Context: Admission decisions are made annually concerning whom to accept into athletic training programs. Objective: To present an approach used to make admissions decisions at an undergraduate athletic training program and to corroborate this information by comparing each aspect to nursing program admission processes. Background: Annually,…

Many medical schools have adopted multiple mini-interviews (MMI) as an advanced selection tool. MMIs are expensive and used to test only a few dozen candidates per day, making it infeasible to develop a different test version for each test administration. Therefore, some items are reused both within and across years. This study investigated the…

Privileging elite academic pedigrees in graduate admissions preserves racial and socioeconomic inequities that many institutions say they wish to reduce. To understand this preference, I integrate across perspectives on trust in rational choice, social capital, and social network theories, and use the resulting framework to interpret 68 interviews…

This paper reports on research into the ways that schools engage in university application processes. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from 1400 Year 13 students from 18 independent and state schools in England and 15 in-depth interviews were carried out with school teacher higher education (HE) advisors. The analysis compares…

Professors play an underexamined role as gatekeepers, and their understandings of merit have significant implications for racial equity and diversity in graduate education and the professoriate. To understand faculty reliance upon admissions criteria that undermine espoused diversity goals, this study examined decision making in 10 highly…

A curriculum is a form of politics (Apple, 1993). The politics of a curriculum defines what is legitimate and valued and what is not. In Taiwan, the objectives of vocational high school (VHS) education are to prepare students to acquire relevant professional knowledge and practical skills and to integrate them into their future career development.…

In line with expanded conceptualizations of validity that encompass the interpretations and uses of test scores in particular policy contexts, this report presents results of a comparative analysis of institutional understandings and uses of 3 international English proficiency tests widely used for tertiary selection--the "TOEFL iBT"®…

Drawing primarily upon interview and observation data, the aims, admission policies, and curriculum of two "strong" Christian schools, one in the Netherlands and one in England, are compared and contrasted. Analysis of the beliefs and values of children, parents, and school leaders challenges assumptions about "strong"…

The ways in which universities and individual academics attempt to deter and respond to student plagiarism may be based on untested assumptions about particular or primary reasons for this behaviour. Using a series of group interviews, this qualitative study gathered the views of 56 Australian university students on the possible reasons for…

The purpose of this study is to examine step-wise admission to two medical programs with regard to selection effects. By using data from a large-scale longitudinal project, the influence of background variables on regular and step-wise admission is estimated. Characteristics of both applicants and those admitted are investigated using descriptive…

Acute resource limitations and demands for better prepared teachers have resulted in the imposition of enrollment caps on many U.S. teacher preparation programs. The subjects of this study included students who were selected to enter the elementary education program and who eventually enrolled in student teaching (N=93). Spearman correlations were…

A study was conducted to identify older graduate student applicants and the graduate school selection process. Older students were operationally defined as over age 30 or those who received their baccalaureate degree eight or more years ago. Information about the characteristics of older graduate students was obtained from the Graduate Record…

In a survey of a national, stratified random sample of graduate medical educational program directors regarding the way they selected their residents, the interview was found to be the most important selection variable. The results indicate that the recent increase in competition for residency positions has increased the importance of academic…

A study is reported that compared a group of 24 applicants who were interviewed and accepted at the Yale University School of Medicine but went to other medical schools with a group who attended the same schools but had been rejected at Yale following an interview and committee deliberation. (Author/MLW)

A retrospective study of the quantitative and qualitative variables that were the best predictors of successful completion of a bachelor's degree in physical therapy supports continued use of qualitative measures such as interviews and does not support certain traditional quantitative variables. (MSE)