Home⇛International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research⇛vol. 6 no. 12 (2025)

Factors Influencing School Preference: Mapping the Student Market

Archie Carlo U. Cruz | Aira Mae M. Salamatin | Ken Paul M. Espinosa

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

The study aimed to explore the students’ insights by examining the fac-tors that influence their school preference and overall experience dur-ing the enrollment process. The study utilized a descriptive-quantita-tive research method employing survey research to analyze the per-spectives of incoming college students. The participants of the study were all admitted students for the school year 2024-2025 at Baliuag University, Baliwag City, Bulacan. Specifically, the study employed a nonprobability sampling technique known as purposive sampling. A total of 707 respondents were involved in the conduct of the investiga-tion, which comprised the total number of students who answered the survey questionnaire. The students’ school preference, based on the re-sults of the study, spans factors not limited to advertising strategies. With friends’ and relatives’ recommendations being the most influen-tial, this underscored the importance of the respondents’ social groups in choosing their university for higher education pursuits. Along with this factor are programs offered, academic excellence/quality educa-tion, mode of transportation being tricycle, sportsfest, and learning mo-dality preferred as face-to-face classes. Further, the outstanding enroll-ment process satisfaction results also indicated that the institution should continuously maintain its current operational techniques as well as its openness to feedback, as service quality proved to be funda-mental in how students perceive higher education institutions. The findings of the study served as a basis for targeted recommendations aimed at continuously improving university positioning in the student market, proactively responding to evolving student preferences, and ensuring relevance in the highly competitive Philippine higher educa-tion institution academic landscape.



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