New survey: Class of 2023 Fall Senior Survey

November 2, 2022 — PITTSBURGH — Niche, the leading platform connecting students and families with colleges and schools, published a new survey of 20,045 students from the high school class of 2023. The survey was run as a joint project between Niche and Tudor Collegiate Strategies (TCS) in order to learn more about students’ preferences, practices, and attitudes throughout their college search process. 

As with the Class of 2022, diversity proved to be one of the top aspects of a campus experience that students want. With 79% of students saying that a diverse student body was either appealing or a must-have in their college experience, diversity outranks interest in the arts (68%), a strong athletic fan experience (53%), athletic participation (37%) and Greek life (23%).

“We’re seeing that diversity is consistently ranked highest on the list of what students are looking for in a campus experience,” said Will Patch, Senior Enrollment Insights Leader at Niche. “There’s so much emphasis right now on how colleges can continue to diversify their campus — particularly in light of current and upcoming Supreme Court cases on race-conscious admissions — and this survey demonstrates that this continues to be important to incoming students as they search for the right college for them.��

Other key takeaways from the results include:

• 97% reported that they had fears about the college search process. The most common fears were not being able to afford the college that they want (37%), making the wrong decision (24%), and not being accepted to a college (16%)
• The three most important non-student campus factors students wanted were the availability of scholarships (98%), a safe campus (96%), and the quality and variety of food options (93%)
• For the 51% of students who have not visited a campus yet, resources (time, money, transportation, etc.) were the most common reason why not with 20% reporting that. Another 19% said that they are waiting to decide where they are going to enroll prior to visiting. Not knowing how to schedule a visit (16%), waiting until acceptance (14%), and other reasons (14%) rounded out the top five reasons for not visiting

The full survey results can be found here: https://www.niche.com/about/enrollment-insights/class-of-2023-fall-senior-survey/ 

About Niche: Niche is where students and parents choose their school. Whether a school is already on their list or the perfect fit they haven’t yet discovered, Niche connects families to the ones that are uniquely right for them. Our enrollment marketing solutions enable our nearly 3,000 partners to build genuine connections that nurture interest into visits, applications and enrollment. By supporting over 50 million students and parents, Niche is changing how schools and colleges connect with families and build their future classes.

Press contact:

Natalie Tsay
Senior PR Specialist
Natalie.Tsay@niche.com