 

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………………#4

Background……………………………………………………………………………….#5

Situation Analysis………………………………………………………………………..#5

Information Needs & Hypotheses…………….…………………………………………#7

Secondary Research……………………………………………………………………..#12

Secondary Research Key Findings………………………………………………………#13

Primary Research………………………………………………………………………..#15

Focus Group…………………………………………………………………….#15

Survey…………………………………………………………………………..#17

Sentiment Analysis……………………………………………………………...#20

Brand Audit…………………………………………………………………….#24

Insights…………………....………………………………………………...………….#29

Recommendations……………………………………………………………………...#30

Research Limitations and Future Research

Recommendations……………………………………………………………………....31

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Appendices …………………………………………………………………………...#32

Sources Consulted ……………………………………………………………………..#38

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Executive Summary 

This document outlines our processes, findings, and recommendations for the National

Association of Colleges and Universities (NAICU). Our team has completed research that would

help the NAICU become a resource for students who are applying to colleges. Including

extensive secondary research, the research we conducted as a team includes:

● Completing a situation analysis, analyzing the strengths of the NAICU in addition

to its weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

● We conducted a focus group to gain insight of how students from Elon feel

towards private education.

● Our team distributed a survey to Elon students, students in different universities,

highschool students and adults so we could see how different groups of people

think towards private and public education.

● A sentiment analysis, using different social media to see how people feel towards

the NAICU and private education

● A brand audit which looks at how the organization can improve on

communicating to its audience.

Using this research we have concluded that the following recommendations will help the

NAICU become a more known organization and the stigmas of private schools will be removed.

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Background 

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities is a national

organization that represents and advocates for private higher education in the U.S. One of its

main functions is to ensure that students continue to have access to financial aid. The NAICU

achieves this by working with lawmakers to create policies and regulations that benefit private

colleges and universities.

The NAICU has represented private, nonprofit education since 1976. They are currently

the only lobbying organization focused solely on representing private higher education. Based

out of Washington, D.C., the NAICU deals with policy issues with the federal government. Their

mission is to affect policy regarding student aid, tax policy, and government regulation. Since

they are a lobbying group, most of their efforts occur in Washington, D.C. but they do have an

online presence in their website and social media platforms.

Situation Analysis 

Before we can conduct any research, our team assessed the strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, and threats as portrayed in the graphic below. This situation analysis provides

background information and perspective into the external and internal forces that may affect how

the NAICU should proceed in future communications efforts. It also provides a foundation for

our hypotheses and research questions which serve as the “map” for our preliminary research.

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Information Needs & Hypotheses 

These information needs will guide our research focus. They will allow us to

appropriately identify what we need to search for before we go out and actually search. Our

information needs are grounded in the 7C's of strategic communications to keep our research

outcomes-based.

● CONSUMER

○ Who is our current target demographic? Students?

■ High school: junior and senior

■ Could target sophomores

■ Middle school: understand the difference between private school and

public school before process begins

■ Lay foundation High school college counselors? Families?

● --> big influence = parents, grandparents/extended family

○ Alumni

■ First-hand experience, great testimony

○ Male or female?

■ Are private colleges predominantly male or female?

■ Is there a reason for this?

○ Geography

■ Is there a geographical area that sends more students to private colleges

than public colleges?

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● What about this region, if any, is different from the rest of the

country?

○ Family history

■ Are private school students more likely to be first generation college

students or from a family of college-educated guardians?

Presentation/psychographic?

○ What does the typical private college student look like? Think like? Act like?

■ Is this different from a public school student?

COMPANY

● Representation/recognition

○ Is the NAICU a well-known organization? If so, among what demographic?

○ Who doesn't know about the NAICU? Are they reachable?

○ Would having a more prominent identity as an organization give the NAICU

better access to lawmakers?

○ Does the NAICU currently have the platform to clarify the "cost"

misunderstanding? Would need wide reach

CHANNEL

● To access the "brand," one must have membership.

○ The memberships are for private, non-profit colleges to obtain.

● The service is having representation in Washington, D.C.

● Does the NAICU have every private college as a member?

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○ What is the monetary cost of becoming a member of the NAICU?

■ What are the hidden costs?

● What are the main benefits of being a member?

