The U.S. Department of Education tested a set of promising, low-cost advising strategies, called "Find the Fit," designed to help low-income and "first generation" students enrolled in the Department's Upward Bound program choose more selective colleges and stay in until they complete a degree. About 200 Upward Bound projects…

This article defines the term "under matching" as the behavior in which mostly less-affluent, highly qualified high school graduates choose not to enroll at an institution that matches their qualifications--behavior which threatens their chances of earning a degree. The supporting research--rigorous, compelling, and…

The author reports on the U.S. Supreme Court hearing regarding the Texas admissions case that exposes gaps in the affirmative-action law. As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas at Austin, it became evident that the court's past rulings on such policies have failed to…

This guide is designed for counselors, teachers, and advisers who work with high school students from low-income families and students who are the first in their families to pursue a college education. It offers strategies for helping these students identify, consider, and enroll in "match" colleges, that is, selective colleges that are…

Justice Goodwin Liu reexamined seminal affirmative action in higher education legal cases beginning with the landmark 1978 case, "Regents of the University of California v. Bakke" and leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision in "Gratz v. Bollinger." Liu argued that the "Bakke and Gratz" lawsuits were…

The past five years have seen unprecedented changes in freshman admissions at the University of California, reflecting steep cuts in state funding that UC sustained during that period as well as changes in UC's definition of who is eligible to enter the university. The number of California applicants who were "not" admitted to the UC…

Previous research suggested that candidates from some black and minority ethnic groups were less likely to receive an offer of a place from an "old" university. These findings were disputed in a re-analysis carried out for HEFCE which found that only Pakistani candidates were significantly less likely to receive offers (from both…

This paper quantifies the extent of student-college "academic undermatch," which occurs when a student's academic credentials permit them access to a college or university that is more selective than the postsecondary alternative they actually choose. Using a nationally representative dataset, we find that 41 percent of students…

Today a college degree is considered the ticket to a good job and the gateway to economic advancement. A student's chances of gaining admission to college, however, are often based more on parental wealth than the student's achievements. At the nation's most selective colleges, three percent of incoming freshmen come from families in the bottom…

Many school systems today are trying to attract top college graduates into teaching, but little is known about what dissuades this target group from entering the profession. This study randomly assigned applicants for a highly-selective alternative pathway into teaching in Argentina either to a survey about their motivations for applying to the…

A questionnaire was administered to 1,929 applicants to Oxford University, including measures of trait anxiety, behavioural response to examinations and to breakdown in relationships. 635 of these applicants were admitted to the university and of these, 383 also responded to a questionnaire administered 4 years later, just before their final…

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…

Many nations make use of a "personal statement" (or equivalent) in their higher education admissions system. This article examines how statements differ according to applicants' educational background. Among the indicators used are fluency of expression, quantity and quality of workplace experience, and extracurricular activity. Findings…

This research quantifies the extent of student-college academic undermatch among the 1992 and 2004 cohorts of graduating high school seniors and documents changes in the extent of academic undermatch over time. Tables are appended.

With 16,000 graduate and undergraduate students, the International College for Experienced Learning (ICEL) is widely considered among the better for-profit universities in Mexico, where such institutions have flourished over the last 20 years by offering degrees that can be earned relatively quickly, and flexibility in terms of fee payments and…