Austin Porter is a sophomore at a small Midwestern university-SMWU. He is con- sidering whether or not to continue at this university or to transfer to one with a nationally recognized engineering program. Austin's decision-making process included the following:

A. He surfed the Internet to check out the sites of a number of colleges and univer- sities with engineering programs.

B. Austin wrote to five of the universities to obtain information on their engineer- ing colleges, tuition and room and board costs, likelihood of his being accepted, and so on.

C. Austin compared costs of the five other schools to the cost of his present school. He totaled the balance in his checking and savings accounts, estimated the earn- ings from his work-study job, and asked his parents whether or not they would be able to help him out.

D. Austin's high-school sweetheart had a long heart-to-heart talk with him about their future-specifically, that there might be no future if he left town.

E. Austin thought that while he enjoyed his present college, its engineering program did not have the national reputation that would enable him to get a good job on either the East or West coast. Working for a large company on the coast was an important dream of his.

F. Austin's major advisor agreed that a school with a national reputation would make job hunting easier. However, he reminded Austin that small-college gradu- ates had occasionally gotten the kind of jobs Austin wanted.

G. Austin had a number of good friends at the small college, and they were encour- aging him to stay.

H. A friend of Austin's from high school returned for a long weekend. She went to a prestigious university and told Austin of the fun and opportunities available at her school. She encouraged Austin to check out the possibilities elsewhere.

I. A friendly professor outside of Austin's major area ran into him at the student union. She listened to his thinking and reminded him that a degree from a small college would easily get him into a good graduate program. Perhaps he ought to consider postponing the job hunt until a master's degree was in hand.

J. Two of the three prestigious universities accepted Austin and offered him finan- cial aid. The third one rejected his application.

K. Austin made his decision.

Required:

Classify the above events as one of the six steps of the model for making tactical decisions described in your text.