Despite college rankings' popular yet controversial nature, there is little known about the relationship between college rankings and students. Prior literature suggests that students who make use of rankings are more privileged, yet there lacks a comprehensive analysis surrounding the types of students who place importance on rankings in more…

Although a college degree is an increasingly important gateway to economic advancement in the United States, high school students with disabilities enroll in postsecondary education at lower rates than nondisabled students. The disparities in college access for these students indicate that there may be differences in how they are navigating the…

For years, the impending enrollment cliff has been a regular topic amongst higher education officials. With this event slated to hit undergraduate programs by 2025, it is anticipated that graduate schools will begin feeling the impact by 2029. By examining factors influencing graduate student college choice, enrollment managers can identify ways…

Sociologists of education have a longstanding interest in studying the relationship between schooling and inequality in society. While we know education matters for who gets ahead, we still know relatively less about the processes and mechanisms behind this relationship. In my dissertation, I focus on higher education as a key site where…

Many institutions have turned to individualized holistic review to make admissions decisions, which is meant to take a comprehensive view of the quantitative and qualitative elements that comprise a single application. Prior research shows holistic review lacks a common definition and the gap between theory and practice has not been thoroughly…

For many open-enrolled higher education institutions, including community colleges, enrollment is dropping each semester creating significant financial challenges. While much research literature focuses on four-year colleges, little is known about the students who seek to enroll at community colleges. What is known is often evaluated using college…

This dissertation consists of two chapters studying problems faced by youths in two contexts that could be pivotal to their future: admissions to higher education and the juvenile criminal justice system. The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has been studied extensively, and there have…

While existing research recognizes the importance of transitions in military members' lives, there are few, and to my knowledge no micro-level discourse analytic, studies illuminating how military veterans talk about their transitions into and out of the military. Taking an interactional sociolinguistic approach (Gumperz, 1977, 2015), I examine…

The purpose of this research is to reveal and compare the language proficiency profiles of Purdue's Chinese and Indian graduate applicants in various disciplines to take a step towards the development of Language Proficiency Literacy (LPL) of graduate admissions decision makers. The study argues that before being able to offer LPL development…

While Black students have experienced significant growth in college enrollment since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Higher Education Act of 1965, they are still less likely than their white counterparts to attend and graduate from a post-secondary institution (Ryan & Bauman, 2016). There have been previous studies on college…

The enrollment decision-making process of a master of business administration (MBA) applicant contains multiple factors. Social influences from group memberships, marketing ads, and socioeconomic status carry varying amount of influence on the individual's choice for an MBA program. It is unknown what impact informal leaders, interpersonal…

The official stance of the Association America of Medical Colleges (AAMC) regarding the undergraduate major of applicants for admission to medical school is that there are no required or preferred majors. While the AAMC is the body that governs admission to allopathic medical schools in the United States, this statement does not provide clarity to…

This dissertation presents a collection of three essays on the economics of higher education. Although these essays were conceived as independent research projects, they all concern higher education in Chile. For that reason, I begin in chapter 1 with a general overview of Chile's higher education system. I briefly describe the institutional…

Most low-income, high-achieving students in the United States neither attend nor apply to selective universities despite research that shows that they are just as likely as their high-income peers to succeed if they do apply to those schools. Despite the fact that many universities have begun offering substantial financial aid packages that would…

At no other time in American history has the need for post-secondary educational attainment been so pervasively necessary. Since 2007, three in every four jobs created has required a bachelor's degree or higher. Such a prerequisite to fiscal viability occurs parallel with rising costs of college attendance, a nebulous financial aid process,…