One frequently cited yet understudied channel through which funding levels impact college students is course availability--colleges are often forced to respond to budgetary pressure by reducing course offerings. We provide the first causal evidence on this mechanism at a community college, using administrative course registration data and a novel…

Today, colleges and universities use overt admissions preferences to create student bodies that reflect the ethnic, racial, or gender demographics of the population--at the expense of academic merit and preparedness. While the original aim of the policy was to end discrimination and promote fairness, it has led to unequal treatment on the basis of…

A key goal of many magnet programs is to improve student diversity in schools. This snapshot describes efforts by those participating in the U.S. Department of Education's Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP). Findings are based on surveys completed by most of the more than 160 schools recently funded by MSAP grants and interviews with their…

In this dissertation, I analyze the development and dissemination of state-level policies to prohibit colleges from considering criminal history for purposes of admissions otherwise known as ban the box in higher education. This research engages with practical and instructive questions of how individuals or coalitions can learn from other policy…

Holistic review is widely practiced in graduate admissions. However, despite its prevalence, there is a need to understand how practitioners approach holistic graduate admissions, how its practice relates to institutional priorities, and its potential implications for equitable access to graduate education. This exploratory mixed method study…

Master of Science (M.S.) programs, including geography through geographic information science and technology (M.S. GIST), play a key part in training the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce. A master's thesis has been a traditional part of geography programs, and across all kinds of disciplines the value of a thesis is…

This paper investigates admission procedures of Master of Arts programs of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MA TEFL) in Iran in comparison with universities around the world. Along with a view of the centralised national MA TEFL entrance exam held in Iran during the past three decades, we investigated admission requirements for comparable…

I study student characteristics and academic performance at the University of California, where consideration of an applicant's ethnicity has been banned since 1996 and SAT scores were used in admitting students to the university until fall 2021. I show the following: (1) SAT scores were more important than high school grades in predicting…

Contextual admissions have been hotly debated for years, but the Office for Students recently complained, 'There has been minimal research on students' views of contextual offers.' To fill this gap, HEPI conducted the first major study into what students think of this issue. Key findings in the report include: (1) three-quarters of full-time…

This study investigated the underexplored topic of teacher preparation program admissions processes by interviewing faculty and analyzing program documents. We investigated how 31 K-12 "mathematics and science" teacher preparation programs (MSTPPs) and faculty attend to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social and racial justice (DEIJ).…

Higher education and elite professional occupations are considered to be key sources of social mobility. In this paper, we suggest that examining patterns of admission into professional undergraduate programmes, a key route for entry into elite professional occupations, may provide important insights into social mobility through higher education.…

Schools' priorities in student selection constitute the basis for fairness in school admissions. We study the case where schools are active strategic players that rank their applicants in terms of priorities. A methodological framework is developed to examine the impact of the variation in the admission settings on the equality of opportunity in…

There is an abundance of research on the college admissions process and the practices selective schools employ to evaluate and select students. Most findings are complex, nuanced, or conflicting. Less than a month after the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in "Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard" and "Students…

Changing the system allowing access to Tertiary Education is a top priority of Greek governments; it often has a fragmentary character without parallel systemic interventions. The recent (2021) enactment of the 'minimum admission base' to Tertiary Education is a renewed version of a similar reform by the same governing party back in 2005,…

Assessment, accountability, and transparency represent a greater focus than ever in higher education. Community colleges are not exempt from these requirements, though they are overlooked in the creation of state and national assessment instruments. Therefore, we designed and distributed the Perceptions of Community College Assessment (PCCA)…