Going to university is a key route to enhancing life opportunities for young people and for promoting social mobility. Despite the action of widening participation programs, substantial sociodemographic inequalities in participation persist. Few studies have focused on the role that school attended may play in exacerbating or mitigating these…

In this dissertation, I use data from Chile to study the determinants of schooling trajectories. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on higher education, Chapter 3 on secondary education, and Chapter 4 on teachers. Chapter 1 explores the role of a socio-emotional ability, self-efficacy, in understanding why students with comparable qualifications transit…

The Coalition of Asian American Associations (CAAA) and Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE), two small but vocal groups of Asian Americans, have argued against affirmative action practices. One of their more prominent claims is that Asian American applicants who are not accepted and do not attend their first-choice colleges face a…

Researchers investigating progression to higher education (HE) have suggested that student and school characteristics (e.g., gender, prior academic attainment, social background, type of school) are important factors affecting HE participation and the type of HE institution attended (Chowdry et al., 2013; Boliver, 2013; Vidal Rodeiro, Sutch, &…

Many college-intending students find themselves dealing with the undermatch and summer melt phenomena. Undermatch refers to the situation where academically-successful high-school graduates choose not to go to any college or to go to a local community college not commensurate with their academic achievements. Summer melt describes how students may…

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 relevance of studying the stated problem is due to the fact that for increasing the efficiency of higher education marketing it is necessary to take into account several factors, namely, factors that impact the choice of a university and an academic program by enrollees, as well as socio-psychological characteristics of the latter, while…

The Texas 10% law states that students who graduated among the top 10% of their high school class are guaranteed admission to public universities in Texas. We estimate the causal effects of this admissions guarantee on a sequence of connected decisions: students' application behavior, admission decisions by the university, students' enrollment…

This paper examines the choices and destinations of prospective university students from three regional areas in Victoria. The study is based on information collected for tertiary applicants in the Gippsland, Bendigo and Mildura areas, all of which host a local university campus. Using application and enrollment data, we examine the choices that…

Using survey data collected from a sample of high school students in the United States (N = 504), this study examined how different types of social capital associated with parents, close friends, and Facebook Friends were related to students' confidence about their knowledge of the college application process and their expectations about…

This study used a strategic enrollment management (SEM) approach to studying high school students' transition to a two-year college and their initial college success. Path analyses suggested two important findings: (a) clear career choices among students, family influence, academic preparedness, and college recruitment efforts predicted earlier…

The campus tour is one of the most effective recruitment tools for higher education institutions, impacting prospective students' perceptions of college choice decision criteria, including academic quality. This study examined the impact of sharing academic success stories during the tour on prospective students' perceptions of academic quality,…

Latinos make up the fastest growing population in the United States. However, this group has some of the lowest educational outcomes (Gandara & Contreras, 2009). Although large numbers of Latinos fail to achieve high levels of academic success, some Latinos are able to accomplish educational outcomes that compare with those of the most…

Active involvement in college activities is linked to a host of student development outcomes, including personal growth, achievement and satisfaction. Yet, to date there has been too little attention to how social class shapes campus involvement. Through an analysis of survey data of students attending a single elite university and a national…