Hundreds of colleges have changed their names to signal higher quality. We estimate how this affects college choice and the labor market performance of college graduates. Administrative data show that name-changing colleges enroll higher-aptitude students, with larger effects for attractive-but-misleading name changes and among students with less…

Admission to highly selective institutions offers a pathway to upward social mobility, particularly for low-resource students. However, entrenched wealth disparities in the United States present serious challenges for admission officers at highly selective institutions. Utilizing individualized holistic review (IHR), including letters of…

This research was an investigation of the application of genre instruction to the unique purpose teaching Thai secondary students to write personal statements for undergraduate university admission. The goals of this small-scale case study were to 1) investigate the effects of genre-based instruction on students' writing abilities and 2) examine…

Who ends up in the teacher workforce is greatly influenced by who is admitted into teacher education programs (TEPs). To better understand how the preferences of teacher education faculty might shape admissions of STEM teacher candidates, we surveyed faculty who teach content or methods courses to STEM teacher candidates across five universities.…

Purpose: The primary purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the ability of admission measures to predict clinical skills in graduate students from a variety of health sciences fields. Method: Online databases were searched for research using application measures to make predictions regarding clinical skill development in graduate…

Dual enrollment (DE) is one of the fastest growing programs that support the high school-to-college transition. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence about its impact on either students' college application choices or admission outcomes. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach and data from two cohorts of ninth-grade students in one…

A college degree enables upward financial mobility--a college graduate's lifetime earnings are over 80% greater than those without a degree. Yet, systemic societal and educational constructs can create hurdles for students--particularly those who are historically underserved (e.g., Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students)--to gain…

Racial preferences, as practiced in academia and elsewhere, by definition, discriminates against individuals based on their race. Radical academics and writers, including the founders of critical race theory, have long supported the use of race as a predominant factor in postsecondary and graduate school admissions. If the Court rules as it should…

Affirmative action critics argue that race-conscious admissions policies are keeping Asian American enrollment numbers unfairly low because Asian American students are held to higher admissions standards than applicants of any other race or ethnicity. "Selective Bias: Asian Americans, Test Scores, and Holistic Admissions" evaluates the…

Special admissions processes for screening college applicants with criminal backgrounds are common in the U.S., both in universities and community colleges. However, there has been growing concern about their value for accomplishing their intended purposes, as well as their potentially harmful effects. While there is no evidence that colleges…

Accent is one of the most recognisable signals of social background in the United Kingdom (UK) today. It can cue a listener to a speaker's ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, region, culture, or social class. For traits that are not visible, such as socio-economic status, accent is often the primary signal. Research in the United States has shown…

This year has seen exams take place again for the first time since 2019, a move back towards the pre-pandemic norm for schools and colleges across the country. But the cohort of young people taking exams this year have faced years of disruption to their educations, which has continued even when they've been back in the classroom. Mitigations for…

Do students respond to sticker prices or actual prices when applying to college? These costs differ for students eligible for financial aid. Students who do not understand this may not apply to some colleges because of the perceived high cost. We test for this form of "sticker shock" using College Board data on SAT scores sent, as a…

The enrollment decision-making process of a master of business administration (MBA) applicant contains multiple factors. Social influences from group memberships, marketing ads, and socioeconomic status carry varying amount of influence on the individual's choice for an MBA program. It is unknown what impact informal leaders, interpersonal…

Consideration of socioemotional skills in admissions potentially can increase representation of racial and ethnic minorities and women in graduate and professional education as well as identify candidates more likely to succeed in graduate and professional school. Research on one such assessment, the ETS Personal Potential Index (PPI), showed that…