In this article, the author talks about the cultural bind on the American male. The process starts with conception. If the spermatozoid that fertilizes the egg contains only X chromosomes a girl will be produced. If a single Y chromosome out of the 24 produced by the father is included, the baby will be a boy. From this point on the girls have a…

While admission to a community college is simple--"apply and you're in!"--the institution itself is quite complex. Community colleges serve several purposes: transfer, vocational, recreational, and remedial. Community colleges see students through many lenses. What should counselors know in order to help their community college-bound students make…

Traditionally, students in secondary and postsecondary education have grade point averages (GPA) calculated, and a cumulative GPA computed to summarize overall performance at their institutions. GPAs are used for acknowledgement and awards, as partial evidence for admission to other institutions (colleges and universities), and for awarding…

The public service announcements during NCAA sports events use the tagline, "There are over 400,000 student-athletes in the NCAA... and almost all of them will go pro in something other than sports." The numbers behind the claim are stark and the message is clear: college graduation matters. In 2011, university presidents affirmed their commitment…

The College Board's SAT[R] Score Choice[TM] policy allows students to choose which set(s) of scores to send to colleges and universities to which they plan to apply. Based on data gathered before the implementation of that policy, the following study evaluated the predictive validity of the various sets of SAT scores. The value of five score sets…

This article focuses on the research being conducted by University of Cambridge International Examinations (Cambridge) to ensure that its international assessments prepare students as well as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate for continued studies in colleges and universities. The primary purpose of the research is to highlight…

Against the backdrop of traditional measures of college readiness (i.e., high school GPA, standardized test scores, and high school rank), the consideration of "non-cognitive" factors marked a significant departure when they were first discussed as integral aspects of college success. Used to refer to any characteristic, ability or disposition…

Males have significantly higher average scores than females on the SAT I quantitative section, which is designed to predict first-year college success in mathematics. However, it has been shown that gender gaps in performance on the SAT I have little to do with college readiness; rather they are due to the misaligned content of the instrument, as…

Lewison and Hawes (1997) discuss target marketing strategies of differentiated, concentrated or orchestrated marketing in their article "Student Marketing Strategies for Universities." While the authors agree with some of the suggested strategies and reasons behind them, their perspective as faculty teaching in a graduate education program offers…

The Academic Success Inventory for College Students (ASICS) is a newly-developed, self-report instrument designed to evaluate academic success in college students. The 50-item instrument has 10 factors that measure general academic skills, career decidedness, internal and external motivation, anxiety, concentration, socializing, personal…

This exploratory study examines the academic outcomes of homeschooled students who enter a medium size doctoral institution located in the Midwest. Descriptive analysis reveals homeschool students possess higher ACT scores, grade point averages (GPAs) and graduation rates when compared to traditionally-educated students. In addition, multiple…

The College Board Advanced Placement Program allows high school students to take college-level courses and if an appropriate score on an exam is received, college credit is earned. While the program has had its detractors (access in rural and inner-city schools, lack of diversity, pre-selection of talented students, poor articulation with actual…

The girls of girls' schools, the author believes, are a kind of Platonic Form of American girl, an ideal to which most of the rest of society, of the country's meritocratic system, aspires for their daughters, a reflection of one's deepest values. She believes girls all over the country, in all high schools, want The Dream. They want to achieve…

AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a nationally recognized program that was created in San Diego, California in 1980, and is designed to give high school students who ordinarily would not participate in rigorous, academic, college-preparatory classes the opportunity and support necessary to succeed in these higher-level classes.…

In this study an entering cohort of freshmen majors in mathematics and science at a land grant, research one institution was examined to first determine if a group of students who persisted in science and mathematics disciplines were different in terms of pre-college characteristics from a group of students who dropped with grade point averages…