The college major choice is a critical decision students make as they progress along their education and career pathways. In addition to defining what programs of study students will take during college, major choice affects students' success and satisfaction. However, the National Center for Education Statistics (2017) reported that within three…

Profession selection is one of the most important decisions for human beings. Since the professions can generally be achieved via higher education, determining the most proper higher education becomes an important decision problem. In order to select the best higher education program, there are various criteria to be considered. Hence the main…

What are the experiences, expectations, and challenges of college-bound high school students and their families regarding college financing? To answer that question, Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL), Ardeo Education, and PLEXUSS surveyed 1,250 high school students from the 11th and 12th grades about how they become interested in colleges and…

High school students have been through profound changes and challenges in the last three years. The experiences of the pandemic, lockdowns, virtual classes, and economic and social disruptions have had tremendous--and possibly lasting--impacts on them. As they prepare to enroll in college, have those experiences changed how they search for…

This dissertation is focused on understanding the expectations, beliefs, and motivations of parental involvement during the college choice process. Many high school students are under a lot of stress and pressure influenced by a culture of achievement. This culture has created a competitive college choice process and has intensified the role of…

This longitudinal person-centered study aimed to identify profiles of subjective task values and ability self-concepts of adolescents in the domain of mathematics, English, biology, and physics in Grades 10 and 12. We were interested in gendered changes of profile membership, and in relations between profile membership and educational and…

Dual-credit courses expose high school students to college-level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual-credit math coursework on a range of high school and college…

This paper quantifies the extent of student-college "academic undermatch," which occurs when a student's academic credentials permit them access to a college or university that is more selective than the postsecondary alternative they actually choose. Using a nationally representative dataset, we find that 41 percent of students…

Our research goals are to make the case that parent-student discussions about college planning should be seen as a distinct college-planning activity and to identify and test the relevant predictors of these discussions. Findings from over 4,000 parents and their high school children show that parent-student discussions are enhanced when both the…

Recent changes in the English tuition fee policies have spurred a debate on the impacts on student choices for higher education. Expectations range from a sharp decrease in participation in higher education to relatively little change in student demand. We surveyed 1549 year 12 sixth-form students from four institutions spread geographically…

ACT created the "Enrollment Management Trends Report" to provide enrollment managers and other college administrators with information about students' patterns during the college choice process of the 2011 high school graduates who took the ACT[R] test. More than 1.6 million students--roughly half of the graduating class of 2011--took…

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a web-based college awareness program that would aid college-bound students in their search for a college or university that fit their interests. Since there is an increase in computer usage among high school aged students, and there are a very few college awareness programs included in the…

The process by which students decide whether and where to attend college has been based most commonly on a college-choice model that is independent of the students' geographic context. However, the ability to attend college close to home is often among the most important factors that U.S. high school students, especially minorities and the…

This correlational study samples twelfth grade (senior) students in one central Midwest high school and examines their participation in credit-based transition programs and their changes in educational aspirations. Surveys and community college data are used to collect quantitative data to address six research questions. Using Hossler and…

The college choice requires the adolescent to gather and synthesize vast amounts of information, reconcile sometimes competing personal and familial goals, and manage a range of emotions. This decision process represents a major developmental crisis with which the adolescent must cope. Scholars have noted that psychological strain and heightened…