COMPETITION

● Main competition is the media stigma, public schools, and policy makers

● Does the media stigma of private colleges give off the impression that only wealthy

families attend the schools?

○ If so, why? How is this being communicated?

○ Who is communicating this? (i.e. which platforms)

● How do those in D.C. currently feel about private schools?

○ What are recent, relevant laws or proposed laws? What are the obstacles that

private colleges face in lawmaking?

● What strategy would best inform the general audience about the true cost of private

colleges?

○ Are there other non-profit organizations looking to oppose the NAICU in its

efforts?

CONVERGENCE

● How do different media platforms benefit the spread of information about private

colleges?

○ How is it currently being used by the NAICU and its member organizations?

● What are some of the challenges/obstacles presented by this cross media convergence?

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○ Is the NAICU utilizing all tools, i.e. social media?

● How has social media benefited other non-profit organizations?

● How do our members use social media? Is it effective?

○ Which platforms?

■ Different for each target audience

● Where in the media are organizations becoming more well-known? Print, digital,

broadcast?

● What organizations are comparable to the NAICU in their efforts?

○ Who is their following? How are they reaching them?

CULTURE

● What is the popular perception of the liberal arts?

○ Has this changed over time?

○ Positive or negative trends?

● Who are the players in culture/mainstream media that influence this perception?

CATEGORY

● How does the NAICU categorize itself?

○ Representation/protection group

○ Financial aid

○ Lobbying organization

● How is the NAICU keeping itself in this category?

● Do members of the NAICU have high involvement?

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○ Can this involvement level be improved?

Preliminary hypotheses:

● How can the NAICU more accurately target its audience?

○ Are there certain geographic or socioeconomic factors where private school

indexing is higher/lower?

○ Are there important groups that are currently being excluded/ignored?

○ Personality - who are these people? (i.e. values, beliefs, etc.)

● Is the NAICU well known?

○ If so, what for?

● Membership - how are current members benefitting from the organization's overall goals?

● Are most private colleges involved with the NAICU/who are we missing?

● Investigate the current challenges presented by competitors:

○ Media

○ Lawmakers

○ Public universities

● How is the NAICU currently using media convergence?

○ Could this be improved/changed?

● What is the current opinion on the concept of "liberal arts?"

● How can we clarify the organization's overall mission/category?

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→ Moving into our secondary research, these research questions and hypotheses suggested that

there are areas in which the NAICU could improve its engagement, fortify its mission, and enact

meaningful change in the surrounding culture.

Secondary Research  

To begin finding insights on the NAICU, we conducted extensive secondary research.

Using our previously identified information needs, each member focused on two different

categories from the 7 C’s lenses: consumer, channel, competition, culture, company,

convergence and category (see Appendix 1).

We found three meaningful intersections in our secondary research that demonstrated

why private schools are less popular than public schools. First -- the communication of the

individualized experience of private schools. We saw that a major difference between public and

private schools is that public institutions offer big sports teams diversity in programs/majors,

while private schools offer a more individual experience.

Another important aspect we came across is the affordability misconception. Students

tend to think that private universities are more expensive than private institutions. In reality,

research shows that going to private universities can be more affordable. We can debunk this by

better targeting prospective applicants such as high school students, parents and their college

counselors. Lastly, we saw that it is necessary to communicate the mission statement more

efficiently, and explain what the NAICU is in essence, and its goals and values on the NAICU

website and social media.

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By highlighting all the pros of a private college education, the NAICU could destigmatize

the current perceptions about the industry as a whole. In order to highlight the pros, we had to

first find out why students attend these private institutions, and what factors led to their final

selection. In this case, a survey gathering data from private college students detailing their

background and why they chose to pursue a private education versus a public education would

be highly beneficial.

Secondary Research Key Findings 

After extensive secondary research grounded in the 7C’s of strategic communications, we

synthesized our individual findings and found three main opportunities for the NAICU to

improve its communication efforts. These are the “gaps” we found in existing information that

we think will lead to more efficient communications at the NAICU. We believe these three

points will allow for in-depth and meaningful primary research.

● Convey​ the individualized experience of private schools.

