The Choice Process for Graduate Business Schools

Abstract

The college choice behavior of graduate business school applicants is studied. A stochastic utility model is proposed and estimated by use of a sample of students admitted to Carnegie-Mellon University. The specific formulation used is the conditional logit model. Results indicate that such factors as net cost, quality, and distance of applicant's home from school are important determinants of college choice. Specific probability computations are used to illustrate the results for a typical decision maker.