They were located all over the United States and were comprised of commuter schools and residential colleges, with some all men's and all women's institutions and many with sizable minority populations. Questions like these produce subjective answers. There were many barriers built into the survey that the IRHE sent out to prevent respondents from giving subjective answers or answers they thought the researchers wanted to hear. Instead, the survey was designed to find out how well they really do communicate. Respondents don't testify to their skills, rather their skills are revealed by the answers they give to multiple questions.
Visitors have the opportunity to select the college clusters that fit their interests.
BestCollegePicks doesn't ask what a student will major in. It does ask what occupation the student would like to pursue. Students have choices if they are not sure about what they want to do with a college education. One is to indicate that they don't know, and they will be matched according to the other parts of the survey, such as their abilities and personal values, etc. Another choice is to select several occupations, and the third choice is to register again with a different occupation choice.