○ Our team believes that one of the key things that separates a public college from a

private college is its ability to provide an individualized experience to each and

every student. This area currently lacks meaningful research. How do students at

private colleges feel about the uniqueness of their comprehensive college

experience? What are the ways that private schools can shape a young person in

which a public school is unable to? These RQ’s touch on an important aspect of

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the ​value of private higher education​, which should be integral in all

communication efforts at the NAICU.

● Clarify​ the affordability misconception.

○ While our previous point addresses the benefits of attending a private university,

this point touches on the ​literal cost​ of attending. Easily the biggest misconception

when talking about private schools is how much students are paying to receive

these benefits. Many see what the sticker price of the school is and immediately

assume that everyone pays full price. Thus far, our research has shown that this is

not true; in fact, ​most​ students don’t pay the sticker price. Moving into primary

research, our challenge is to understand the cultural stigma around cost of

attendance and how the NAICU can better address the issue.

● Communicate​ the mission statement more efficiently.

○ After reviewing the NAICU website, and reading their mission statement, we feel

that there is a lot to improve upon. Our team believes that the ​mission statement

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for the NAICU can be stronger and more concise. We also feel that their website,

social media, and other communicative tools can be rebranded to better reach a

younger targeted audience. With more research we believe that we can provide

the NAICU an upgrade to their current mission statement and communications

efforts​.

Primary Research 

The overall objective of our primary research is to further explore the three opportunities

we identified in our secondary research. We want to understand on a deeper level why people

think the way they do about private institutions, specifically through the lense of unique

experience and affordability. Also, we hope to gain valuable insight on how the NAICU can

better target the necessary audience, which will lead to actionable recommendations for the

client. We will use a thoughtful mix of methods and divide responsibility among group members

in order to ensure that each research effort produces information that can be understood through

different perspectives.This diverse mix of research methods will allow us to gather quantitative

and qualitative data, which will lead us to glean insights for the NAICU.

1. Focus Group 

We conducted a focus group because we felt it would provide us with a better

understanding on their thoughts on private and public education and what were the main factors

for selecting a private university. The focus group was made up of six participants, two boys and

four girls and we used the discussion guide.

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We presented the students with three

different exercises. A personification exercise

where students had to give characteristics to

different colleges, they were Harvard, Elon and

NC State. The second exercise was sentence

completions. Students had to say the first thing

that came to mind when we asked them about

private and public institutions Lastly participants completed a thought bubble exercise. We

hoped to gain a stronger understanding on how students perceived private and public education.

A common theme throughout the discussions was that there was a negative connotation

towards private universities. For the personification exercise, people pictured private institutions

to be: condescending, more

expensive, connections and

smaller class sizes. Whereas when

students characterized public

universities as: more diverse,

more school spirit.

Additionally, a really

interesting comment two

participants made was that private

schools offer a “better education.” When in reality the student is the one that makes up the

education and decides how much effort they put into their education.

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2. Survey 

Our survey was created in the hopes of further understanding the characteristics that

make up a private school student. The survey helped us reach a bunch of people in a short span

of time, something a focus group would be unable to do. We used the focus group to gather more

in depth information, whereas the survey was made to to give a visual aid, and find statistical

data to better understand who is the targeted student for private college. We were fortunate

enough to get 58 responses, ranging from students at Elon, to parents, to students at other

colleges.

Our findings had some interesting results, one question asked about the economic

prosperity in persons’ hometown. There has long been a stereotype about private college kids

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coming from wealthy areas, this survey may have helped back this claim.

As one can see, over half of the people have come from wealthier towns. This supports

the idea that the usual private college kid is wealthier than the average person. There is a margin

of error to keep in mind though, many of the students who took this survey attend Elon

University. Elon is known as a school that does not give much money through scholarships to

prospective students, so more people pay full price compared to the average private college.

Another question that the survey helped answer is what students were truly looking for

from a private college. We asked people what the most important factor was for selecting a

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college, and there was an overwhelming favorite answer.

Size. The most important aspect about a college is its size, according to our survey. A

private college has the ability to provide students a home-like feeling, and a less overwhelming

environment. Students that attend private college want to see familiar faces, have closer

connections with their teachers, and feel more apart of the campus. Private colleges and the

NAICU should recognize this as potentially one of their greatest assets. They also must be aware

that the results could be slightly skewed because our survey had only 58 respondents. We believe

that the survey should be taken by at least 1000 people to better understand the accuracy of the

importance in size.

