The Admitted Student Questionnaire, sponsored by The College Board, is sent to all students who have been admitted to Earlham. The questionnaire is designed to find out what students really think of our programs, recruitment literature, financial aid packages, competition, and more. Students are asked to rate colleges on image (highly respected, expensive, diverse, etc.) and on characteristics (academic reputation, cost of attendance, quality of academic facilities, etc.). The College Board provides a detailed report of their findings.

Thirty-one percent of the students who were admitted for Fall 2012 completed the survey.  Of those who responded, 60% enrolled at Earlham.

The detailed report of the Admitted Student Questionnaire can be found in hard copy in the Office of Institutional Research.  To view some of the highlights from the ASQ report, click on the following links:

• Students rank the importance of characteristics (pdf) and then rate Earlham and competitors on those characteristics
• How Earlham compares to competitors on academic and social factors (pdf)
• How Earlham compares to competitors on academic and setting factors (pdf)
• How Earlham compares to competitors on social and setting factors (pdf)
• Application and Admission Overlaps
  • How many of the Earlham admitted students applied to these competitors? (pdf)
  • How many of the Earlham admitted students were also admitted to these competitors? (pdf)
  • How many of the Earlham admitted students included these competitors among their top three college choices? (pdf)
  • How many of the Earlham admitted students enrolled with these competitors? (pdf)
  • How many of the Earlham admitted students rated these competitors? (pdf)

Items covered in the detailed report

Student background information

• Demographic characteristics and type of high school      
• Geographic distribution
• Average high school grades and admission test scores

Perceptions of college characteristics and college images

• Importance of college characteristics
• Ratings of Earlham by enrolling and non-enrolling students
• College images frequently associated with our college

Information sources

• How often sources of information were used
• Ratings of Earlham’s information sources

Financial aid and college costs

• Yields realized for need-based aid applicants and for students awarded need-based aid by Earlham 
• To what extent was the financial aid award significant factor in enrollment decision?
• Ratings of cost 
• Influence on yield of financial aid or college cost
• Amount and type of financial aid awarded
• Aid percentage by type
• Methods of financing parental contribution

Overlap with other colleges

• Number of applications and admissions to other colleges
• Top twelve competitors
• Colleges attended by non-enrolling students
• Win/loss analysis for colleges with greatest number of cross-admissions
• Top choice colleges
• Preference rank of colleges attended by all admitted students

High-achieving students (self-reported admissions test scores in top 25%)

• Importance and rating of college characteristics
• College images
• Financial Aid applications and awards
• Amount and type of financial aid awarded
• Win/loss analysis – for colleges with greatest numbers of cross-admissions

The Admitted Student Questions also provides us with competitor analysis for Knox, Grinnell, Wooster, Beloit and Oberlin.  It begins with an overview of the comparison groups comparing Earlham and these schools on academic, social, and setting factors.

For information from the detailed report, contact Polly Wilde in the Office of Institutional Research.