Given the intense efforts to change federal legislation, it is surprising that relatively little research has examined how postsecondary institutions respond to organizational pressures and local contexts. These "boundary activities" determine actual practice (Birnbaum, 1991) and may be the only way to remedy the exclusion of undocumented…

Community colleges enroll nearly half the undergraduates in the U.S. These institutions play a significant role in the academic, social, political, and economic future of our nation. As historically open admission institutions, with a primary focus on providing access to higher education, they have been pressed in recent decades--as has all of…

All of the admissions research says that prospective students and their parents want to know something about the mysterious people who do the professing. They want to ask questions in a public forum; they want to visit classes; they want private meetings with department chairs; and they want admissions people to call them on the phone to explain…

Surveyed 998 college admissions directors to identify patterns of career entry, career development, and future career plans. Results suggested entry is predominately from other educational positions, upward mobility involves movement within rather than across institutions, and exit tends to be to other college administration positions. (JAC)

A questionnaire about the campus environment for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT)community yielded responses from 411 institutions in 2003. The findings showed that 382 colleges and universities included sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies, up from 347 institutions two years earlier. About 85 percent of the…

The home-school movement, a once-marginalized segment of the educational community, is all grown up and going off to college. As colleges across the nation report increasing numbers of applications from home-schooled students, policies have been developed to evaluate these candidates. Translating years of independent study into something that…

In this brief article, the author relates his experiences both as associate director of undergraduate admission at Duke University (North Carolina), and later as director on college placement at the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics. [This article has been reprinted in this 2006 issue of "Journal of College Admission."…

This paper examines the views of staff at higher education institutions on how well 14-19 education and training prepares young people for higher education (HE) study. It draws upon research involving focus groups with approximately 250 academic and admissions staff at 21 higher education institutions in England and Wales. The data collection was…

This paper, presented at a conference of college admissions counselors, attempts to provide a brief overview of descriptive and inferential statistics for college admissions officers, in the hopes that it will encourage these admissions personnel to question assumptions more critically. The paper begins by defining statistics, specifically…

Examined admissions directors' perceptions of their role, the nature of marketing efforts, the relationship between prior career paths and current ideas about the "mission" of the admissions office, and ideas about how the school should market itself. Results are given. (Author/BL)

This article highlights the experiences of three college admission counselors as they went through the process of career change. Transferable skills are discussed, as well as what each author misses and does not miss about admissions work. (GCP)

This study extends research on college choice, with recent national survey data, by examining what African American students say about the importance of college athletic reputation in choosing which school to attend. We use the Educational Longitudinal Survey to examine the overall distribution of self-reported factors that shape college choices…

Regardless of budget or institutional reputation, building a good college admissions team requires careful attention to four elements: philosophy, hiring, training, and performance. The result is productive, proficient, and pleasurable. (MSE)

Is college admission a business or a profession? This question is timeless because no issue (with possible exception of the perennial debate about whether admission(s) is singular or plural) sparks as much passion among admission practitioners, and it is timely because many of the controversial issues found in college admission today beg the…

This article is a research project which explores that problem with a particular view toward underrepresented students whose life and profile often do not match the life and profile of admission officers who recruit and select them. The authors assert that if vast changes are made with regard to the experiences and the richness that…