The last graph that we will share for now is the participation levels of students during

their high school years. Based off of the data, maybe another Elon stereotype is true, 60.3% of

our survey takers considered themselves major participants in extracurriculars. Private colleges

offer great extracurriculars, and the organizations are easy to get involved in. Since there is not

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as many people at a school like Elon, compared to UNC, joining an organization of choice is less

intimidating, and easier to eventually gain leadership access.

The numbers show that an overwhelming amount of private school students enjoy doing

other things outside of school work. While there is a possibility that students that Elon students

are particularly active, we think that private schools should be aware that providing great

extracurriculars is very valuable.

3. Sentiment Analysis

● This sentiment analysis aims to provide a deeper understanding of the cultural stigma

surrounding private colleges and universities which will help any future communications

efforts by the NAICU.

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● More specifically, we hope this primary research will ​clarify​ the affordability

misconception associated with private higher education, as outlined in our primary

research proposal. Some relevant information needs we hope to explore include:

○ Currently, what is the cultural climate surrounding the cost of attending private

colleges and universities?

■ How has this changed over time?

○ In general, how does the public ​feel​ about applying to college, the choice between

private and public college -- and most importantly -- the cost of attending?

■ Are there two opposing sides?

○ Are there any current events related to this topic?

■ If so, what’s the conversation surrounding it?

○ How is social media used to express attitudes and opinions about the topic?

○ Is there any buzz about the NAICU in particular?

Method:

● We have strategically selected four sources to use for this analysis. Twitter and Facebook

are two forms of social media that promote conversation and track trends, which allows

us to analyze the attitudes and opinions associated with the company, culture, and

consumer of the NAICU. We also included two forms of traditional media, including

online news sources and magazines. In the primary research proposal, we suggested that

we would also use peer-reviewed articles, but instead decided to just analyze the media.

● The combination of both the broad, overarching trends and topics understood through

traditional media and the closer, more in-depth analysis of online interactions and

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conversations understood through social media will provide perspective and context that

we can use in making actionable recommendations for the NAICU.

Traditional media:

● I chose to begin this process with a more broad analysis of traditional media outlets

including online news sources and magazines. This comprehensive overview of current

trends, attitudes, and opinions in society about private colleges and universities will

provide a necessary foundation before proceeding with a closer analysis of one-to-one

interactions and hashtags on social media.

● Online News Sources

○ These news sources are valuable because they provide factual and relatively

unbiased context about our topic of interest. More specifically, we’ve selected

three outlets that include various political leanings in order to account for biased

presentation of information: ​The New York Times, The Washington Post, a​ nd​ Fox

News Online.

○ For each outlet, we used three search terms: “public college,” “public university,”

and “college cost.” Next, we sorted the results by most recent in order to gauge

current​ trends. We chose two to three articles per each outlet that are the most

relevant to our information needs.

○ From ​The New York Times​, we carefully read, compared, and contrasted three

articles:

■ More Private Colleges are Cutting Tuition, but Don’t Expect to Pay Less

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■ We Are Applauding the ‘Gift’ of an Affordable Education. Something Has

Gone Wrong.

■ Actresses, Business Leaders and Other Wealthy Parents Charged in U.S.

College Entry Fraud

○ From ​The Washington Post:

■ Paying for College Comes Down to Managing Expectations for Both

Parent and Child

■ College Costs Aren’t Always Worth It, Alumni Say, So Think Before

Borrowing

○ From ​Fox News Online:

■ College Cheating Scandal Should Make Working and Middle Class

Families Furious

■ The High Price of Higher Education

● Online Magazines

○ These online magazines are valuable because they provide a more subjective and

holistic portrayal of cultural trends and feelings associated with our topic of

interest. I’ve chosen two online magazines: ​The Atlantic​ and ​Forbes​. For both

outlets, I searched “private college” and sorted by most recent.

○ From ​The Atlantic​:

■ Are Small Private Colleges Worth the Money?

○ From ​Forbes​:

■ Is College Worth It? Um, Yes!

● Implications from traditional media:

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○ Current events: college cheating scandal

■ Reinforcing stereotypical idea of the types of students attending private

colleges

○ Are they “worth” it?

