The author states that, at the liberal arts college where he used to work, he would step out of his office each fall to teach an undergraduate course on higher education. What better opportunity for reflection and critical engagement, he thought, than to investigate the enterprise to which the students and he had each made some serious…

Online learning is revolutionizing the way colleges do business. Study via the Internet makes more knowledge more easily obtainable for more students than ever before. Along with expanded access to higher education, many people are optimistic about an accompanying benefit--a lower price tag. Basic economic factors make the prospect appear…

Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian Americans are entitled to equal access to all institutions of higher education. Ensuring greater access and participation by minorities in higher education is one of the most practical ways of moving America closer to the ideal of equal opportunity, which is the actualization of the American dream.…

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…

The entrepreneurial admission sector is comprised of commercial enterprises aimed at helping students increase their odds of admission, as well as providing general college information to the masses. As for-profit entities, a goal of companies in this sector is to maximize revenue and profit. Existing research identifies four main activities as…

The premise of this work is simple: the history of college admission since World War II is a consumer history. The way in which this history unfolds is far more complex. College admission is a contested good. It is simultaneously a consumable good (students purchase a college education for personal and familial reasons) and a social good (various…

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…

Using a life history method to illustrate the college admission process for undocumented students, this article demonstrates how students' social contexts (e.g., schooling, family, migration, and labor) influence their college choice processes and participation in the broader project of college-going. The central argument claims that if admission…

In this article, the author talks about an increasing movement that generates support for the Dream Act, the federal proposal which would allow some undocumented students to begin the path towards permanent residency. Beginning in Summer 2009, when more than 500 converged in DC for a national Dream Act graduation ceremony, students and their…

Picture an undocumented student, and for most college counselors, it will be the image of a Latino student. However, the reality is that students from many other ethnic groups lack documentation as well. These students hail from everywhere. According to DreamActivist.org, an online resource network for undocumented students, they come from places…

My research shows that college-eligible undocumented students exhibit high levels of academic achievement, civic engagement and resilience. Many overcome academic and socio-emotional barriers through social and moral support from family, peers, school agents and academic programs. As a result of the state residency tuition eligibility across the…

The advent of the modern form of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), brought to bear by the combination of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Harvard's former president James Bryant Conant (Lemann 1999), was designed to promote the recognition of talent and intellect, wherever they may be found. Their aim was to provide greater educational…

Access to American higher education is increasingly becoming a privilege for upper-class youth while low-socioeconomic status (SES) youth are increasingly marginalized and unable to compete in the college choice game. In order to increase parent involvement in college choice for low-SES African-American and Latino parents, a paradigm shift must…

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…

There is no shortage of places in higher education--most noncompetitive colleges could admit more students, but institutions often struggle to get the class that they want. Professionals consider the admission process successful when they are able to configure a class that meets the institution's many missions and notions, rather than just…