One-third of all post-secondary students transfer colleges and roughly two-thirds of public 4-year colleges require a minimum college GPA to be eligible for transfer admissions. Yet, little is known about how these policies influence who, when, and where students transfer. This paper studies the minimum transfer admissions requirements at…

Direct Admissions policies, first pioneered by Idaho in 2015, aim to simplify the path to college for high school students by proactively admitting students to state colleges and universities. Idaho's decision to implement Direct Admissions was motivated by a desire to boost its relatively low college-going rates and ensure that more of its high…

This paper uses register data to study how a particular age reward feature affects admission into two highly competitive study programs: medicine and law. The Norwegian admission system to higher education is centralized, and applicants compete in two quotas: one quota almost entirely based on grade point average from upper secondary education and…

This study illuminates the male advantage in test-based admissions to higher education. In contrast to many other countries, admission tests in Germany are optional, and test-free programs are available. This context offers a unique opportunity to investigate whether the male advantage in test-based admissions is caused by gender differences in…

College graduates earn higher wages than noncollege graduates, but questions remain about the degree to which this wage difference is driven by learning in college or by the signal that the degree sends to employers. Based on a review of the literature, I propose that the value of a marketing degree is much less related to learning marketing than…

A number of studies have examined the impact of changes in price on students' enrollment decisions at the undergraduate level, but little is known about the price responsiveness of graduate and professional students. This dissertation utilizes difference-in-differences and regression-discontinuity methods to analyze student-level data for admitted…

This study was conducted to determine which admission criteria are most commonly utilized in selecting students into sonography programs, and whether a relationship exists between admission criteria and academic success in sonography education. All program directors from CAAHEP-accredited or CAAHEP-accreditation seeking sonography programs were…

Within postsecondary education, we often equate students' need for support with socioeconomic status (SES). There is also recognition of the challenges faced by Black students while navigating higher education. Programmatic and policy efforts to address these issues often focus on singular aspects of students' identities, particularly for low-SES…

Too many policies and practices aiming to improve college access and admissions overlook an important group of prospective enrollees: current college students. Substantial policy attention is placed on supporting college applications and decisions for those applying straight from high school. Even though one million students switch into a new…

This study examined physics major retention to degree at two institutions with substantially different admissions selectivity. Two modes of leaving the physics major were examined: leaving college and changing to another major while staying in college. The risk of leaving college while still enrolled as a physics major was highest in the spring…

This paper explores how fairness was conceptualised by those responsible for admission to highly selective undergraduate courses at 17 universities in England. Fairness was conceptualised principally with reference to the traditional "meritocratic equality of opportunity" paradigm, which holds that university places should go to the most…

Nurse anesthesia is a highly challenging and respected advanced practice specialty. With the respect comes a rigorous educational process that is commenced with admission into a graduate nurse anesthesia program. Faculty face the difficult task of selecting candidates that demonstrate promise in successful progression through the graduate nurse…

Affirmative action in education is once again in the media and cultural spotlight. The Trump administration, along with a decidedly rightward shift on the Supreme Court, signal a bleak outlook for affirmative action policies in higher education. However, as educators, we can also use this historical moment to have robust and critical conversations…

One argument for keeping the physics Graduate Record Exam (GRE) is that it can help applicants who might otherwise be missed in the admissions process stand out. In this work, we evaluate whether this claim is supported by physics graduate school admissions decisions. We used admissions data from five Ph.D.-granting physics departments over a…

The purpose of this ex post facto correlational study was to determine if the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) examination successfully identified nursing students capable of completing a nursing program. The study was based on correlational analysis that established the relationship between the TEAS V score, completion of the program, and…