Background: Graduate admissions in psychology continue to be a popular and competitive venture, with the demand for new graduate student opportunities exceeding the annual supply. Objective: Our present work was a partial replication and extension of Appleby and Appleby (2006). We added closed- and open-ended questions regarding social media to…

Despite evidence that informational interventions can influence K-12 school choices, we know little about the mechanisms through which they work and the factors that produce heterogeneity in student responses. Through a school-level randomized controlled trial conducted in 473 New York City middle schools serving 115,000 eighth graders, we…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand demographic group (race, first-generation college graduate, gender, age) differences among perceived family and faculty social and family financial support within the US graduate school admissions pipeline in the social sciences. Design/methodology/approach Using data from a cross-sectional…

This research study analyzed the curriculum of school counselor preparation programs and programs' emphasis on preparing counselors to support students in their college admissions and college choice processes. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, including surveys of counselor education department chairs and document analysis of the…

Undermatching continues to create barriers to access to post-secondary opportunities for low-income students from urban public high schools. According to Belasco and Trivette (2015), postsecondary undermatch occurs when students fail to enroll at a college or university that possesses a level of selectivity their academic credentials would permit…

The purpose of this mixed methods action research study was to implement digital outreach strategies, which would enhance students' motivation to complete financial aid requirements and scale the departments' more time-consuming counseling efforts. Using self-determination theory as the primary framework, I implemented the use of a series of…

As the number of traditional-aged college students has declined, competition has risen. Admission counselors, who are responsible for recruiting entering students, bear the brunt of this challenge. Nowhere is recruitment more important than at tuition dependent institutions, where revenue from student charges is the financial lifeblood. These…

There is a lack of research on institutional e-accessibility and transfer-credit-software adoption and how these technologies impact college students and professionals. Accordingly, this study explores how adopting technology products can improve the transfer process experience for transfer admission counselors and students. In doing so, the study…

Stratification in selective college admissions persists even as colleges' criteria for evaluating merit have multiplied in efforts to increase socioeconomic and racial diversity. Middle-class and affluent families increasingly turn to privatized services, such as private college consulting, to navigate what they perceive to be a complicated and…

The authors of this study utilized data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement to conduct a critical examination of perceptions of institutional support among transfer-seeking community college students in North Carolina. We adopted an intersectional quantitative approach by centering racial and ethnic identity, and examining the…

First-generation college students, who are often low-income or from minoritized backgrounds, face many challenges when they enter college. As they begin the college search process, they may seek support from spaces outside of their families to understand and find information. This study used in-depth interviews with first- and second-year…

This phenomenological study examined the impact of school counselor relationships on the college application process for Black or Hispanic students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Each of the six participants in this study met the criteria as a student who qualified for "free-lunch" status during high school. This status indicates…

Based on a case study of two majority-Black public high schools in a highly segregated American school district, the article employs a critical intersectional framework to examine the experiences of ten college-aspiring young Black men as they navigate the college choice process. Findings indicate that working-class Black male students are less…

This dissertation investigates the impact of information and policy on the efficiency of higher education financing, particularly for low-income students in Latin America. Through three empirical studies, it addresses the barriers posed by information asymmetries and institutional discretion in student loan and college admission processes and…