Letters of recommendation from school counselors are required to apply to many selective colleges and universities. Still, relatively little is known about how this non-standardized component may affect equity in admissions. We use cutting-edge natural language processing techniques to algorithmically analyze a national dataset of over 600,000…

Underrepresented minority (URM) students face unique challenges when pursuing graduate education, with some not even considering the possibility of pursuing a graduate degree. This paper describes a nontraditional approach to the graduate application process that involves identification of potential applicants by graduate faculty and staff at The…

Net price calculators (NPCs) are online tools designed to increase transparency in college pricing by presenting students with individualized estimates of net prices to attend a given postsecondary institution. The federal template NPC predicts identical aid awards for similarly profiled students attending the same institution. Using the 2012…

Prior research finds that low-income students are less likely to apply to and enroll in four-year colleges or more selective colleges, even after controlling for academic preparation and other background characteristics. The College Board sought to reduce barriers in the college application process through a targeted campaign of brochures and…

Today, postsecondary institutions in the US typically wish to enroll entering classes that are both academically qualified and diverse. Although the definition of diversity varies from school to school, the challenge is essentially the same: How can academic objectives be combined with goals that involve the composition of the entering class? Many…

Decades of research has suggested that completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can be a complex, difficult process for postsecondary students and their support networks. However, no extant research has informed federal student aid practitioners and researchers as to what federal student aid jargon terms institutions of…

Most military veterans who reside in a central U.S. city have not entirely used their Montgomery G.I. Bill (MGIB) education benefits to advance their careers. There is limited research on veterans' views of the effect of certain barriers, identified from prior research, on academic persistence. The problem of the lack of specific information about…

Although it is well established that college entrance exams have become a key factor for admission to selective institutions, less is known about the influence of test scores in relation to other academic factors in the evaluation of a student's application file. This study conducts a randomized-controlled trial to determine whether providing…

This Information Capsule utilized data from the Scoir platform to report on post-secondary plans and enrollment for the M-DCPS class of 2022. Approximately 95% of the high school seniors enrolled in traditional high schools had available data on the platform and of those, 90% indicated they had plans to attend college after graduating from high…

Federal Student Aid is money from the Federal Government that helps you pay for college, career school, or graduate school expenses. Federal student aid is available through grants, work-study funds, and loans. Every student who meets certain eligibility requirements can get some type of federal student aid. This brief describes the types of aid…

The study was set to investigate the influence of regulatory frameworks for higher education on the decrease of student enrollment in 6 selected private tertiary institutions in Rwanda. This study adopted the quantitative research design. The study involved a sample of 370 students selected from the 6 private universities. The study used…

This Deans Summary highlights the key themes and insights of the GMAC Prospective Students Survey -- 2023 Summary Report. It continues to explore trends in the candidate pipeline, program preferences, and career goals as well as new questions added to this year's survey about first-generation candidates, motivations for pursuing GME, and social…

Against the backdrop of global transformations in university admission systems, the quest for an enrolment paradigm that efficiently identifies and selects high-quality students has gained paramount significance. With the help of propensity score matching (PSM), this study controlled students' backgrounds and compared the performance of students…

Prospective graduate students' noncognitive attributes are commonly evaluated as a part of a holistic review of their admission applications. Yet it is difficult to determine which noncognitive attributes are considered by those who evaluate graduate admissions applications and what approaches they take to measure applicants' noncognitive…

The purpose of this dissertation study was twofold. First, this research study examined the role of noncognitive factors on degree completion, academic achievement, and persistence. Second, this research study examined the utility of the Personal Potential Index (PPI) as an avenue to reliably assess noncognitive factors of graduate students that…