Scholarship on nonresident enrollment by public research universities has developed in isolation from scholarship on linkages between private high schools and selective private universities. We argue that these literatures are part of a broader story about the competition for students from affluent schools and communities. This manuscript analyzes…

According to the self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), academic motivation can take different forms (Litalien et al., 2019; Vallerand et al., 1989). First, "intrinsic motivation" (IM) is defined as a spontaneous inclination to assimilate and master an activity. Second, "extrinsic motivation" (EM) refers to a desire…

I use a panel of higher education clearinghouse data to study the centralized assignment of applicants to Finnish polytechnics. Many top applicants remain completely unassigned each year. The same applicants' future applications reveal that many of them should have been admitted to a different program immediately. The application system, however,…

A growing body of research has shown the positive relationship between student engagement and cognitive skills development among Latinx undergraduates at more selective institutions. However, despite the large proportion of Latinx transfer students at four-year institutions, they are relatively ignored in higher education literature. Using data…

The Federal Work-Study (FWS) program provides over $1 billion dollars annually in taxpayer-funded financial assistance to a unique population of at-risk, economically-disadvantaged U.S. college students with limited options for employment-related development. Research on the effects of FWS participation, especially professional development, is…

The discrepancies in college enrollment based on a student's socioeconomic background challenges the upward mobility of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Jesuit colleges and universities, guided by Catholic Social Teaching and their own focus on social justice, are uniquely positioned to facilitate the social mobility of the…

Letters of recommendation from school counselors are required to apply to many selective colleges and universities. Still, relatively little is known about how this non-standardized component may affect equity in admissions. We use cutting-edge natural language processing techniques to algorithmically analyze a national dataset of over 600,000…

This study aimed to understand the transition experiences of first-generation Latinx undergraduate students and their families from high school to a highly selective private university after participating in a college access program. Additionally, this study sought to understand the different forms of cultural capital that may have supported the…

Prior research finds that low-income students are less likely to apply to and enroll in four-year colleges or more selective colleges, even after controlling for academic preparation and other background characteristics. The College Board sought to reduce barriers in the college application process through a targeted campaign of brochures and…

Amidst increased enrollment, economic recession, and state budget cuts to postsecondary education over the past two decades, two and four-year colleges and universities have employed a multitude of different approaches to managing resource allocation. At the crux of this issue is the internal struggle each institution faces: improving the level of…

The higher education regulator for England has set challenging new widening access targets requiring universities to rethink how merit is judged in admissions. Universities are being encouraged to move away from the traditional meritocratic equality of opportunity model of fair access, which holds that university places should go to the most…

Context: In athletic training education, the first-time Board of Certification (BOC) pass rate is a significant marker of a program's success, and the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE) and requires programs to maintain a first-time 3-year aggregate BOC examination pass rate over 70% (Standard 11). Published…

This paper documents differences across higher-education courses in the coverage of frontier knowledge. Comparing the text of 1.7M syllabi and 20M academic articles, we construct the "education-innovation gap," a syllabus's relative proximity to old and new knowledge. We show that courses differ greatly in the extent to which they cover…

An expected national ban on the consideration of race in college admissions will threaten the racial and ethnic diversity of students at selective colleges unless these colleges fundamentally alter their admissions practices. This report finds that selective colleges barred from considering race and ethnicity in their admissions decisions may be…

"My Presence is a Disruption for Good" is a qualitative research study that explored the experiences of critically minded, first-generation higher education administrators and their work supporting first-generation college students enrolled at highly selective institutions. As the number of first-generation college students enrolled at…