Revealed preferences
A short choice exercise. In each task, pick the hypothetical college your family would actually prefer. We then work backwards to estimate what is really driving the decision — your revealed preferences, which often differ from what we say matters.
How this worksWhat conjoint analysis is — and how to read it▾
Conjoint analysis is a decision-science technique for uncovering how someone actually weighs competing factors. Instead of asking “how important is cost?” — where almost everyone answers “very” — it shows you realistic colleges that force trade-offs, and infers your priorities from the choices you make.
That gap is the whole point. Your stated preferences are what you say matters; your revealed preferences are what your choices show matters. Surfacing the difference leads to a more honest family conversation about fit.
Each task pits a few hypothetical colleges against each other, varying five attributes (cost, selectivity, distance, size, prestige). From your picks we fit a simple multinomial-logit model that produces two readouts:
- Attribute importance — how much each factor swung your decisions, relative to the others.
- Part-worth utilities — within a single factor, the relative appeal of each level (e.g. “under $20k” vs “$60k+”).
This is a short exercise tuned for a quick read, not a research-grade survey — see the methodology for limitations.
If these were the only options, which would you choose?
Revealed preferences are estimated from a small set of trade-offs — a directional guide for discussion, not a definitive verdict.