■ “Public colleges can offer so much -- for so much less.” (​The Atlantic​)

● Focus on ROI

● What makes private universities unique and more valuable:

○ Small class sizes and relationships with professors

○ Individualized experiences

Social media:

● Twitter

○ Our strategy in choosing Twitter is based on the existing presence of the NAICU

on the platform. Twitter is especially useful in a sentiment analysis because of

users’ heavy use of hashtags. We identified various hashtags to examine on the

platform in terms of popularity, recency, and attitudes. The list of these hashtags

include:

■ #college, #collegeapplications, #FAFSA, #tuition, #scholarships,

#privatecollege, #privateuniversity, #collegecost

● Facebook

○ The final platform used to execute this sentiment analysis was Facebook. The

NAICU also has an existing presence on this social platform.

○ In conducting this analysis, I discovered that it can be difficult to track certain

“trends” like one can on Twitter.

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○ So, I modified my procedure. I went directly to the FAFSA (Free Application for

Federal Student Aid) Facebook page to analyze the comments and discussion

taking place.

● Implications from social media:

○ Key terms: privilege, eligible

○ A lot of uncertainty and questions surrounding financial aid, FAFSA in particular

○ Attitudes: frustration, confusion

○ Examples:

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4. Brand Audit  

Purpose:

The objective of this brand audit is to take an introspective look at the NAICU. What,

from within, can the organization do to improve outward communication efforts? Specifically,

we will focus on five aspects of the NAICU brand. These five aspects can be categorized into

three larger umbrella topics: assets, owned media, and shared media.

Assets:

● Mission Statement

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○ The main issue with the NAICU’s mission statement is the lack of direction.

There does not seem to be a defined mission statement available on their website.

Instead, multiple messages that highlight the NAICU’s best aspects can be found

across multiple pages. These include: “The voice of America's independent

colleges and universities”, “a champion for private, nonprofit higher education”,

and “NAICU serves as the unified voice of private, nonprofit higher education.”

just to name a few. All of these quotes convey the same message using different

language. And while they succinctly and accurately describe the NAICU’s

purpose and mission, a single mission statement should be comprised and

prominently displayed on their website and social media.

Owned Media

● Official Website

○ On the whole, the NAICU’s website is clean, professional, and easy to navigate

○ Multiple tabs line the top of the website and each leads to an informative page

that provides additional information on the specific tab selected

○ Design-wise, the website has a professional color scheme, nothing too vibrant and

distracting, and each page has its own color scheme that provides a nice change of

style

○ At the bottom of most of the pages, other than the home screen, there is a drop

down menu with text above that reads “Student Aid Data Sheets.” The drop

down menu lists all 50 states (as well as D.C. and Puerto Rico) and when clicked

lead to a page detailing how much student aid each state gives out per year. This

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is a very helpful tool and speaks to the amount of student aid that most students

typically require to attend private colleges and universities. Affordability is a

large misconception when it comes to private higher education, so having this

drop down menu is very convenient and informative.

○ That being said, the placement of said drop down menu is not very prominent. It

is stuck at the bottom of most of the pages on the website and not especially

noticeable unless you happen to go past all the relevant information on the page.

Since the affordability misconception plagues private higher education as a

whole, displaying the advocacy of student aid more prominently would be

beneficial.

● U-CAN (University and College Accountability Network)

○ U-CAN is an initiative by the NAICU that assists students in the college search

process. Students can search institutions by name or location, and find a lot of

helpful information about these institutions such as admission rates and tuition

prices.

○ Although it contains a lot of helpful and up-to-date information, the website itself

looks very outdated. A complete website redesign is recommended since the

actual content is so useful to students and guidance counselors. Students and

guidance counselors are such an important demographic for the NAICU so

catering to their needs can only be useful.

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Shared Media

● Twitter

○ The NAICU currently runs and maintains two separate Twitter accounts:

@NAICUtweets (NAICU) and @NAICUheadlines (NAICU News Roundup).

The former is mainly concerned with news and information regarding the NAICU

as an organization. The latter is mainly concerned with headlines about private

higher education in general.

