Perceived Barriers to College Application and Enrollment for New Students

Carter, Travis Perceived Barriers to College Application and Enrollment for New Students. Thesis. Radford University Scholars' Repository.

PDF Download (12MB)

Abstract

The competition for college enrollments has increased drastically since the turn of the century. For-profit, not-for-profit, trade schools, and community colleges represent a small sample of the many different options that have become available to students. As colleges continue to grapple with overwhelming debt loads and competition, being creative, innovative and inviting in the application process has become more important than ever before. This mixed methods study aims to explore the different ways colleges may or may not be creating barriers to application and enrollment for students. Interest questionnaires were sent out to students at a Virginia private college and a public university along with different offices of administration at the private college. Upon receipt of the responses, interviews were conducted with willing participants and follow-up design workshops were held on each individual campus. Upon completion of an Affinity Cluster and Persona Profiles, the on-campus workshops included a new method titled Truth About Lies and concluded with an Alternative Worlds workshop with the result being a prototype developed for use by colleges into the future. The design-thinking workshops worked towards the creation of a new-age, student-friendly college application. Including different types of students from public and private, plus larger and smaller schools was important in the creation of an equitable and efficient application. Including administrators, it helped to capture the important elements necessary of any college application. All three populations were instrumental in the deconstruction of traditional applications and ultimately, their redesign.

Item Type:	Thesis
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
Divisions:	Radford University > College of Visual and Performing Arts > Department of Design
Date Deposited:	13 Jun 2025 12:51
Last Modified:	13 Jun 2025 12:51
URI:	http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/1177

Administrative Actions

View Item