Employee engagement, or the extent to which an employee is fully immersed in their work can lead toward higher retention, greater productivity, and increasing profits in a workplace environment. Engagement is driven by a variety of conditions, and when met has the ability to provide many positives in a work environment. Conversely, a lack of…

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…

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…

Premedical advisors (PMAs), also known as health profession advisors' (HPAs), assist students in their application preparations to professional health programs including medical, dental, nursing, and veterinary. Medical schools are charged with the evaluation of a premedical student's readiness and competencies for medical school and as a…

This study explored the experiences of regional admissions counselors related to their recruitment of Black and Hispanic students and how counselors embedded personal experiences in recruitment strategies they used at multiple regional admissions centers of an R1 and primarily White institution (PWI). The research comes at a time when data from…

The underlining issue driving this study was factors that prevent African American males from earning a college degree. Brown (2008) noted that the disposition of African American males stem from a long history of racial oppression, discrimination, and legally mandated segregation and that society must change its negative perceptions of African…

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…

First Generation (FG) students' pursuit of higher education continues to be initiated at community colleges at high rates; these two-year Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are critical in bridging the gap for an increase in degree completion at four-year HEIs. The purpose of this study is to explore the institutional barriers, indicators, and…

U.S. colleges and universities are sites where cultural norms such as genderism and transphobia are reified through institutional policies and practices. Any place on the college campus that segregates students by sex and gender can serve to limit access and success of trans* students. In order to gain insight into how key institutional agents…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to examine the high school counselors' perception of their ability to influence low socioeconomic students' postsecondary enrollment decisions in seven Title I high schools in southern California. Perna and Thomas' Student Success model and the Delivery System of the American School…

This dissertation focuses on the growing role of private, for-profit Independent Educational Consultants (IECs) in the college application process. Over the past two decades, an "admission industrial complex" of commercial enterprises designed to help students strategize about admissions and give them information about colleges has…

There are limited studies in the literature on the factors that affect the academic success of foreign students in the United States. This ex post facto mixed method study investigated the factors that affect the academic success of foreign students at Cardinal Stitch University (CSU), a medium size, private university located in the Midwestern…

Every school has an organizational habitus that represents its allocated resources, mission, perception about students' cultural capital, and the school counselor's expectation and behavior related to college admissions. A school's mission, resources, and assumptions about students and their families affect the college choice process of students…