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Rethinking College Admissions probes the many facets of higher education admissions and translates research-backed insights into actionable strategies for innovative, equitable admissions practices. Edited by scholars OiYan A. Poon and Michael N. Bastedo, this collection gives readers an evidence-based understanding of postsecondary admissions practices and structures, exploring many factors that affect college access and educational equity in the United States. These collected essays from leading experts present boundary-pushing applied research on admissions, with implications for policy, practice, and leadership. The volume considers admissions issues from three angles. In the opening essays, contributors offer critical analyses of current admissions approaches in higher education, delineating the delicate balance of equity-building efforts and legal pressures. The contributors offer reflections on whether and how admissions systems further inclusion or inequality. They examine topics such as race-conscious admissions, holistic review without standardized test scores, and student test preparation. The volume’s next part discusses the many different ways in which admissions work can be done, outlines ethical hazards, and considers potential areas for organizational change. The final essays provide inroads and examples for developing reciprocal relationships in research and practice for the future. They discuss promising approaches for advancing campus diversity, such as admissions lotteries, direct enrollment, and institutional promise programs for high-achieving students from low-income communities. A must-read for practitioners, policy makers, and anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of postsecondary admissions structures, including K–12 educators and counselors, advocacy groups, and students, this work supports data-informed approaches to higher education admissions.
Rethinking the SAT is a unique presentation of the latest thoughts and research findings of key individuals in the world of college admissions, including the president of the largest public university system in the U.S., as well as the presidents of the two companies that sponsor college admissions tests in the U.S. The contributors address not only the pros and cons of the SAT itself, but the broader question of who should go to college in the twenty-first century.
Over the past fifteen years, a college education has become increasingly valuable in the labor market. As a result, the stakes have been raised in the debate over college admissions and student financial aid. With the gap in college enrollment widening by family income, the time has come to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the American system for financing higher education and to rethink its structure from the ground up. This book begins with an overview of the many indirect ways in which Americans pay for college--as taxpayers, students, and parents--and describes the sometimes perverse ways in which state and federal financial aid policies interact. Thomas J. Kane evaluates alternative explanations for the rise in public and private college costs--weighing the role of federal financial aid policy, higher input costs, and competitive pressures on individual colleges. He analyzes how far we have come in ensuring access to all. Evidence suggests that large differences in college enrollment remain between high and low income students, even those with similar test scores and attending the same high schools. Kane promotes a package of reforms intended to squeeze more social bang from the many public bucks devoted to higher education. For example, he advocates "front-loading" the Pell grant program, limiting eligibility to those in their first two years of college, and providing a larger share of federal subsidies by assessing student resources after college rather than evaluating a single year of parents income and assets before college. Copublished with the Russell Sage Foundation
Rethinking the SAT is a unique presentation of the latest thoughts and research findings of key individuals in the world of college admissions, including the president of the largest public university system in the U.S., as well as the presidents of the two companies that sponsor college admissions tests in the U.S. The contributors address not only the pros and cons of the SAT itself, but the broader question of who should go to college in the twenty-first century.
The recent nomination and confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice refocused public attention on the selection criteria that colleges and universities use to admit students. For decades the Supreme Court has repeatedly been asked to decide the constitutionality of racial and ethnic preferences in college admissions. However, this preoccupation with admissions neglects other important considerations in achieving campus diversity and narrowing gaps in educational attainment. What circumstances motivate students to attend and succeed in college? What factors influence individual students' decisions whether to apply and, if admitted, whether to enroll. The compelling articles in this volume of The ANNALS go beyond the worn argument that admission criteria are solely responsible for determining campus diversity. The authors address a broad range of questions in college decision making – from application to enrollment, college performance, and graduation. This forward-looking volume of The ANNALS is a requisite for students and scholars who want to examine alternatives that narrow ethnic gaps throughout the postsecondary cycle and provide more opportunities for talented, ambitious youth from disadvantaged environments to succeed, as Justice Sotomayor did.
