<![CDATA[University choice is a complex decision shaped by financial, academic, and institutional considerations, and the relative importance of these factors may vary across higher education contexts. Understanding these considerations is essential for universities seeking to align recruitment strategies with students’ actual priorities. This study aimed to examine the effects of education cost, study programs, scholarship programs, university promotion, accreditation, and university reputation on students’ university choice decisions. A quantitative explanatory design was employed involving 100 respondents drawn from a population of 1,330 students at Universitas XYZ using accidental sampling. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using multiple linear regression with IBM SPSS Statistics. The findings show that education cost, study programs, and accreditation were positively associated with students’ university choice decisions. Scholarship programs and university reputation also showed significant relationships, but in directions contrary to the proposed hypotheses, while university promotion did not show a significant independent relationship. Overall, the results indicate that students’ university choices are more consistently associated with directly assessable attributes, particularly affordability and perceived value, academic program relevance, and accreditation. Universities should therefore strengthen these substantive attributes while improving scholarship accessibility and ensuring that promotional and reputation-building efforts are supported by clear evidence of educational value.]]>
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