Abstract
Students take into account different factors in their choice of university studies
and college. Some are global, as the quality of the degree (ratio available places/firstchoice
places in, cut-off grade, etc.), and others are subjective factors (e.g.: my friends are also taking
this degree). In this work we present a partial multivariate model that takes into account the
weight of the different variables shown by different works linked to this decision. We have
studied three samples (n = 372 from the Universidad Pablo de Olavide; n = 2,244 from the
Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, and n = 543 from the Universitat de Barcelona) from
several degrees in the 20102011 and 20112012 academic years, all of them new students,
coming from high school, and who had choosen these universities as first choice. The global
effect shows that the structural model fits reasonably well in the three universities studied.
Similarly, university and specialty models show different intensity effects, and we found that,
in the case of Universitat Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) and Universitat de Barcelona (UB),
they show higher intensity than in Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO). This makes us think
that in most urban universities with a clear and regular offer of degrees (engineering in the
case of UPV, and Health and Social Sciences in the case of UB), personal and social factors
are more important than in the case of universities, as is the case of UPO, with an offer and
dimension not yet completely defined.
