While college enrollment has more-than doubled since 1970, elite colleges have barely increased supply, instead reducing admit rates. We show that straightforward reasons cannot explain this behavior. We propose a model where colleges compete on prestige, measured using relative selectivity or relative admit rates. A key comparative static of the…

Access to higher education is often competitive, and much attention has been placed on the question of admission decision-making in such high stakes situations. We identify various approaches to distributive justice and consider these under the framework developed by Pike distinguishes between 'egalitaria' (everyone gets the same); 'necessitia'…

For years, discussions on inequality in college admissions have addressed standardized tests, but less is known about inequality in nonstandardized components of applications. We analyzed extracurricular activity descriptions in 6,054,104 applications submitted through the Common Application using natural language processing methods. Overall,…

I estimate the effect of attending an associate's degree in nursing program on nursing licensure. I use student-level academic data for all California community college students, matched to public records on all nursing licenses earned in the state. I produce causal estimates using random variation from admissions lotteries at a large nursing…

The various empirical models built for enrollment management, operations, and program evaluation purposes may have lost their predictive power as a result of the recent collective impact of COVID restrictions, widespread social upheaval, and the shift in educational preferences. This statistical artifact is known as model drifting, data-shift,…

External privatisation of public education has emerged in Finland in the admission to higher education. A field analysis of thematic interviews (N = 22) with powerful actors in the private educational market and middle-class young people applying for places at universities in the highly competitive disciplines of medicine and law was conducted.…

This qualitative case study examined the efficacy of one university's academic interventions in support of conditionally admitted (CA) students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective was to gain insights into how academic interventions changed for CA students and how the students used academic interventions during COVID-19 at one four-year…

This brief is part of the Affirming Equity, Ensuring Inclusion, and Empowering Action initiative. This brief is focused on holistic review, a strategy in college admissions that assesses an applicant's unique experiences alongside a range of indicators that include grades, extra curriculars, environmental context, among other factors. For…

There is a nursing shortage in the United States which has become even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite qualified applicants, thousands of students are turned away from educational programs each year as programs reach capacity limits. The rejection may have social, psychological, and economic consequences for the student.…

Current, traditional-aged prospective college students are undergoing their college-going decision process in a "constantly connected" world. The purpose of this research was to explore and better understand how peer influence through social media may be influencing the decisions that current traditional-aged prospective college students…

Today, numerous countries utilize unified methods and systematic standardized examinations such as national examinations as formal procedures to select qualified applicants for admission to higher education institutions since higher education is viewed as the major path and criterion to upward mobility. In Iran, the university entrance examination…

Whether employers may inquire about an individual's past criminal history has gained attention in state policy arenas. In 2016 the Department of Education issued a report encouraging higher education institutions across the United States to forgo inquiring about criminal history on college admissions applications. To date, research on ban the box…

Widening participation in higher education for under-represented groups is a priority internationally. In Australia, the most common entry pathway for domestic undergraduate students is by obtaining an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) in the final year of secondary school. The ATAR system, however, has been criticised as disadvantaging…

Personal statements are among the most commonly used instruments in college admissions procedures. Yet, little research on their reliability, validity, and fairness exists. The first aim of this paper was to investigate hypotheses about adverse impact and underprediction for female applicants, which could result from lower tendencies to use…

Annual rankings provide easily consumable quantitative information that prospective students and their families use to make decisions about applications and admissions offers. One popular ranking is Princeton Review's Party Schools, which receives national attention and condemnation by institutional leaders. We analyzed IPEDS and Clery Act data…