Applying a Bourdieusian lens, this study seeks to explore the interactions between secondary and higher education and how these interactions impact marginalised students in an elite university in China. It presents accounts of the educational experiences of 13 marginalised students of rural origin. The findings suggest that for them educational…

This research brief uses publicly available data from the 2016/2017 Baccalaureate and Beyond survey to examine individual and institutional predictors of participation in paid and unpaid internships, especially family income. When controlling for other factors, results showed that low-income students were more likely to have unpaid internships…

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…

Profiles describing a high school's quality and composition are one component of the undergraduate admission application to selective colleges, offering admission officers insight into a student's academic environment. This study explores alignment between the data admission officers seek in a profile to support their holistic evaluations and the…

The Humanities have an enduring role in improving society and people's well-being, yet there is a very limited discussion of how to foster talents in the Humanities. This case study scrutinized how an honors program in the Humanities can enhance the academic potential of gifted undergraduates at an elite university in China. The results indicate…

This study illuminates how common holistic admissions practices at so-called "elite" colleges and universities favor high-SES, high wealth applicants through the ways they define and consider "exceptional" performance in extracurricular activities. While many studies have established advantages to high-income applicants based…

Two-way dual language (DL) classrooms enroll students of two different language backgrounds and teach curriculum in both languages. I estimate the effect of attending a DL school on student achievement using school choice lotteries from Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina, finding local average treatment effects of 0.04 and…

This post is one in a series highlighting MDRC's methodological work. In the past decade, rapid growth in the number of charter schools and school district choice systems has provided education researchers with exciting opportunities to use naturally occurring pockets of randomization to rigorously study the effects of policy-relevant education…

Perceiving new student populations as underprepared is a common response to the expansion of university systems and the diversification of the student body. Latin America, as other developing regions, has increased its university enrolment of underrepresented, historically excluded students, through a variety of policies. This study analyzes the…

After higher education expansion in the private sector and technical college system starting in 1985, students' opportunities to attend four-year institutions in Taiwan are increasing. This study extends Cabrera and La Nasa's model of student college choice to examine not only choices of institutional types but choices of college pathways after…

This essay describes Open Admissions in the South during postsecondary desegregation, providing a comparative analysis of policies and debates in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Georgia. Statewide Open Admissions policies emerged in the 1960s as part of superficial efforts to comply with desegregation but were ineffective; consequently, they were…

Newly revised and thoroughly updated, the fifth edition of Admission Matters continues to be the go-to guide for students and families seeking help with the college admissions process. Higher education experts Sally P. Springer, Ph.D., Joyce Vining Morgan, Ph.D., Nancy Griesemer, M.A., and Jon Reider, Ph.D., deliver a practical and accessible…

In this paper the authors examine the role the Dutch gymnasium continues to play in the institutional maintenance of educational inequality. To that end they examine the relational and spatial features of state-sponsored elite education in the Dutch system: the unique identity the gymnasium seeks to cultivate; its value to its consumers; its…

This study examines female graduates (N = 616) from seven honors colleges in the Northeastern United States and the relationship between attending a New York City (NYC) selective specialized public high school and graduating with a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree from an honors college. A causal-comparative study…

The purpose of this survey study was to examine current admissions processes and assessment practices for music programs of National Association of Schools of Music member institutions. Representatives from 95 institutions responded to a researcher-designed questionnaire. Music education programs were perceived as being comparable to performance…