Many college systems are facing a recruiting environment where the individual driving forces add up to more than their individual sum, creating a highly challenging situation. Some of the driving forces creating this recruiting challenge are: decreasing number of high school graduates, more educational offerings, a tightening of the credit markets, and changing college expectations of the “millennial” generation. This quantitative research study focused on students who chose to major in business and their college decision-making process to attend a small Midwest private college. The students' responses to the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) freshman survey were used to identify possible college choice factors used in business students' decision-making processes to attend this particular college.

The results suggest that factors business students used as their major college choice factors for attending this small Midwestern private college were: (a) getting a better job; (b) making more money; and (c) obtaining training for a specific career. In addition, four variables were identified that the students used in their decision-making process: (1) the college's good academic reputation: (2) the offer of financial assistance; (3) graduates get good jobs; and (4) a positive campus visit. The findings will be helpful in identifying processes and/or tools used in this college's enrollment management system.