This article relates the story of Jean-Yves Ngabonziza, a full-need international student. During his senior year, on Rwandan National Mourning Day, April 6, 19-year-old Yves spoke to the entire school community for the first time about his past and the past of his native country. He began with the history of central Africa, introduced the…

The ability of students' social supports, such as friends from high school and family, to effectively lessen stress often wanes during students' transitions to postsecondary institutions. College, most often the best years of a student's life, at its first bloom (choosing a school) carries with it with high anxiety about changing location, routine…

Many colleges and universities receive thousands of applications for freshman admission every year. To facilitate the process of evaluating each and every applicant in a relatively short amount of time, schools often devise quantitative ratings scales to summarize student characteristics. The ratings give readers a shorthand way to communicate the…

High school and independent counselors often encounter college-bound students who are Christians or who wish to study in a Christian environment. The intent of this article is to help familiarize counselors with Christian colleges. By being familiar with these colleges, counselors can help their students of faith better facilitate a successful…

In this article, the author, a volunteer college counselor for Palestinian and Israeli members of "Seeds of Peace"--students who want to study in the U.S., describes her experience working with these youths as they embark upon their voyage to acquire a U.S. university education. Founded in 1993 by the late John Wallach, Seeds of Peace is a peace…

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…

Although they work toward the same goal, high school counselors and admission officers often overlook one another as essential resources in the transition to postsecondary education. When addressing the best ways to utilize high school visits, education professionals must remember that while student academic preparation, family support and…

This study analyzed applications for admission to a large metropolitan four-year public university over a three-year period, seeking to determine whether there were any significant differences in characteristics of students who applied online versus those who completed paper applications. (Contains 1 table.)

Academic literature regarding state lotteries' impact on education deals primarily with issues of funding, rather than searches for evidence of lotteries directly advancing the cause of higher education, by measuring enrollment numbers before and after the adoption of a state lottery. This study fills this void by researching whether…

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), originally established to serve as an advocate of ethical practices in the recruitment of students and awarding of scholarship dollars, now recognizes the ethical dilemmas admission counselors face in the current competitive marketplace. This article presents the details of a…

As a college degree is becoming a necessity for later earning a steady living, tuition rates are rising rapidly. Fortunately, the availability of merit-based scholarships is increasing, yet little research has been done on scholarship-awarding practices. Determining whether high school counselors accurately perceive awarding practices is an…

This paper describes the college admission process through the conceptual lens of Dickason's (2001) phases of affirmative action. The first phase, obligatory affirmative action, describes the history of affirmative action and the impact on college admission. The second phase, voluntary affirmative action, describes University of West Florida's…

This study examined the before-and-after effects of transitional summer programs at the University of Maryland?Eastern Shore, on pre-college students? perceptions, expectations, emotions, and knowledge about college. The study focused on academic, personal and social experiences, and how these changed throughout the course of the summer program.…

Social and environmental factors, unique to many first-generation college students and other at-risk youth, complicate the job of college advising. This study provides program design, and teaching topics and techniques to further sensitize advisors to social, emotional, and cultural factors that impact their work.

As professionals on both sides of the admission desk, there are several questions we should ask ourselves with regard to this issue. For example, do outgoing students make more positive contributions to the academic milieu and social fabric of a university than reserved students??or are their contributions simply more visible? Do college…