This article advocates for increased attention on the college admission letter to strengthen conditionally admitted students' academic self-efficacy as they begin the college experience. Although first communications are often considered perfunctory, the language of admission materials has strong potential to help at-risk students begin…

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…

When addressing the best ways to utilize high school visits, education professionals must remember that while student academic preparation, family support and financial aid improve student access to postsecondary education, the adult tutelage provided to students, regarding the requirements for postsecondary success and the process of securing…

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…

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…

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…

Undocumented students are a population defined by limitations. Their lack of legal residency and any supporting paperwork (e.g., Social Security number, government issued identification) renders them essentially invisible to the American and state governments. They cannot legally work. In many states, they cannot legally drive. After the age of…

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…

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 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.

In her extensive, laborious experience applying to and searching out colleges, the prevailing sensation the author feels is that of being a mutt at a pedigree dog show, praying her little paws off that the judges do not realize how unqualified she is. In reality, the process is slightly less degrading than this description. In this article, the…

There is this little secret college-bound and first-year college students outwardly deny: They are scared sick about going off to college. In the authors' interviews with 175 college students throughout the United States for "Survival Secrets of College Students" (Barron's, 2007) students talked--sometimes painfully--about what they wished they…

Over the last several years there have been numerous calls for reforming high school to college transitions. In 2000-2001, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) and the National Commission on the High School Senior Year respectively called for a re-thinking of how students moved from secondary to postsecondary education. A widely-discussed…

There has been an increase on the number of applicants and the average SAT scores of the admitted students to colleges and universities in the United States. The total number of applicants may increase for purely external reasons, such as more students graduating from high school or more students reading good things about a particular college, but…