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…

The purpose of the current study was to examine the academic consequences of attending an institution that is not considered an "academic fit" for a student. The results from the current study show that more able students perform better in college in terms of first-year GPA and retention to their second year regardless of the institution they…

International student mobility is a rapidly growing and evolving phenomenon. During the 2008/09 academic year, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the U.S. increased by 8% to a record high of 671,616 students with about 15% from mainland China. The model of college choice for Chinese students who are considering…

In recent years, students and parents have seen tuition costs at colleges and universities rise, to the extent that many low-income families may feel a college education for their child is out of their financial reach. However, this sky-high tuition is often partially, or even largely, subsidized by various forms of financial aid. For families to…

Educational attainment is increasingly necessary for individual mobility and national economic development at the same time that the racial and ethnic makeup of the population continues to diversify, signaling a need to improve degree attainments across racial/ethnic groups. Latinos are the largest minority group in the country and the group with…

The world of higher education is a world of sorting, selecting, and ranking--on both sides of the market. Colleges select students to recruit and then to admit; students choose where to apply and which offer to accept. The sorting process that gets the most attention is in the higher reaches of the market, where it is not too much to say that…

The media communicates the existence of two distinct types of college applicants: the frenzied, overachieving, anxious student who applies to many institutions, and the underprepared, less advantaged student whose parents are not at all familiar with the application process. The purpose of this study is to more realistically describe distinct…

The purpose of this qualitative study is to analyze and understand what information students seek from a college's Web site during their college search. Often, college Web sites fail either to offer students an interactive dialogue or to involve them in the communicative process, negatively affecting students' college search. Undergraduate…

Viewbooks are an important medium by which institutions of higher learning entice students to matriculate. Indeed, an entire industry exists to aid institutions in the design and production of these publications and college and university admissions and public relations professionals spend a significant amount of time and money fashioning…

Erica A. Seldin finished in the top 5 percent of her class at Cherry Creek High School in suburban Denver, while taking a demanding curriculum that included 10 Advanced Placement courses. She received the highest score possible--five--on most of her AP tests. Seldin was also president of the school's Thespian Society, acting in and directing a…

Debating annual front-page articles that focus almost exclusively on Ivy League colleges and other highly competitive institutions that reject the vast majority of their applicants, the author reports that, in 2007, 80 percent of current first-year students were admitted to their top-choice college, according to an annual survey of more than…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out which factors contribute to the decisions of the students when they choose their place of study among the six psychology departments of the Universities in Finland. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved a survey questionnaire. Responses were received from 1,668 people. Findings: It was…

This paper investigates the intersection of system articulation, transfer, and the choices that secondary school students make when they apply to college and university. The investigation is based on the results of a study that was undertaken to determine factors that influence choices that secondary school students make between enrolling in…

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 Council) to more closely examine the high-school-to-college transition process. Each spring, at the conclusion of the college admission cycle, there is much discussion in the…

This publication contains information about community colleges, the largest and fastest growing sector of U.S. higher education. Designed especially for students thinking about studying abroad in America, this publication provides information about: (1) College selection, application and visa processes, traveling to the United States, living in…