Factors mid-American conference women swimmers considered when deciding which university to attend during the recruiting process

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that Mid-American Conference women swimmers considered during the recruiting process when deciding which college to attend and to determine which of the factors they identified as being the most important and the least important during this process. The method that was used for gathering data was a confidential questionnaire that took about five minutes to complete. The questionnaire consisted of ten items that were ranked from one to ten; one being the most influential factor in deciding which university to attend and ten being the least influential factor in the decision making process. The ten factors the athletes were asked to consider were academics, campus life, coaching staff, contributions to the team, distance from home, facilities, scholarship offer, size of school, teammates, and team success. A yes or no question was asked that indicated if the student-athlete received information and/or phone calls from the coaching staff prior to making their decision. There was also a question that asked the student's year in school. The nine MidAmerican Conference schools that sponsor women's swimming were sent a packet consisting of a cover letter and questionnaires. Six of the nine schools returned the surveys and a total of 116 surveys were collected; yielding a response rate of 75%. Previous research in this area suggested that athletes considered coaching staff and team success as the most influential factors when deciding which university to attend during the recruiting process. Contrasting this data with the results of this study, it was found that academics (M = 3.6) and coaching staff (M = 3.6) were the most important factors that influenced MAC athletes. The least important factors were the size of the university (M = 6.8) and the success of the team (M = 7.1).