Determinants of College Enrollment Choice among Senior High School Students in a Private Higher Education Institution

The study examined the mediating roles of cognitive and affective attitudes in the relationships between university quality, university image, and students' intention to enroll. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework, university quality and university image were conceptualized as external stimuli, cognitive and affective attitudes as internal organismic states, and intention to enroll as the behavioral response. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was employed to examine the proposed relationships. Data were collected using a structured Likert-scale questionnaire measuring university quality, university image, cognitive attitude, affective attitude, and intention to enroll. Descriptive statistics and mediation analysis were used to examine the variables and the indirect pathways within the proposed model. Respondents reported favorable perceptions of university quality and university image, as well as favorable cognitive and affective attitudes and intention to enroll. The mediation analysis showed significant indirect effects of university quality on intention to enroll through cognitive attitude and affective attitude. Similarly, university image demonstrated significant indirect effects on intention to enroll through both cognitive and affective attitudes. The corresponding direct effects were not statistically significant, indicating that the relationships between university quality, university image, and intention to enroll were primarily transmitted through the two attitudinal mechanisms. The study extends the application of the S-O-R framework to higher education enrollment by demonstrating that institutional perceptions are associated with enrollment intention through both cognitive and affective psychological processes. The findings highlight the importance of considering students' internal evaluations when explaining how perceptions of university quality and image translate into enrollment-related intentions.