Viewing the Whole Student: Creating Access by Incorporating a Holistic Review Method in Higher Education Admissions

In this thesis, I will explore how higher education institutions can provide greater access to, and support for, students who do not meet traditional admissions requirements such as standardized test scores. This topic is important because traditional admissions requirements are inequitable for various groups of students, and they are also not accurate predictors of success in higher education for all students. My interest in this topic originates from my own personal experiences applying to and attending higher education, as well as my belief that higher education should be accessible to all who wish to pursue it. Therefore, barriers such as various admissions requirements should not be in place for students to access higher education. Within this thesis, I will note key core concepts from higher education and student affairs that intersect with the thematic concern. Then, I will propose an intervention designed to address the thematic concern. The intervention I propose centers around the creation and implementation of a holistic review method in the higher education admissions process for applicants who do not initially meet admission to an institution based on their standardized test scores. I will conclude the thesis by proposing a method for assessing the proposed intervention, which primarily involves randomly identifying a cohort of students admitted to the higher education institution using the holistic review method and following them throughout their time in higher education to review their progress and successes

Corruption in University Admissions and the Administrative Allocation of Scarce Goods

The Varsity Blues investigation uncovered a seamy side of university admissions. Multiple wealthy parents were indicted for securing their children s admission to selective institutions through bribery. Despite the publicity the indictments and guilty pleas received, and the public schadenfreude over the sight of celebrities being arrested, the investigation is most notable for what it did not do: it did not deploy the federal government\u27s arsenal of anti-money laundering and anti-corruption tools against the universities involved. This represents a significant missed opportunity to address the serious problems that arise from rationing access to selective institutions via opaque, easily manipulated admissions processes designed to benefit university constituencies. Without deploying the same tools used routinely against other for- and non-profit organizations, the chances for real reform are significantly reduced. We call for universities and their boards to be held to the standards applied to other institutions with respect to corruption and money laundering in their oversight of admissions programs

Student Success: Lessons from the Center for Student Enterprise

Student success is critically important to students, universities, and society. Measuring outcomes of programs is essential in determining what works and what doesn’t. Programs that improve outcomes should be analyzed and adopted by educational institutions at large. Research suggests that business schools prioritize case analysis over practical application leading to ‘low-integrative thinking’ (McCord and Michaelsen, 2015), a lack of practical knowledge, and effective communication. Experiential learning opportunities have been shown to overcome these challenges faced by business school students as it engages students intellectually and emotionally. Furthermore, experiential learning opportunities develop students holistically and effectively, preparing them for the competitive business world outside. This research aims to examine the post-graduate employment opportunities and graduate program acceptance rates of students who have participated in experiential learning. The experiential learning is set at Pace University’s Center for Student Enterprise. After evaluating the preference of professionals and students, the results showed that an undeniable majority of the participants prefer candidates with experiential learning experience on their resumes for a given job. This suggests a high correlation between employment with the Center for Student Enterprise and selection as the preferred candidate for hire. However, with regard to graduate program acceptance, noteworthy conclusions cannot be derived due to a low response rate. These results suggest that colleges and universities can contribute to engaging in more experiential learning opportunities for the success of their students. The current research provides an understanding of the relationship between experiential learning and student success. This relationship could be further explored by adopting a longitudinal study to identify the career paths of students who have been a part of experiential learning experiences

Race, Elite College Admissions, and the Courts: The Pursuit of Racial Equality in Education Retreats to K12 Schools

If the Supreme Court bans race-conscious affirmative action, as expected, selective higher education institutions almost certainly will become less diverse, reducing the rates of degree attainment among students from historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. This report explores the legal history of racial equity in education, evaluates alternatives to using race/ethnicity in college admissions, and considers changes to the K–12 education system that would improve educational opportunity. In the long term, the only way to ensure diversity at selective higher education institutions is to confront the segregation and inequity in K–12 education and society at large