○ The main NAICU account was started in 2010 and currently has 9,500 followers

(as of early December 2019). They post sporadically; there were only 7 posts in

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the month of October, with 4 being retweets and 3 being original posts, no posts

in November, and so far 3 posts in December. Each post only generates a handful

of likes and retweets and other users rarely respond.

○ The NAICU News Roundup account was started in 2007 and currently has 7,140

followers (as of early December 2019). This account only posts articles related to

news about private higher education. There are many posts, but the account has

not posted since early September 2016. It is rare to find a post with any likes or

retweets and the ones that do are very minimal. This account has been untouched

for years but there is a lot of potential for interest in this kind of account if

revamped.

○ The NAICU’s presence on Twitter is lacking to say the least. It would be

beneficial for the NAICU to increase their engagement on Twitter since many

high school students are active on the platform. Given that high school students

are one of the NAICU’s main audiences, being able to message to them is

essential.

● Facebook

○ The official NAICU Facebook page currently has 908 likes with 1,102 people

following them to see their posts. The posts, like Twitter, are sporadic but more

in quantity. Also like Twitter, the posts do not have many likes, comments, or

shares.

○ Even though high school students do not use Facebook a lot anymore, their

parents do. Parents, along with high school students and college guidance

counselors, are one of the NAICU’s main audiences. The NAICU has an

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opportunity with Facebook to message directly with parents, who typically have a

huge say in the college decision process. 

Insights 

First, we collected data and turned it into relevant information. Now, we need to turn

primary and secondary research implications to insights, which will lead to actionable

recommendations for the client. Our secondary research presented three main findings, which

was confirmed in conjunction with our primary research:

● Convey individualized experiences of private colleges and universities.

○ These are the areas that bring the most ​value​ and return on investment to

attending private colleges and universities, and therefore, should be

prioritized by the NAICU:

■ Small class sizes

■ Opportunity to develop relationships with professors

● Clarify the price misconception

○ Private schools offer a lot of financial aid and scholarships, resulting to

lower prices.

● Communicate their goal

○ Take advantage of putting the mission statement on the website

○ Advertise their goals and values on their social media

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Recommendations 

Going off the insights our research team gathered, the NAICU needs to revamp their

website, and commit to being more active over social media. The NAICU should hire a more

experienced and creative social media manager and web designer to better market themselves.

The homepage is beautifully designed, but when consumers click on the links containing

valuable information, it’s a different story. The information that consumers want is found on

U-CAN, which has not been visually updated since 2006. Creating a new visual design that

better delivers the information, and is similar to the home web page should be the main goal.

With a revamped website, where the information is easier to decipher, the NAICU should

become a more valuable asset to people interested in private colleges.

Social media is the most useful way of interacting with Generation Z and Millennials, the

generations of people who are either on their way to college, or have recently graduated. The

NAICU has the opportunity to create a larger platform for themselves and gain more influence if

they can connect with future students and parents. A creative social media manager will find

ways to get the organization’s name out to the public, which will be of benefit to consumers and

the NAICU. Social media has become the most prevalent, and cost efficient way of advertising,

we recommend that the NACIU jumps at the opportunity to connect with generations better than

they had with the Baby Boomers and Generation X.

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Connect with college counselors at high schools across the country, who are direct links

to prospective applicants. Also connect to parents, they are the ones who are going to be

financially supporting students. It would be helpful to debunk the misconception of price.

Research Limitations & Future Research Recommendations 

All research, good and bad, is limited in some way. Our research is no different. Here

are some limitations that have potentially influenced our findings:

● Personal bias: All members of this research team attend a private university. Due to this,

there is a possibility that our research is biased in favor of private higher education since

we all reap the benefits.

● Survey: While our survey was not taken solely by students attending a private college or

university, a grand majority of our respondents do attend a private college or university.

Additionally, most of our respondents come from upper-middle class or wealthy

backgrounds. This is absolutely a limitation given how similar the respondents’

backgrounds are.

● Focus Group: Since the focus group took place at Elon, all participants attend the

university. Again, this is a clear bias since all participants directly benefit from private

higher education.

If this research were to be done again or reproduced, there are some ways to improve the

research in quality. In terms of the actual researchers, it would be highly beneficial to have

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researchers from outside the world of private higher education. While our group did its best to

remain objective, it is impossible to be completely objective while attending a private university.