What can a college admissions officer safely predict about the future of a 17-year-old? Are the best and the brightest students the ones who can check off the most correct boxes on a multiple-choice exam? Or are there better ways of measuring ability and promise? In this penetrating and revealing look at high-stakes standardized admissions tests, Joseph Soares demonstrates the far-reaching and mostly negative impact of the tests on American life and calls for nothing less than a national policy change. SAT Wars presents a roadmap for rethinking college admissions that moves us past the statistically weak and socially divisive SAT/ACT. The author advocates for evaluation tools with a greater focus on what youth actually accomplish in high school as a more reliable indicator of qualities that really matter in one's life and to one's ability to contribute to society. This up-to-date book features contributions by well-known experts, including a piece from Daniel Golden, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in the Wall Street Journal on admissions, and a chapter on alternative tests from Robert Sternberg, who is the worlds most-cited living authority on educational research. As we continue to debate the use and misuse of standardized testing, SAT Wars will be important reading for a wide audience, including college administrators and faculty, high school guidance counselors, education journalists, and parents.
In the aftermath of SP-1 and Proposition 209, the University of California has adopted several strategies in order to maintain access. In the long term, the university seeks to work with individual students to improve their academic preparation and to expand partnerships with the K-12 public sector. The state's need to educate more of its minority citizens is urgent, however, so in the shorter term the University has focused on three strategies in its admissions process: comprehensive review, Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC), and the Dual Admissions Program (DAP). The paper also discusses the use of standardized tests in judging students' readiness for university-level work, and especially changes to the SAT tests that have come about partly in response to UC policies. The paper concludes by assessing the ongoing debates over racial preferences in college admissions. The University of California Admissions Policy is appended. (Contains 9 footnotes.).
In this 1994 classic work on student retention, Vincent Tinto synthesizes far-ranging research on student attrition and on actions institutions can and should take to reduce it. The key to effective retention, Tinto demonstrates, is in a strong commitment to quality education and the building of a strong sense of inclusive educational and social community on campus. He applies his theory of student departure to the experiences of minority, adult, and graduate students, and to the situation facing commuting institutions and two-year colleges. Especially critical to Tinto’s model is the central importance of the classroom experience and the role of multiple college communities.
In real life, Mitchell Stevens is a professor in bustling New York. But for a year and a half, he worked in the admissions office of a bucolic New England college that is known for its high academic standards, beautiful campus, and social conscience. Ambitious high schoolers and savvy guidance counselors know that admission here is highly competitive. But creating classes, Stevens finds, is a lot more complicated than most people imagine. Admissions officers love students but they work for the good of the school. They must bring each class in "on budget," burnish the statistics so crucial to institutional prestige, and take care of their colleagues in the athletic department and the development office. Stevens shows that the job cannot be done without "systematic preferencing," and racial affirmative action is the least of it. Kids have an edge if their parents can pay full tuition, if they attend high schools with exotic zip codes, if they are athletes--especially football players--and even if they are popular. With novelistic flair, sensitivity to history, and a keen eye for telling detail, Stevens explains how elite colleges and universities have assumed their central role in the production of the nation's most privileged classes. Creating a Class makes clear that, for better or worse, these schools now define the standards of youthful accomplishment in American culture more generally.
From award-winning higher education journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Selingo comes a revealing look from inside the admissions office—one that identifies surprising strategies that will aid in the college search. Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets In and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game, and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a “good college.” Hint: it’s not all about the sticker on the car window. Selingo, who was embedded in three different admissions offices—a selective private university, a leading liberal arts college, and a flagship public campus—closely observed gatekeepers as they made their often agonizing and sometimes life-changing decisions. He also followed select students and their parents, and he traveled around the country meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes consultants, and college rankers. While many have long believed that admissions is merit-based, rewarding the best students, Who Gets In and Why presents a more complicated truth, showing that “who gets in” is frequently more about the college’s agenda than the applicant. In a world where thousands of equally qualified students vie for a fixed number of spots at elite institutions, admissions officers often make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors—like diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted. One of the most insightful books ever about “getting in” and what higher education has become, Who Gets In and Why not only provides an unusually intimate look at how admissions decisions get made, but guides prospective students on how to honestly assess their strengths and match with the schools that will best serve their interests.