Through interviews and focus groups with 106 high school juniors and seniors, this research examined the college choice process for Latina and Latino students in the greater Los Angeles basin. Using chain migration theory within a social capital framework, the results indicated that as primarily first-generation college students, the students in…

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) commissioned this paper to help policy leaders and decision makers understand the impact of selected state financial aid programs on students' choices--choices of which college to attend, where to attend college, and even whether to attend college at all. As the paper shows, states…

The unique role played by historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the African American community, particularly in the educational plans of students and their families, is more vital to understand. A study analyzes interview and focus-group data with African American students, parents, and counselors at 20 southern California high…

Explores African Americans' college choice decisions, based on a national sample of 220,757 freshmen. Independent of gender, family income, or educational aspiration, the most powerful predictors for choosing historically black colleges and universities are geography, religion, the college's academic reputation, and relatives' desires. The top…

This report examines how students choose colleges and how the college choices of students differ by race and ethnicity across four subgroups of students: African American, Asian American, Chicano, and Caucasian. It is proposed that students conceptualize their college choices differently based on how they perceive their anticipated college…

Drawing on fieldwork, interviews, and literature reviews, trends in college admissions are examined, including increased competition, higher admissions standards, and growth in admissions management services. Focus is then placed on the role of private admissions counselors in providing knowledge, attention, management of college choice, and…

This study examines differential college-choice behavior and outcomes among Asian Pacific American (APA) student subpopulations with the goal of examining the extent to which the Asian American population is, in fact, a homogeneous "model minority" in college destinations and decision-making processes. The results suggest that their postsecondary…

This paper examines the U.S. college admissions market in the late 1980s and 1990s and how enrollments have shifted, competition has increased, and nonschool-based services have mushroomed. Introduced is the concept of admissions management: a constellation of behaviors which include, among others, the buying of services to help mostly…

Discusses the growing phenomenon of private college counseling services (independent educational consultants, or IECs), using survey results (n=157 IECs) to document their characteristics and those of their users, and considers the implications of the privatization of college counseling for admissions, students' college choice behaviors, and…

This study examines the ways in which social class and high school guidance operations combine to shape a high school student's perceptions of her opportunities for a college education. It is also an analysis of the intersection of family, friends, and school network effects and how they create an individual's biography. Students connect with…

This paper presents a model of college choice that suggests that students' choice of college can be related to perceived "capital conversion" benefits. The model was tested on an evenly distributed sample (n=22,109) of students; one group attending elite colleges (with average freshman Scholastic Assessment Test scores of 1200 or higher)…

This study examined characteristics of independent educational consultants, who provide a new and rapidly growing service, as well as characteristics of their clients who use these consultants in their college search process. The study used data from the Consultant Survey, which was mailed to 317 independent educational consultants of whom 157…

The study examined the ways in which status cultures and organizational environments influence high school students' college decision-making. Interviews were conducted with 12 white female high school seniors from four northern California high schools (a low socio-economic status(SES)/low organization public school, a low-SES/high organization…