This is the Executive Summary for the full report, "Complexity in College Admission: The Barriers between Aspiration and Enrollment for Lower-Income Students." In September 2007, the College Board formed the Task Force on Admissions in the 21st Century in response to a request from the Guidance and Admission Assembly Council (GAA…

People tend to assume that the motivations for their behavior--whether choosing a school, buying a car or pursuing a particular career--are readily available to them, waiting to be articulated. But a great deal of new multi-disciplinary research--in psychology, cognition, neuroscience, linguistics, and anthropology--is suggesting otherwise. In…

Most people in admissions have a road story. There are tales of wrong turns, lost suitcases, and days when they were just well-dressed ghosts, walking in and out of high schools where no students came to see them. These are the trials of admissions representatives who leave their campuses for several weeks each fall. They trek near and far to meet…

If coming back to work after winter break seems daunting, consider the plight of college-admissions officials. While most high-school students are breathing a sigh of relief after finally submitting their applications, those on the receiving end are rolling up their sleeves. January is crunch time for many admissions offices. Admissions officers…

When intern placement veteran Jacqueline Perkins begins counseling students at Florida A&M University (FAMU) about their prospects for getting well-paying, security-related jobs with the federal government, she confronts the 800-pound gorilla in the room--the question of whether a student has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a…

Elite colleges and universities have encountered criticism because students from upscale families have come to dominate the schools' Black enrollments. African-American alumni of an earlier generation and other critics want more low-income students admitted. National studies, though, show that only a small percentage of high school seniors from…

A surprising amount of litigation and legislation has erupted over undocumented college students. Victims at the federal level are the DREAM Act and immigration reform. Financial aid raises technical issues for undocumented college applicants and for the citizen children of undocumented parents. Generally, the undocumented are ineligible for…

The four college years is the last important developmental period of a young person's life, and what happens then can and often does have substantial consequences. He can be awakened and fired up to develop himself and his talents, he can plod through largely untouched or unenlightened, he can be frustrated and turned off, he can transfer, or he…

College admissions essay coaches have been hanging out shingles since the early 1990s. The business has grown sharply over the past decade thanks to the ease of editing via the Internet and students' desire to gain any possible edge as many colleges have become more selective. The companies, with names like Cambridge Essay Service, EssayEdge,…

Over the past year, libraries have made the national news owing to soaring public usage driven by tough economic times. Much of this increased traffic stems from patrons coming to their local branches to use resources that will help them improve their chances at employment. While some demand practical job-hunting and career materials to help them…

The girls of girls' schools, the author believes, are a kind of Platonic Form of American girl, an ideal to which most of the rest of society, of the country's meritocratic system, aspires for their daughters, a reflection of one's deepest values. She believes girls all over the country, in all high schools, want The Dream. They want to achieve…

Although the recognition of learners' experiential learning toward postsecondary credentials holds the promise of increased flexibility and opportunity for many, especially in the current climate of labour shortage, Canadian universities have been slow to adopt recognition of prior learning (RPL) systems. This case study of one Canadian…

Homegrown musicians from all over Africa gather at auditions for scholarships to the Berklee College of Music. The Africa Scholars Program, as the scholarship is called, offers a four-year, full scholarship, to begin in 2009. It was established by Berklee's president, Roger H. Brown, and his wife, Linda Mason, both of whom have worked extensively…

Jeff Rickey is a numbers guy. But three years ago, a colleague asked him about something he'd never counted: applicants who came out of nowhere. The question intrigued Mr. Rickey, dean of admissions and financial aid at Earlham College in Indiana. He found that 17 percent of the college's applicants that year had not called, taken a tour, or…

Today's fast-paced and Internet-driven society provides a lot of opportunities for innovation in the college financial aid world. As tuition costs continue to rise faster than average incomes, more students are turning to private lenders and other third-party organizations to finance their educations. While the power of online micro-giving has…