The responsibility of the admissions office in recruiting and admitting foreign students includes providing adequate and accurate information about program availability, financial aid, costs, and academic requirements; providing special personnel for handling applications; considering providing English language training; and providing adequate…

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…

Four major publishers of college guidebooks respond to the concerns of colleges and universities about the guides, the information they contain, and the demand for the information. Specific issues addressed include development of a standardized survey response, data integrity and validity, specialized information needs, publisher-institution…

Information about higher education in California is presented with suggestions for Florida. Cooperation between the public and private sectors in California exists in many forms, including the support or opposition of legislation. For instance, private university presidents have publicly criticized as inadequate budget recommendations for state…

Describes a study of the decision-making processes of nontraditional students at a public, suburban community college regarding the critical life incidents which preceded the decision to return to college, information used in searching for a college, and factors influencing college choice, as well as information about students impressions and…

Admission policies and academic standards are seen as two problem areas. The changes in admission policies and educational standards are examined and their impact upon each other is discussed along with the meaning of standards, adaptive instruction, academic placement and exemption, testing and grading practices, program assessment, etc. (MLW)

Discusses several problems and failures of community colleges related to: encouraging students not to break with the home and peer milieux of secondary school; articulation and orientation of transfer students; vocational tracking; attrition; students' poor self-concepts; inadequate academic advising; and competition for postsecondary enrollments.…

Describes the Postsecondary Education Planning Project, a partnership of eight Illinois high schools with Triton College, their local community college. The project provides a mechanism to survey high school students, enabling them to identify their postsecondary plans before they graduate. Lists six benefits of participating in the process. (TE)

An overview of college guidebooks examines their origins, development, types, impact on both consumers and colleges, and current trends and future prospects. It is argued that publishers will gain credibility by standardizing data collection and reporting formats and by no longer trying to rank colleges on criteria that change annually and fail to…

The question of whether private colleges are pricing themselves out of the market is considered. An analysis of the actual application patterns of a sample of high-ability students indicates that colleges and universities are not pricing themselves out of the market. Despite substantial increases in tuition and other fees over the last several…

Enrollment patterns of women in higher education and factors that may contribute to these patterns are examined based on a review of the literature. Evidence is cited indicating that while women are attending colleges and universities in large numbers, they continue to study fields traditionally studied by women, and they continue to enroll in the…

Undergraduate financial aid is seen as integral to larger institutional issues and deserving of strategic status in planning. Three areas of student aid--the institution's rationale regarding aid, institutional research, and student strategies for utilizing aid--are addressed from the planning perspective. (Author/JMD)

Presents three short articles from conference panel session during 49th annual National Association of College Admission Counselors National Conference. Article by Christopher Hooker-Haring describes differences in undergraduate experiences provided by different institutions. Article by Michael Barron focuses on merits of public education. Article…

It is argued that research testing the reliability and validity of college and university reputational studies should be conducted, a concern not raised by consumers and publishers. Two studies of "America's Best Colleges," published by "U.S. News and World Report," raise questions about the guide's validity and suggest that…

The growing campus role in providing student financial aid is discussed based on data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, Peterson's Guide, and other sources. The campus contribution to student aid programs has grown far more than recent tuition increases. A significant portion of the financial aid burden has passed from federal…