While higher education has been known as the great equalizer, the racial wealth gap of college graduates is overlooked: Among college-educated households (2013) the median net worth was $359,928 for white households; $250,637 for Asian households; $49,606 for Hispanic households; and $32,780 households for Black households. Although MSIs…

The Official ACT® Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan® is a test preparation solution in partnership between Kaplan and ACT. In April of 2022, the authors surveyed users of the self-paced course who took the ACT test between August 2020 and February 2022 to better understand: (1) ways the solution helped them when they took the ACT; (2) what…

This article aims to show the influence of social capital on the academic achievement of American students. Using data from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), this study explored how one of the domains of social capital, the family, makes a difference to educational outcomes in higher…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the impact of an undergraduate short-term experiential learning nutrition course on influencing students' perceptions toward individuals experiencing poverty and food insecurity (FI). The Undergraduate Perception of Poverty Tracking Survey (UPPTS) was the tool used to measure perception. Student…

School safety has been widely studied from the perspectives of administrators, teachers, and students in traditional education settings. However, parents' perceptions of school safety have been largely overlooked. Moreover, it is unknown how homeschool parents conceptualize safety in educational settings despite school safety being a known…

The Uniformed Services University (USU) created the Enlisted to Medical Degree Preparatory Program (EMDP2) in 2014 with the goal of diversifying their student body. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether certain independent variables (gender, age, race/ethnicity, underrepresented in medicine (URM) status, years of military…

This introductory report outlines the challenges of postsecondary completion, the variable value provided by a postsecondary pathway, and the corresponding cost and debt. Together, these challenges create an inequitable, ineffective, and unsustainable U.S. postsecondary system in which individuals are increasingly reluctant to participate or…

While abundant studies on college student departure exist, few studies focus on student transfer-out behaviors. One may reasonably believe that transfer students leave their institutions at different times for different reasons. Coupled with the national dataset, this study longitudinally investigated transfer students who left their initial…

Social and emotional (SE) skills are "individual capacities that (a) are manifested in consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, (b) can be developed through formal and informal learning experiences, and (c) influence important socioeconomic outcomes throughout the individual's life" (Organisation for Economic…

Understanding the concerns high school students have about college presents opportunities to address college-bound students' needs before they arrive on campus, potentially increasing enrollment and retention. In this study, we investigated the academic, campus, social, and personal concerns of college-bound high school students and how these…

Racially minoritized students in the United States constitute 30% of the U.S. population, but students from these populations represent a smaller proportion of those who earn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate degrees. This disproportionality contributes to race/ethnic income, status, and power inequalities…

Objective: This study aimed to identify correlates of service utilization and perceived need for care among college students with suicidal ideation. Participants: Respondents were recruited from introductory psychology courses at an undergraduate college during the Fall 2014 semester. Methods: Independent correlates of (1) mental health service…

In 2015, Lumina Foundation introduced the Rule of Ten, a new method for assessing college affordability for students in the U.S. The rule rests on the assumption that an "affordable" cost for college should not exceed the total of: (1) what a student and his family can save by putting away 10% of their income for the 10 years before…

This update to "SAT Wars" provides new evidence in the case against standardized college entry tests, including the experiences of test-optional colleges. "The Scandal of Standardized Tests" sheds significant light on key problems such as: (1) Are the tests stronger proxies for race and family income today than they were 20…

In this report, the authors have recently discovered that the increase in lifetime earnings from having a bachelor's degree, relative to having just a high school diploma, is much smaller for people who grew up poor than it is for people who grew up wealthier. This finding that has not been uncovered by any previous research, in part because until…