The paper proposes a model of educational strategies for college entrants that makes it possible to assess the investment efficiency in additional preparation as evidenced by the Unified State Exam [USE] scores. It was found that college entrants still use traditional forms of preparation despite the new institutional admission conditions at…

The Office of Shared Accountability (OSA) in Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) is conducting a multiyear evaluation of the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) program. The ACES program is a collaboration between MCPS, Montgomery College (MC), and the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) to create a seamless pathway…

Undergraduate admissions in the United States is a multibillion dollar industry involving families, higher education institutions, journalists, testing companies, test preparation companies, private consultants, marketing firms, high school guidance counselors, high school teachers, coaches, financial advisors, and publicly funded programs.…

An increasing number of high needs high school students (defined as students with little or no parent support, first generation potential college students, or students living with someone other than their biological parents) are graduating from high school, but not attending a post-secondary institution. This study focused on the effects that a…

The undermatch between low-income students' academic achievement and college destinations has become increasingly important in discussions of higher education access and equity. This study investigates whether low-income students are undermatched in their college choice, and if so, what factors are related to the undermatching. Specifically, this…

This study examined the effects of providing low-income, high-achieving high school seniors with college application guidance and information about the costs of college. The "application guidance" included information about deadlines and requirements for college applications at nearby institutions, at the state's flagship institution,…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether the use of non-cognitive assessment in combination with traditional criteria predicted potential academic success as measured by first-semester GPAs of provisionally admitted students. Survey data were collected with a non-cognitive questionnaire (NCQ) from provisionally admitted…

Identifying the best set of colleges to which to apply is not a simple task. The importance of any one application depends on the likely outcomes of other applications, and this logic and information is difficult to grasp for anyone, let alone high school students. To simplify this task, the College Board recommends that students submit a total of…

The Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB) College and Career Counseling Training Initiative works to increase the knowledge and skills of counselors who advise students on their postsecondary aspirations. Membership in the initiative provides access to Strategies in College and Career Counseling, a series of online training modules that can…

Despite the ostensible proposition of American higher education to create a level playing field and advance an individual's life opportunities, the history of access to higher education in the United States has demonstrated a lack of equality in enrollment patterns. This enrollment inequality appears most pronounced when considering family…

Using social capital theory as a framework, the authors examined data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (Ingels, Pratt, Rogers, Siegel, & Stutts, 2004) to investigate how student contact with high school counselors about college information and other college-related variables influence students' college application rates. In addition…

Using third-party education agents is a well-established practice in many countries. As a result, the number of international students placed by agents has grown considerably over the past years. However, in the US, the practice of using agents to increase international enrollment still carries a derogatory connotation in the educational…

This article defines the term "under matching" as the behavior in which mostly less-affluent, highly qualified high school graduates choose not to enroll at an institution that matches their qualifications--behavior which threatens their chances of earning a degree. The supporting research--rigorous, compelling, and…

Areas throughout the United States lack baccalaureate-prepared registered nurses to meet the health care needs of individuals, forcing health care providers to rely on associate degree nurses (ADN). In an effort to increase the numbers of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students, technical colleges and state and private universities have…

US colleges and universities today intensively market themselves in order to compete for prospective students. One of the most widespread marketing tools used to attract students are admissions viewbooks, which are designed to provide potential students with favorable impressions of the many institutions to which they may apply. In this study, we…