Many selective colleges consider the backgrounds of applicants to improve equity in admissions. However, this information is usually not available for all applicants. We examine whether the chances of admission and enrollment changed after 43 colleges gained access to a new tool that standardizes information on educational disadvantage for all…

This paper studies the impact of state reproductive rights laws on women's human capital decisions after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization" (2022). Using data from the Common App, the undergraduate college admission application, I implement a…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) strives to create intelligent machines with human-like abilities. However, like humans, AI can be prone to implicit biases due to flaws in data or algorithms. These biases may cause discriminatory outcomes and decrease trust in AI. Bias in higher education admission may limit access to opportunities and further social…

A Machine Learning framework for predicting enrollment is proposed. The framework consists of Amazon Web Services SageMaker together with standard Python tools for data analytics, including Pandas, NumPy, MatPlotLib, and ScikitLearn. The tools are deployed with Jupyter Notebooks running on AWS SageMaker. Based on three years of enrollment history,…

Transfer admission continues to be a profoundly complicated experience. Despite stakeholders' efforts to support prospective transfer and non-traditional students to navigate the complexities of transfer admissions, only a small percentage of them will eventually access educational opportunities at four-year institutions in each recruitment cycle.…

As the technology landscape is continually evolving, transitions to newer software are commonplace in higher education. Change is often difficult to navigate, especially when the change that is implemented fundamentally impacts entrenched business processes. In no place is this more evident than when implementing a new system, whether the…

Purpose: Prospective students are exposed to abundant choices, and they are eagerly searching for information to select the best universities for themselves. Likewise, prospectuses are regularly produced by universities to meet this information needs; the purpose of this paper is to examine the key marketing messages used in their prospectuses.…

This dissertation analyzes the ways that college applicants and college students navigate through higher education with a focus on ways to improve their experience. In the first chapter, I examine the ways that college applicants change their application and enrollment decisions when using the Common Application. In the second chapter, I highlight…

High schools today have a unique challenge: to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to prepare for, apply to and enroll in college--all while proving them with digital resources and skills essential for the 21st century. This guide by the Pullias Center's Digital Equity in Education team provides a general overview of what a…