This study explores whether there is a heterogeneous effect of high school college counselors on college application and enrollment. Most research on the impact of counselors has focused on the effect of traditional school counselors and not on high school college counselors, individuals whose primary responsibility is to assist students with…

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…

This study examines how an urban, California high school supports undocumented students' college access and the challenges the school and students encounter. Employing case study methodology, school observations and interviews with 14 undocumented students and 13 educators were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the processes involved in…

Students who attend different colleges in the U.S. end up with vastly different economic outcomes. We study the role of relative value-added across colleges within student choice sets in producing these outcome disparities. Linking high school, college, and earnings registries spanning the state of Texas, we identify relative college value-added…

Access to higher education begins with a student's decision whether and where to apply to college. This paper examines racial and ethnic differences in college application behavior of high school graduates, using two recent graduation cohorts from Texas. We estimate racial and ethnic differences in the probability of applying to college,…

A growing body of literature is demonstrating that a number of students who are academically prepared for postsecondary fail to make the transition to college. The purpose of this study is to explore the relative influence of student and school level factors on three stages in students' college-going process: application, admission, and…

Many college-intending students find themselves dealing with the undermatch and summer melt phenomena. Undermatch refers to the situation where academically-successful high-school graduates choose not to go to any college or to go to a local community college not commensurate with their academic achievements. Summer melt describes how students may…

Between January and October of 2013, nearly 3 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 graduated from high school. By October of that year, just two-thirds had enrolled in college. This report uses recently released nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) data from Spring 2012 to examine American high…

The four college years is the last important developmental period of a young person's life, and what happens then can and often does have substantial consequences. He can be awakened and fired up to develop himself and his talents, he can plod through largely untouched or unenlightened, he can be frustrated and turned off, he can transfer, or he…

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…

This document presents case studies from the qualitative study [see ED500519], each of which highlights a student who struggled at a different point in the postsecondary planning process. These case studies draw on a longitudinal, qualitative study of 105 CPS students in three high schools. They are based on five student interviews conducted…

Since 2004, the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) has tracked the postsecondary experiences of successive cohorts of graduating Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students and examined the relationship among high school preparation, support, college choice, and postsecondary outcomes. The goal of this research is to help CPS understand the…

Conducted survey of philosophies and practices of rejection letters from broad spectrum of selective colleges and universities. Surveyed high school counselors, students, and parents to determine their feelings about rejection letters and practices. Many counselors and students agreed that such letters were warm and compassionate but lacked…

In this article, the author argues that traditional college entrance requirements exercise a detrimental effect on other elements of the educational system. She begins by looking at the way that the entire K-12 system is skewed toward meeting the needs of those students headed for selective colleges and universities and the way less successful…

Describes potentially confusing and overlapping opportunities for students who apply early decision or early action when applying to colleges. Considers difficulties that students and institutions can encounter when admission plans are unclear. Urges colleges to standardize the admissions process in order to better serve students. (NB)