This study sought to explain how high school seniors across the United States think about community colleges in the context of the college choice process. The study described what attributes are associated with the community college experience and what influences those attributes. Since a weak college choice process can contribute to later…

Purpose: The ranking of top universities in the world has generated increased interest in the factors that enhance university performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify economic and cultural factors that affect the number of top ranking universities in each country. Design/methodology/approach: This paper first identifies the number of…

Studies that have investigated college choice factors for high-achieving students repeatedly cite academic reputation as one of the top indicators of choice but have not indicated why some high-achieving students choose to attend universities with a less prestigious reputation than the more highly prestigious options available to them. The purpose…

This summer, Forbes magazine published its new rankings of "America's Best Colleges," implying that it had developed a methodology that would give the public the information that it needed to choose a college wisely. "U.S. News & World Report," which in 1983 published the first annual ranking, just announced its latest ratings last week--including…

The Top 100 degree tables published in this edition of Diverse, and the many more detailed tables included on the Diverse Web site, delineate the institutions that have conferred the most master's, doctoral and first professional degrees to students of color in academic year 2007-2008. Each table shows the number of degrees for a specific minority…

Fonseca and Bird (2007) ask an intriguing question that relates to university branch campuses: "What happened to all the people who thought online learning would drive traditional education out of the market? Just when "click" is supposed to be replacing "brick," branch campuses are proliferating around the country."…

Drawing upon a case-study of the students and teaching staff of an Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCE) in Travel and Tourism, this paper examines the effects of the institutional habitus of a Further and Higher Education (FHE) college upon the higher education choices of a group of ethnically-mixed, working-class young people. The…

The world of higher education is a world of sorting, selecting, and ranking--on both sides of the market. Colleges select students to recruit and then to admit; students choose where to apply and which offer to accept. The sorting process that gets the most attention is in the higher reaches of the market, where it is not too much to say that…

It has been exactly twenty years since the term "university rankings" came into being in China, and people have become relatively rational about the process, after an impetuous beginning. In a sense, the appearance of university rankings in China indicates the birth of something new, or the beginning of social voices in higher education…

College rankings present challenges and opportunities for higher education marketers. Statistical analysis of data on the national universities reveals which measures are associated with peer assessment scores, whether it is possible to influence the score, and what underlying factors are present. Marketers can use the findings to counsel senior…

Freshmen are more concerned about academic quality and affordability than they have been in decades, according to an annual survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. Sixty-three percent of students said academic reputation was a very-important factor in selecting a college, an…

English and History doctoral programs produced varying amounts of doctoral degrees between 1973 and 2003. These doctoral degree recipients experienced changing employment outcomes influenced by program prestige. The main goal of this study is to explain the changes over time in doctoral degree production and employment outcomes for doctoral degree…

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that influence African American college students' decisions to attend an HBCU or a PWI 4-year institution. Differences among African Americans in factors influencing the college choice process were examined by gender and parents' level of education. The study was designed to gain a better…

The concept of brand has crept into many areas of the American economic landscape, and college has been no exception. The ascension of "U.S. News & World Report" rankings, the widespread visibility of collegiate athletic brands, the power of traditional college brands such as the Ivy League or flagship state universities...these are just some of…

As a senior honors student at Weston Ranch High School in Stockton, California, last spring, Lakea Youngblood gained admission to the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles, California's two most sought-after public universities. While both schools offered the northern California native similar financial…