For our survey, we would ideally have many more respondents (~1,000) from a variety of

different backgrounds. Similarly, conducting multiple focus groups with varied participants

would be ideal.

Appendix - Primary Research Data

Survey Questions

1. I am….
a. Male
b. Female
c. Non-binary
2. My graduate year is….
a. 2020
b. 2021
c. 2022
d. 2023
e. Still in high school
f. Out of school
3. My parents/guardian/caretaker attended…
a. Public college
b. Private college
c. Community college
d. Did not attend college
e. Vocational school
f. Other__________

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4. Before attending college I lived

a. Home is ____________
5. I would describe my town as…
a. Wealthy
b. Upper-middle class
c. Lower-middle class
d. Middle class
e. Poor
6. My high school was a…..
a. Public school
b. Private school(day school)
c. Private school(boarding school)
d. Charter school
e. Other ___________
7. I primarily applied to….
a. Public colleges
b. Private colleges
c. Community colleges
d. Other
8. As a high school senior, I understood the differences between a public and private
college….
a. True
b. False
9. If you applied to a private school, who introduced you to the school?
a. Family member
b. Friends who also applied
c. College counselor
d. Other________
e. Applied to public schools only
10. My second choice was…

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a. None
b. Another private college
c. A public school
d. A larger private school
11. The most important factor about selecting a college to me was…
a. Size
b. Sports teams/School spirit
c. Price
d. Other-please list _______________

12. On weekend nights I would…..

a. Attend school sports games
b. Hang out with friends
c. Chill by myself/family
d. Work
e. Other
13. In high school I…..
a. Heavily participated in extracurriculars
b. Was part of a few clubs
c. Not apart of any clubs but was on sports teams
d. Did not do anything associated with my high school
14. Academically, I like…..(Circle all that apply)
a. Having a relationship with my teachers
b. Teaching myself concepts and problems
c. Lecture-style classes
d. Socratic/Discussion-based classes
e. Other-please list _________________
15. I would not have attended Elon or my college if ...(select all that apply)
a. I didn’t get scholarship money
b. The school wasn’t so pretty

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c. Greek life was not available

d. Size was too big
e. Other-please list _________________
16. I have always planned on studying abroad while in high school, which impacted my
college decision.
a. True
b. False
17. I wanted a college experience that would challenge my beliefs and values….
a. Yes
b. No
c. Never thought about it
18. Do you think public institutions offer the same opportunities as private institutions?
Please explain in 2-3 sentences.
19. Please explain what you believe would be the best part of a private school. What about
public school colleges?
20. If you had to attend a public school, what feature of a private school would you bring to
implement into that school?(ex. small classroom, smaller campus, professor relationships,
extracurricular leadership opportunities, etc.)

Focus Group Discussion Guide + Projection Exercises

● Introduction & Ice breaker (5-10 minutes) 

○ Welcome to our focus group! Your time and effort is greatly appreciated 
and highly valued. We expect nothing of you other than to relax, have a 
good time getting to know each other, and engage in an interesting 
conversation. ​The content discussed in this session is confidential, please 
do not hesitate in answering as truthfully as possible. It would be 
appreciated if we could create a safe environment, and stay away from 
making comments that make others feel uncomfortable. So with that let’s 
begin! 

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○ We’ll start by going around the room and introducing ourselves. Please 
state your name, where you’re from, and your favorite TV show. I’ll begin: 
(introduce self) 
○ Follow-ups: 
■ What’s your favorite part about living there? 
■ What do you like about that show? 
● Warm up: The purpose of this warm up is to see if there is a correlation between 
students who go to private high schools attend private institutions. (1-2 minutes) 
○ Please close your eyes, if you went to a public high school please raise 
your hand.   
○ If you went to a private highschool, please raise your hand 
○ Open your eyes, now lets begin these activities! 
● Projective exercise #1: Personification (15 minutes) 
○ (Hand each participant a blank piece of paper) 
○ Imagine that ​Harvard University​ is a person. Please spend a few minutes 
writing down some characteristics of that person, including physical and 
outward traits (i.e. appearance, what their everyday outfit might look like, 
what car they drive) and personality traits or interests (i.e. what their favorite 
TV show is, what they do in their free time, etc.) 
○ Now, imagine that ​University of Richmond​ is a person. Please perform the 
same task as before, including physical traits, personality traits and/or 
interests that would be typical of this person. 
○ Lastly, please imagine that ​North Carolina State University​ is a person. 
Once again, please describe this person by identifying notable traits they 
might have. 
○ Now, let’s go around the room and discuss how we each describe Harvard 
as a person. 
■ Follow-ups: 
● Why did you choose that? 
● That’s interesting, can you elaborate 

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● Why ____ instead of _____ for this person? 

