We query the role that sorority involvement serves in the college experiences of Latinas in ethnic sororities. We find that Latina sorority members at first experience culture shock and marginalization at a selective, predominantly White university in the Southwest. Our respondents were incorporated into Latina sororities, which provided them with…

The purpose of this study is to understand how the well-being of Asian American college students is formed at a highly selective, elite institution. Prillentensky's psychopolitical model of well-being and Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of development, in conjunction with Asian Critical Theory, were used as frameworks to understand the impact of…

In this article, the author analyzed relevant literature focused on the evaluation and holistic admission practices of American graduate programs, including application materials, academic achievement, and non-cognitive variables. This article mainly focuses on the higher education graduate school admission system within the United States after…

Many elite schools proclaim a commitment to racial and other aspects of student diversity and inclusion. Pursuing this commitment is highly complex and contentious given the traditions of exclusion elite schools are founded upon. This paper examines some of these contentions drawing on research conducted at Cherry Tree Academy, an elite pre-K-12…

While the scholarship of interdisciplinarity has grown prolifically in the last thirty years, the discourse primarily frames interdisciplinarity as an instrumental research construct. In this article, I will argue that this framework should be expanded to consider how interdisciplinary engagement can support education for democracy. The article…

Exclusive boarding schools in social environments where the meritocratic norm is prevalent are faced with a tension between parents' desire to give their children a head start in the competition for educational qualifications, social prestige and jobs on the one hand and the powerful social norm of advancement by merit under conditions of…

The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) surveyed member institutions to better understand institutional policies and practices related to prior learning assessment (PLA) and fielded a student survey to understand student perspectives on PLA. This brief shares findings and recommendations from this…

Inequality in the United States has been rising in recent decades, while intergenerational mobility remains low. This means that absolute mobility--the extent to which children are economically better off than their parents--is declining, and intergenerational inequality is increasingly entrenched. A long literature suggests large returns to…

The University of California (UC) is a research-intensive institution that is widely considered to be the best public university system in the United States. A total of 147 years of sustained academic distinction has made admission to UC's nine undergraduate campuses among the most competitive in the nation. More students apply to UC than any…

There are increasing calls for the UCAS personal statement to be reformed. These calls are based on the claim that the current personal statement gives unfair advantages to more privileged applicants within higher education admissions. While this topic has attracted political attention, there is much about the personal statement that remains…

As systematic inequities in higher education and society have been brought to the forefront, graduate programs are interested in increasing the diversity of their applicants and enrollees. Yet, structures in place to evaluate applicants may not support such aims. One potential solution to support those aims is rubricbased holistic review. Starting…

The calibration of test materials generally involves the interaction between empirical analysis and expert judgement. This paper explores the extent to which scale familiarity might affect expert judgement as a component of test validation in the calibration process. It forms part of a larger study that investigates the alignment of the…

As moves grow once more to expand selective education in the United Kingdom, this is a short report of two lively and well-attended debates at the universities of Manchester and Cambridge in the early part of 2015. Both debates were resoundingly won by those arguing against a return to a divisive system based on the 11+. Instead, audiences…

What are the benefits and costs of attending a selective public research university instead of a less-selective university or college? This study examines the 2001-2011 Eligibility in the Local Context (ELC) program, which guaranteed University of California admission to students in the top four percent of California high school classes. Employing…

This article explores beginner student and staff perspectives of study preparedness across higher education institutions and disciplines in Norway, focusing on writing, reading and academic working skills. Drawing on focus group interviews among academic staff and students, findings show a certain academic unpreparedness by beginner students.…