Exploring Family Perceptions of Value & Affordability with Dr. Raj Raghunathan [S5:E1]

Join us for a special live Enrollment Spectrum Podcast recording as we sit down with Raj Raghunathan, PhD, to explore connections between his research and EMA's newest special report, An Independent School Education: Family Perceptions of Value and Affordability. Dr. Raghunathan, H.E. Hartfelder/The Southland Corporation Regents Chair of Marketing at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, is an internationally recognized researcher, writer, and speaker. His work examines how judgments and decisions shape happiness, fulfillment, and perceptions of value. Dr. Raghunathan's insights—featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, and a TED Talk that reached millions worldwide—position him uniquely to shed light on today's independent school marketplace. The session will explore how behavioral science shapes the ways families perceive tuition, investment, and the long-term value of an independent school education. This live conversation offers a front-row seat at the intersection of theory and practice—blending research, storytelling, and actionable insights to strengthen enrollment management strategy. Dr. Raghunathan's work has appeared in top journals, including The Journal of Marketing, The Journal of Consumer Research, The Journal of Marketing Research, and The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His work has been cited in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review. Dr. Raghunathan's Psychology Today blog, Sapient Nature , has over 2.5 million page views. His online course on Employee Happiness was rated a Top MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) of 2019 and currently has over 10,000 students. Dr. Raghunathan's book, If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Happy? , has been translated into 13 languages and has been featured in the Atlantic , Time , Guardian , Times of India , Live Mint , and Mid-Day . Dr. Raghunathan's TED talk was viewed live (on STAR TV) by over 17 million people worldwide. EMA members can access the full report, An Independent School Education: Family Perceptions of Value and Affordability, and dig deeper into the results on the accompanying data dashboard by logging into EMA's Community: community.enrollment.org.

You can listen to Exploring Family Perceptions of Value & Affordability with Dr. Raj Raghunathan [S5:E1] online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Exploring Family Perceptions of Value & Affordability with Dr. Raj Raghunathan [S5:E1] is an episode from The Enrollment Spectrum Podcast by The Enrollment Management Association.

This episode is 56:19 long.

This episode was published on Feb 24, 2026.

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