Relatively few students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are enrolled in the most selective American colleges and universities. To improve enrollment, scholars have suggested that college admission offices provide these low SES students an admissions advantage, also known as class-based affirmative action. This study examined to what degree…

In this article we extend Bell's work on interest convergence by using Harris' work on whiteness as property to articulate a cycle of interest convergence, interest divergence, and imperialistic reclamation, or convergence-divergence-reclamation (C-D-R, pronounced "cedar"). We then apply the C-D-R cycle lens to the evolution of federal…

Even though rural students make up a fifth of the population of all American students, they do not attend college in numbers equivalent to urban and suburban students. The rural student faces influences related to college choice that differ from those of suburban and urban students. These influences, which could be considered problems or barriers,…

The project presented in this report examined how the public post-secondary education system in British Columbia (BC) uses various means to admit applicants who have not achieved high school graduation -- the normal criterion for admission -- to universities, colleges and institutes in the province. The criteria by which post-secondary…

As of September 2012, the undergraduate tuition fee cap at English universities was raised from £3375 to £9000 per annum. This article explores the rationales underpinning prospective students' decision whether or not to apply to higher education following the fee increase, specifically, how this decision is influenced by perceptions of…

Using the data published by "Boston" magazine and the New England Board of Higher Education's "2016 Guide to New England Colleges & Universities," Marc Rubin examined higher education institutions (HEIs) prices, defined as tuition and plus fees, as a function of several independent factors including: (1) Percentage of…

In the UK, as elsewhere, the use of "contextual" data has been strongly advocated in order to inform undergraduate admissions decision-making. More than a third of UK universities currently take the socioeconomic or other background context of undergraduate applicants' attainment into account when deciding whom to shortlist, interview,…

Day and night the locals chatter. They counsel and console, bicker and rant. Their questions are endless. Though often hopeful, they never stop pounding the drums of worry. This is College Confidential, a vast virtual realm where visitors can find the best and worst of human nature. Here, in moderated discussion forums, people help strangers. They…

This article examines the relationship between academic specialization and student exposure to a range of academic domains of knowledge. It uses a concentration measure--the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index--to investigate whether students who choose single majors or double major are more or less concentrated in nine domains of knowledge most…

A college-going high school program called Rise Up has enjoyed years of success with its program participants but has yet to demonstrate why the program alumni have entered college at such high rates (91.6% of alumni enter college upon high school graduation). Through interviews and focus groups with 46 college-going alumni, this research examined…

The College Bound Scholarship (CBS) is designed to inspire and encourage Washington middle school students from low-income families to prepare for and pursue postsecondary education. Postsecondary enrollment rates of College Bound students match or exceed those of non-College Bound Washington high school graduates; however, the postsecondary…

This paper reports on research into the ways that schools engage in university application processes. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from 1400 Year 13 students from 18 independent and state schools in England and 15 in-depth interviews were carried out with school teacher higher education (HE) advisors. The analysis compares…

Since the introduction of the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma Qualification (WBQ) in 2003, an increasing number of students are applying to higher education institutions (HEIs) with this qualification. The advanced-level WBQ is regarded as equivalent to one General Certificate of Education A-Level (GCE A-Level). This study assesses the impact…

Context: A common goal of professional education programs is to recruit the students best suited for the professional career. Selection of students can be a difficult process, especially if the number of qualified candidates exceeds the number of available positions. The ability to predict academic success in any profession has been a challenging…

Researchers and policymakers argue that expanding college access is one way to increase opportunities for students who would become the first in their families to enroll in a postsecondary institution. This article uses measures of educational attainment in the previous two generations to consider whether parents' own histories of educational…