The goal of equal educational opportunity remains unrealized at most of America's colleges. The children of wealth and privilege fill nearly all the seats at these institutions, while the children of poverty are almost completely absent. Far too often, a young person's educational path is determined not by intellect, but by parental income. That a…

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is an important tool to help students find financial assistance. Not only do students fill out the FAFSA to apply for federal aid for post-secondary education, but also to be considered for aid by states, institutions, and private funders. Thus, filling out the FAFSA, specifically, and applying…

Parents from all backgrounds and walks of life want to do the best for their children. Unfortunately, for many reasons, this is easier for some more than others. Those with more money, education and confidence are more able to give their children the best possible chance of succeeding in the educational system and beyond. This is a key challenge…

Students studying art at university in the United Kingdom tend to be female, from higher social classes and from majority ethnic groups. This paper considers some of the complex and deeply-rooted social and economic factors that militate against wider participation in the arts and describes how we started to tackle under-representation at…

This brief benchmarks the postsecondary outcomes of students in College Track, a comprehensive college preparation program for students from underserved communities. College Track and Mathematica have partnered to conduct a rigorous experimental evaluation of the program, but results will not be available for several years. In the meantime,…

This guide is for colleges in England that want to review and improve their support for Looked After Young People (LAYP) and Care Leavers (CLs). It includes information about who LAYP/ CLs are, the kinds of challenges they face, their rights and entitlements to support, and what staff need to be aware of when working with LAYP/CLs. The guide then…

Over 95 percent of the jobs created since 2010 have gone to college-educated workers, and by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require education beyond high school. For youth experiencing homelessness, post-secondary education is critical for improving life outcomes, including reducing the risk of continued homelessness as adults. Yet without…

Decisions about whether and where to go to college can make a difference in students' later success. However, many students from low-income families--"undermatch"--they do not enroll at all or do not enroll in the most selective college they likely could attend. This study investigated whether promising advising strategies, bundled…

This appendix is a companion to the "Study of Enhanced College Advising in Upward Bound: Impacts on Where and How Long Students Attend College" (ED615732) report. The appendix provides additional information about the "Find the Fit" enhanced advising strategies and the study that assessed its effectiveness when implemented…

The extent to which increasing students' ability to choose between schools can impact their educational outcomes continues to generate significant research interest. I take advantage of the unique context in the province of Ontario, where two publicly funded school systems operate in parallel. I find a small positive impact of school choice on…

Random selection is a fair way to break ties between applicants of equal merit seeking admission to institutions of higher education (with "merit" defined here in terms of the intrinsic contribution higher education would make to the applicant's life). Opponents of random selection commonly argue that differences in strength between…

This report is a compendium of college access-related data that is intended to provide a detailed overview of Baltimore City Schools (City Schools) students' experiences preparing for, enrolling in, and completing postsecondary education. Although constrained in its scope, this report is offered in light of the fact that, more and more,…

In the UK, as elsewhere, the use of "contextual" data has been strongly advocated in order to inform undergraduate admissions decision-making. More than a third of UK universities currently take the socioeconomic or other background context of undergraduate applicants' attainment into account when deciding whom to shortlist, interview,…

Relatively few students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are enrolled in the most selective American colleges and universities. To improve enrollment, scholars have suggested that college admission offices provide these low SES students an admissions advantage, also known as class-based affirmative action. This study examined to what degree…

The project presented in this report examined how the public post-secondary education system in British Columbia (BC) uses various means to admit applicants who have not achieved high school graduation -- the normal criterion for admission -- to universities, colleges and institutes in the province. The criteria by which post-secondary…