○ (Continue to ask about the other schools) 
■ (Pay attention to potential differences from private schools to public 
school descriptions.) 
● Projective Exercise #2: Sentence completions (10 minutes) 
○ People who go to private institutions are_______ 
○ Private institutions offer_________ 
○ Public institutions offer_________ 
○ ______ is the reason people go to public institutions  
○ ________ is the reason people choose to go to public institutions 

● Projective Exercise #3: Thought bubble (15 minutes) 

○ Please look at this picture (hand out printed versions of visual). 
○ This is a high school student applying for college. Please spend a minute or 
two writing in what you think he’s thinking. 
■ (Potential photo): 

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Sources Consulted 

Albion College. “10 Benefits of Private Colleges.” ​Albion College,​

https://www.albion.edu/admission/starting-your-college-search/10-benefits-of-private-col
leges.

Ben. “Public University vs. Private College.” ​Peterson's​, Peterson's, 28 Mar. 2019,
https://www.petersons.com/blog/public-university-vs-private-college/.

Cohen, Rick. "Universities Pay Plenty for Influence and Access through Lobbying." ​Nonprofit
Quarterly,​ 16 July 2014.

Gunderson, Steve. "Private-Sector Schools can Help Fill Skills Gap."​ Roll Call​, Mar 13, 2012​.
ProQuest​,
https://ezproxy.elon.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.elon.edu/docview/927 
750081​?accountid=10730.

"How Can Colleges and Universities Use Email Marketing to Improve Admission
Yields?" ​FulcrumTech,​ Sept. 2013, fulcrumtech.net/resources/
email-marketing-for-colleges-and-universities/.

“Infographic: Private College Students Receive Much More Financial Aid.” ​Medaille College,​ 7
Mar. 2017,
https://www.medaille.edu/news/infographic-private-college-students-receive-much-more-
financial-aid.

Kreighbaum, Andrew. "Private Colleges Give Ground on Student Data." ​Inside ​ ​Higher Ed,​ 8
June 2018.

NCES. "College Enrollment in The United States from 1965 to 2017 and Projections up to 2028
for Public and Private Colleges (in Millions)." Statista, Statista Inc., 31 Mar 2019,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/183995/us-college-enrollment-and-projections-in-publ
ic-and-private-institutions/

NCES, “The Condition of Education 2019” ​Institute of Education Sciences,

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019144.pdf

Newsom, John. "N.C. private college presidents oppose GOP tax plan."
​Greensboro​, 13 Nov. 2017.

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Ourkids.net. “Private School Misconceptions: Why Are People Negative About Private
Schools?” ​Private School Misconceptions: Why Are People Negative About Private
Schools?​,https://www.ourkids.net/blog/why-people-are-negative-about-private-schools-1
9952/.

Patel, Jason. “Should I Go to a Public University or Private College?” ​Niche,​ 2 Jan. 2019,
https://www.niche.com/blog/should-i-go-to-a-public-university-or-private-college/.

Ruffalo Noel Levitz. "Share of Usage of Communication Methods for Marketing and
Recruitment at Four-year Private Higher Education Institutions in The U.S. in 2018."
Statista, Statista Inc., 27 Sep 2018,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/720682/communication-method-usage-for-marketing-r
ecru​itment-at-4-year-private-us-colleges/

"50 Creative Ways Colleges Are Recruiting Students Today." ​CollegeStats​,

collegestats.org/2012/10/
50-creative-ways-colleges-are-recruiting-students-today/.

Scholarships.com. “The Pros & Cons Of State Universities.” ​Scholarships for College Free
College Scholarship Search 2019-2020,​
https://www.scholarships.com/resources/college-prep/choosing-the-right-school/the-pros-
and-cons-of-state-universities/.

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