International virtual exchange is gaining popularity as an innovative approach to providing international experiences to students, particularly considering the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little research has been conducted on this unique teaching approach or how it fits into university comprehensive internationalization plans. In this paper, we…

The adaptive learning problem concerns how to create an individualized learning plan (also referred to as a learning policy) that chooses the most appropriate learning materials based on a learner's latent traits. In this article, we study an important yet less-addressed adaptive learning problem--one that assumes continuous latent traits.…

This study investigates Roma undergraduates' partner selection patterns, examines the main factors in students' partner selection attitudes, and analyzes the structural role in students' network. We rely on data from semi-structured life-narratives and contact diaries of 67 Roma undergraduates. Three main partner selection patterns were…

The official stance of the Association America of Medical Colleges (AAMC) regarding the undergraduate major of applicants for admission to medical school is that there are no required or preferred majors. While the AAMC is the body that governs admission to allopathic medical schools in the United States, this statement does not provide clarity to…

Over one third of students in the U.S. who started college in 2012 did not enroll in the fall immediately following their high school graduation. Despite the prevalence of delayed college enrollment, however, little is known about the reasons for the delay and the consequences for academic and labor markets outcomes. Conventional human capital…

This study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 2010-2011 to better understand the rates of grade retention during elementary school and the factors associated with this grade retention. Using matched student-teacher and student-principal data, I examine the student-, teacher-, and school-level factors associated with a student's…

While school choice has been well studied, there is little existing research exploring the role of transportation, in general, and school buses, in particular, to school choice decisions. We examine the effect of school buses on school choice decisions using data on kindergarten students and their eligibility for transportation assistance in New…

We estimate the percentage of eligible students who do not take up their federal need-based student financial aid entitlements in a microsimulation model for the German Socio-Economic Panel Study 2002--2013. We find that about 40% of the eligible low-income students do not take up their entitlements. Non-take-up is inversely and rather…

This paper demonstrates that the Big five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability) measured at age 14 can be linked to field of study choice in university at around age 19. While personality matters less than cognitive skills, such as math ability and verbal ability, for…

Postsecondary delay in the U.S. is a topic that has generated interest in the field of higher education in recent decades. Seventeen percent of U.S. students under the age of 24 who began their postsecondary education in 2004 delayed their entrance for some period of time. At the national level, studies have indicated that students who delay are…

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…

The purpose of this research was to examine whether decisions made at one stage of strategic and graduate enrollment management, the admission phase, depend on both applicant and faculty characteristics. Faculty participants (N=62) were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes of a prospective applicant to their doctoral program. They then…

Using the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS 2002), a unique survey that tracks High School sophomores to young adulthood, we estimate the relationship between student loan debt, educational attainment, and tenure choice. We improve upon prior studies by matching pre-treatment characteristics through coarsened exact matching (CEM) and…

Recent research suggests that the use of student search services is an effective part of a college's student marketing and recruitment strategy. What is not clear, however, is whether participating in a search service is an effective part of a student's college search strategy. To address this question, we exploit a recent change in the choice…

Peers have a paradoxical influence on each other's educational decisions. On one hand, students are prone to conform to each other's ambitious educational decisions and, on the other hand, are discouraged from ambitious decisions when surrounded by successful peers. In this study I examine how peers influence each other's decision to apply to an…