Studied the messages being conveyed to prospective students in campus visits and summer orientation sessions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Findings for 497 prospective students show that the visit and orientation program may be effective, but programs are trying to communicate too much. Findings also show the importance of the campus…

Considers how the College Essay Program, a long-standing tradition in the North Salem Central School District, helps students prepare a written personal statement essay for needs such as college admission applications. Concludes that college essays are engaging personal statements, difficult to write down, that bring a human dimension to the…

Contends that high school counselors are critical of college ratings because they hinder effective college-choice counseling. Suggests prospective students actively engage in selection process and college admissions counselors stress need for good match between individual and college. (CM)

Surveyed 263 prospective student/parent opinions of campus visitation program. Found that 67 percent of students reported an increased likelihood of attending the college as a result of the program. Discusses additional findings and suggests features desirable for a campus visitation program. (PVV)

Confronts the problem of applicants for admittance to graduate programs in the Humanities failing to have been told what would be wanted on their applications. Discusses helping students learn to explain their specialties to nonspecialists. Assumes that learning to summarize and "enter the conversations around one" is excellent…

Data from 3 successful executive master of business administration classes (n=126) identified subjective factors to add to quantitative factors (scores, grade point average) used to predict student performance. The Graduate Management Admission Test remains the best single indicator, but qualitative factors enhance the predictive ability of the…

Discusses why early-decision programs have added an "insane intensity to middle-class obsessions about college." Asserts that they distort the admissions process, rewarding the richest students from the most exclusive high schools and penalizing nearly everyone else, but that the incentives for many colleges and students are "as irresistible as…

Unsuccessful mature applicants to University College Dublin (n=74) identified barriers encountered in the application process: low number of older applicants admitted due to demand from younger applicants; lack of standardized assessments for mature applicants; and lack of recognized access routes. (SK)

This policy analysis article examines how California State University-Long Beach, an institution where upward of 22,000 student applied for roughly 3,400 freshman slots and where the transfer class had to be reduced because of mandatory enrollment reductions, tested race-neutral admissions models in accordance with Proposition 209, which prohibits…

Higher education has to accomplish a most vital task, that of shaping the personalities of future specialists who, in their school years, are to master the knowledge, abilities, and skills that are laid out in the state educational standards governing the particular specialty. Experience has shown that to accomplish this task it is essential that…

High-school students applying for freshman admission have at their disposal dozens of Web-based and print resources to help them sort through the process. Information on the Web is especially impressive. For students attending a community college, however, there is virtually nothing in virtual space to help them identify four-year institutions…

In this article, the author explores the confluence of discourses surrounding disability, identity, and institutional writing to better understand the rhetorical politics of disability. She argues that a fresh theoretical frame is needed to understand the ways in which students rhetorically manage "risky" bodily identities, particularly in…

The paper examines whether college application behavior assists members of privileged social groups to preserve their advantages in diversified higher education systems. The study is based on a survey conducted in Israel in 1999 on a sample of 4,061 freshmen in the research universities and the academic colleges, which are often perceived as the…

Migrant students are among the most disadvantaged of any groups in the United States, yet little is understood about factors that facilitate their college access. College access outreach programs rarely collect data on whether and where their students go to college. This longitudinal study tracked the college-going behaviors of migrant students…

Presenting new empirical evidence and employing fresh theoretical perspectives, this book sheds new light on the challenges that Black Students face from the time they apply to college through their lives on campus. The contributors make the case that the new generation of Black students differ in attitudes and backgrounds from earlier…