College choice as process: Understanding student decision making in contemporary higher education

Abstract

The purpose of this collected papers dissertation was to better understand how college students make educational decisions related to college choice and persistence. Although college choice and persistence research have provided important insight into students’ educational experiences, these bodies of literature have traditionally been treated as distinct lines of inquiry. College choice research has largely focused on first-time, first-year students making an initial enrollment decision, while persistence research has focused on continued enrollment and degree completion. This separation limits understanding of how students make decisions across increasingly complex educational pathways. Grounded in descriptive decision theory and the concept of bounded rationality, this dissertation examined educational decision making as an ongoing process that occurs within changing conditions, constraints, and opportunities. Two studies were conducted. Study #1 was a structured literature review of empirical research published between 2010 and 2025 on college students’ decision making related to college choice and persistence in the United States. The final sample consisted of 45 empirical studies that were analyzed using thematic analysis. Five interconnected dimensions of educational decision making emerged: academic, financial, logistical, institutional, and personal considerations. Across these dimensions, three additional themes explained how students made educational decisions: decision making was contextual, socially embedded, and dynamic. The findings of this study demonstrate that college choice and persistence are not separate educational phenomena but interconnected components of a broader decision-making process. Study #1 introduces educational viability as a conceptual lens for understanding how students continually assess whether higher education remains academically achievable, financially sustainable, logistically manageable, institutionally supportive, and personally worthwhile. Study #2 was a constructivist grounded theory study examining how community college students make decisions while considering transfer to a four-year public institution. Eleven students enrolled at community colleges in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska participated in two individual interviews and an optional focus group. Analysis resulted in a grounded theory explaining how students construct transfer viability through four interconnected processes: (re)negotiating emotional readiness, (re)assessing institutional compatibility, (re)constructing transfer viability, and (re)operationalizing transfer commitment. Participants moved recursively among these processes instead of progressing through a linear sequence. New information, changing circumstances, institutional interactions, and evolving goals continually prompted participants to revisit earlier decisions and reconsider whether transfer remained realistic, worthwhile, and achievable. The two studies together demonstrate that educational decision making extends beyond initial enrollment, is an integrated process, and involves ongoing reassessment. Study #1 synthesizes existing research to conceptualize educational viability across college choice and persistence, while Study #2 provides an empirically grounded explanation of how community college transfer students construct viability throughout the transfer process. Together, the studies advance a process-based understanding of educational decision making. Instead of making one definitive enrollment decision and following a predetermined pathway, students continually interpret their circumstances, opportunities, and constraints and adapt their educational decisions as those conditions change. These findings extend traditional understandings of college choice and offer implications for research and institutional practices that support students across increasingly complex educational pathways.