The four college years is the last important developmental period of a young person's life, and what happens then can and often does have substantial consequences. He can be awakened and fired up to develop himself and his talents, he can plod through largely untouched or unenlightened, he can be frustrated and turned off, he can transfer, or he…

In 1973, the domestic climate was surprisingly similar to today in that the economy was bad, unemployment was high, an energy crisis was looming, and there was social and political unrest across the country. At that time, a college education was considered expensive, yet as is true now, education was seen as the doorway to economic opportunity.…

This paper is a response to Clinton F. Conrad's article, "Beyond the Folklore." Conrad's strategy for assessing undergraduate quality echoes the sentiments espoused by many admission and college counseling professionals over the years at various workshops for students and families that focus on navigating the process. As transcendent as the…

Stealth applicants who do not flow through the traditional admission funnel now represent nearly one-third of the national applicant pool. This study employs a consumer behavior framework to examine the behaviors of stealth applicants at a private university. The findings provide a rich illustration of how stealth applicants search for college.…

The study examined the factors that affected minority students' choice to enroll at private four-year faith-based institutions in the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) in the United States. The study utilized the data from the College Board's Admitted Student Questionnaire PLUS (ASQ PLUS) survey. The final sample included 283…

Today's colleges strive for diversity in order to enrich students' personal development, perspectives, and real-world knowledge. While colleges have been trying to recruit students of different races for decades, they are now expanding their perspective of what true diversity entails. LGBT students, due to their orientation, often have different…

Enrollment managers will be watching to see how recruitment strategies change when higher education's sleeping giant--net price calculators (NPCs)--wakes in the fall of 2011. Some predict yield projections may be more difficult and reputations will be challenged as prospective students, their families, high school counselors, and independent…

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…

This paper outlines the major influences on the college choice process of Latino undocumented students with a specific focus on the "choice" stage of the broader college opportunity process (Hossler & Gallagher 1987; Hossler, Schmidt, & Vesper 1999). As theorized by Hossler et. al (1987; 1999), the choice stage is where students make final…

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…

Over the past decade, the number of students with disabilities enrolling in college has increased steadily. Data are not gathered annually, but the figures compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics show that the number of undergraduates at degree-granting institutions rose from 1,508,000 in 1999 to 2,156,000 enrolled in 2003, a 69…

The topic of distance from home is often discussed when students begin narrowing down colleges they want to apply to; however, there is a scarcity of research actually examining student behavior. The purpose of this study is to address this research gap using data based on a national sample of nearly one million students. Distance was computed in…

Everyone insists that a person should go to a college that is right for him/her, somewhere that fits who he/she is, a place where a they belong. There are more than 4,000 colleges and universities in this country; how will a person find the one that is right for them? In this article, the author suggests that one should follow the mascot when…

In this article, the author shares how choosing a college can be an overwhelming experience. She shares that there are so many choices. Almost every college fits all the requirements she wanted. As such, she decided to stop worrying about college and made a decision to enjoy the high school experience she is living right now.