This study explores the role of social media in addressing educational inequity, focusing on prospective first-generation students' college exploration. The study answers two questions: (1) how do prospective first-generation students describe their social media usage related to college? (2) how do prospective first-generation students describe…

Young people's room for autonomy and independent life choices is challenged by intensive parenting practices and ambiguous ideals underpinning the youth-parent relationship. In this article, we explore how young people make sense of and relate to parental influence as they are about to make choices of higher education. Through Foucauldian…

State and federal governments invest millions of dollars in providing accurate and relevant information on expected outcomes to students pursuing higher education, but whether such information targets what students value about college is unclear. We use new survey data to identify the extent to which conventional indicators for college quality and…

Low-income students are underrepresented at selective colleges. Most evaluative criteria used by admissions officers are correlated with income, including test scores and performance in high school. Inspired in part by the current state of the use of testing in college admissions, this study examines how the quality of colleges attended by…

Postgraduate students' university selection decisions are influenced not only by the students themselves or their families, but also by internal university factors. This study evaluated the reasons for pursuing postgraduate education and investigated how family's socioeconomic status and the university's internal environment factors influenced…

Although evangelicals have long been skeptical about non-sectarian higher education, the current climate in the United States necessitates a fresh look at possible sources of their beliefs. This is relevant since many of the current culture wars center on education. For instance, book bans in Texas public schools, funded by evangelicals, take aim…

In our rapidly developing modern world, where there are trends of high growth in science and technology, there is an acute need for professionally motivated and highly qualified specialists. This article discusses the features of professional motivation of students of pedagogical specialties. To determine the specifics of the formation of…

Purpose: This study intends to build up a thorough understanding of social factors that largely influence students' decision-making to opt institution for higher studies in India. Design/methodology/approach: This descriptive research follows two sequential phases consisting of the literature review to identify social factors and validate the…

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…

This article analyses the mechanisms that contribute to differences in educational choice in the transition from the second to the third stage of secondary education in Flanders, a highly tracked educational system. The study programme chosen in the eleventh grade, besides being quite predictable from the educational position in the tenth grade…

Considering the educational services, the Brazilian Navy education aims to comply with continuous and progressive process of education, with own characteristics, which are constantly updated and improved based on some principles, such as guarantee of quality standard, continuous and progressive professionalisation, and integral and continuous…

We use the score reports of 375,000 US-based GMAT® test takers to document patterns of mismatch between student ability and school quality. We find substantial levels of mismatch in candidates' selection of MBA programs for score-sending, and by extension, applications. The evidence suggests that the high levels of mismatch in the selection of…

Understanding students' college enrollment decisions is critical because the admission outcome can affect the school's quality and its reputation. In this paper, we study how students consider their relative academic ability compared to their potential peers. Drawing from social comparison theory, we posit that there are asymmetric effects due to…

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to substantially disrupt the educational experiences of high school students. In addition to experiencing the pandemic disruption in high schools, students were also likely aware of disruptions in colleges and in the labor market. Fast-forward to the spring of 2023. The students who are now…

In the increasingly complex world of college choice, high school counselors are an important resource for college-bound students, yet the environment these counselors find themselves in is one that focuses on questions of value and return on investment, resulting in the elevation of some academic disciplines over others. Using a multiple case…