Challenge: BU was seeing a significant increase in the number of undergraduate transfer students and wanted to ensure the University is meeting their housing needs.

Objectives: To determine whether the availability and quality of housing affects a transfer student’s decision to attend BU, identify the key aspects that keep transfer students on-campus once they are in BU Housing, and profile students for whom housing is important, to meet the needs of those students.

Solution: A two-phase study was conducted by Plan-it among on-campus and off-campus transfer students:

Phase 1: An Exploratory among transfers obtained in-depth learning regarding the housing decision process, and the importance of housing in choosing a transfer school. Findings from this phase were used as input for the quantitative phase.
Phase 2: A Quantitative Housing Study confirmed learning from the qualitative phase regarding the important housing features that drive students’ housing decisions, and was used to profile transfers for whom housing is a critical decision factor.

Result: Plan-it made recommendations that were used as input for developing an effective transfer student housing strategy long-term.