The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how college-bound Generation Z students describe higher education institutions' use of social media as a marketing tool during their college choice experience in Texas. The foundation for the study was the college choice model from Hossler and Gallagher that identified three phases…

This guest perspective argues that converting in-person summer pre-college program participants into matriculated, degree-seeking undergraduate students at that same institution is a multi-step process that involves: 1) strategic pre-college program recruitment, 2) a curated and well-rounded summer pre-college experience that is both academically…

Higher education institutions are at a critical point with college recruitment, whereby social media marketing recruitment strategies are vital. Today's prospective traditional college student utilizes social media for both information and engagement. Understanding the relationship between social media influence and the college selection process…

This article discusses the evolution of college access and the potential consequences of continuing to define college access as initial enrollment. The process of reframing college access as an ongoing process, which may be challenging, is required, and higher education will benefit significantly as a result. The authors propose recommendations to…

Rural students pursue post-secondary education at a lower rate than their urban and suburban counterparts. While the college choice process is complex for all students, it is important to further examine this process for rural students because they are an underserved population. This study utilized Perna's (2006) college choice model to examine…

Comprehensive Transition & Postsecondary Programs (CTPs) were created by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA, 2008). They are designed to support students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) as defined by the HEOA, who want to continue academic, career or technical instruction in higher education in order to better prepare for…

Achieving a higher education remains a significant goal in the lives of young people. For many high school juniors and seniors, attending a college or university to continue their studies is seen as an inevitable step into adulthood. However, the high school to college transition can come with a plethora of challenges, and first-generation…

The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of first-generation community college faculty through narrative inquiry. Qualitative data were collected through semi-standard interviews with full-time community college faculty who were first-generation college students. In the first level of analysis, narrative accounts were created…

This study synthesizes theories of achievement motivation to better understand the development of academic task values in high school students and their relation to college major selection. We utilize longitudinal structural equation modeling to understand how grades relate to task values, how task values across domains relate to one another over…

Early college high schools (ECHS) in North Carolina are small public schools of choice on college campuses that seek to promote attaining postsecondary credits in high school, college readiness, and postsecondary enrollment for underrepresented groups. Evidence from randomized control trial (RCT) has shown positive effects of the ECHS model on…

Early college high schools (ECHSs) in North Carolina are small public schools of choice on college campuses that seek to promote attaining postsecondary credits in high school, college readiness, and postsecondary enrollment for underrepresented groups. Evidence from randomized control trials (RCTs) has shown positive effects of the ECHS model on…

Fewer young adults believe college is important, only about one-third of the American public has confidence in higher education. A recent study from Pew Research Center revealed that Americans are increasingly concerned about affordability, access, and the overall payoff of a college degree. Meanwhile, technological advances and AI have begun to…

Current, traditional-aged prospective college students are undergoing their college-going decision process in a "constantly connected" world. The purpose of this research was to explore and better understand how peer influence through social media may be influencing the decisions that current traditional-aged prospective college students…

Annual rankings provide easily consumable quantitative information that prospective students and their families use to make decisions about applications and admissions offers. One popular ranking is Princeton Review's Party Schools, which receives national attention and condemnation by institutional leaders. We analyzed IPEDS and Clery Act data…

Over the past forty years, scholars have been studying students' choice of higher education programmes to unravel the complexity of the choice process. Recent studies have shown that students may commit to a programme, i.e. they make a choice to enrol in that programme, when they find a programme that attunes well with their interests. Students…