<p>No, my experience with COFHE is that it’s used for internal purposes.</p>
<p>I think one leaked finding that 7% of seniors at one Ivy are dissatisfied–compared to an average of 5% at other prestige privates–is of limited interpretive value.</p>
<p>I think your theory actually has some merit–that an unhappy freshman at a highly prestigious school may stick it out because he or she still wants that name school. I’ll bet that does happen, and freshman retention is boosted by that.</p>
<p>But I question how much good data we have that would tell us how widespread this phenomenon is. I wonder whether you should cite COFHE data as one of our available sources, because I don’t think we know what the full COFHE data would really show avout the Ivies. Furthermore, it’s a senior survey, not a freshman survey.</p>