Understanding Student Preferences in the Selection of a Graduate Allied Health Program: A Conjoint Analysis Study

As the healthcare landscape rapidly changes, graduate allied health programs must position themselves to educate the next generation of healthcare professionals in a highly competitive landscape. No studies have directly measured the relative importance of attributes in program selection by prospective healthcare students.

We surveyed graduate healthcare management program applicants in the 2018 admissions cycle (n=512) to determine which attributes were most important in program choice. We utilized conjoint analysis to estimate utilities and importance scores of six attributes: program ranking, cost, work experience, geography, distance to home, and salary. We then conducted a market simulation to predict relative market share of academic programs.

The most important attribute to prospective students was the projected starting salary, with US News and World Report ranking and tuition cost the second and third most important attributes, respectively. Each attribute was relatively inelastic respective to tuition cost.

While future leaders placed the most value on earnings when selecting a program, they also valued rankings and cost. By focusing on these factors, programs can target their marketing efforts to recruit the best potential future healthcare leaders, while this method can be replicated to gauge the most important relative attributes for a variety of healthcare professions.