New ACE Brief Highlights First-Year Students’ Decisions

Nearly 70 percent of students were accepted to their first-choice institution, with over half considering the value of a degree in their application decision and about 60 percent expressing concerns about financing their education. These insights come from the ACE brief Factors Affecting First-Year Students’ College Decisions, using data from the 2023 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). The brief encourages senior leaders to use this data to inform recruitment, retention, and equity strategies while addressing financial anxieties and aligning credentials with career success.

See the announcement here.

Download the brief here.

Learn more about the partnership between UCLA Ed&IS and ACE here.