A Phenomenology of Student Perceptions about the Impact of Participation in the Advanced Placement Program on College Readiness

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand college undergraduate perceptions about preparedness to meet the demands and expectations of college-level coursework based on their experiences with the AP program in high school. Previous quantitative research regarding the AP program has shown students who participated in AP courses in high school do have an edge in college admissions. However, through this study the researcher sought to qualitatively understand the level of confidence and preparedness that former AP students feel when encountering college-level coursework during their undergraduate college experience, using Schlossberg’s transition theory for theoretical guidance. This phenomenological qualitative study interviewed 13 college undergraduates who attended one of three private high schools in southwest Florida and successfully completed a minimum of two AP courses in high school. This study’s data collection included individual interviews, focus group interviews, and a narrative reflection to investigate the following central research question: What are the perceptions of college undergraduates who have participated in their high school’s AP program regarding their preparedness to meet the demands and expectations of college-level coursework? Memoing, coding, and phenomenological reduction were used for data analysis to develop rich descriptions of participants’ experiences with the AP programs in their respective high schools. From these descriptions, three key themes emerged: the participants’ motivation for taking AP courses was varied and impacted by personal benefits, participants see a need for more autonomy being granted in the high school setting, and participants have strong opinions about the specific needs of a successful AP program

Influencing College Choice: Enrollment Factors for International Students at a Private Research University in the Northeast

This study aims to understand the factors that influence international students\u27 decisions to enroll at a private research university in the Northeast. Through interviews with current students and staff members at the university, the study gathered data about trends in enrollment, how students learned about the university, obstacles faced by international students in the application process, and finally what factors were most important in their enrollment decisions. The most important factors in an international student\u27s decision to enroll in the university were cost, environment, and recommendations. Due to the limited diversity in the demographics of the student participants, there is room for further research to reveal how the factors may differ for different groups of international students. Keywords: admissions, enrollment management, international students, international education, higher educatio

Scandals in College Athletics: A Case Study Exploring the Impact of a College Basketball Scandal on the Admissions/Enrollment Management Process of a University

“Scandal is a phenomenon associated with sports both professional and collegiate. Virtually no sports are immune to scandal” (Prior et al., 2013, p. 189). Scandals in college athletics have become a topic of interest for the higher education community, arising over the last decade. High profile institutions are being publicly implicated and found guilty of transgressions that alter the way these universities are viewed. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the governing body of college athletic departments. This body regulates the actions of its members institutions by establishing specific regulations around recruiting, player interaction and many other facets of the experience. This research seeks to understand the impact had on the university when a scandal is discovered and made public. This interpretivist case study is designed to approach the topic of athletic department scandals from an enrollment management/admissions perspective to gain understanding on how the institutional brand, reputation and overall image is impacted. Nine university staff members were interviewed, and their responses were analyzed to develop an understanding of the topic. The findings from this study include lack of impact from the scandal as well as various implications for the university including transparency and consistent communication from administrative positions

Political Activism and Research Ethics

Those who care about and engage in politics frequently fall victim to cognitive bias. Concerns that such bias impacts scholarship recently have prompted debates—notably, in philosophy and psychology—on the proper relationship between research and politics. One proposal emerging from these debates is that researchers studying politics have a professional duty to avoid political activism because it risks biasing their work. While sympathetic to the motivations behind this proposal, I suggest several reasons to reject a blanket duty to avoid activism: (1) even if it reduced bias, this duty would make unreasonable demands on researchers; (2) this duty could hinder research by limiting viewpoint diversity; (3) this duty wrongly implies that academia offers a relative haven from bias compared to politics; and (4) not all forms of political activism pose an equal risk of bias. None of these points suggest that researchers should ignore the risk of bias. Rather, researchers should focus on stronger evidence-based strategies for reducing bias than a blanket recommendation to avoid politics

Application of Crisis Communication Theories during the 2019 College Admissions Scandal: Operation Varsity Blues

Operation Varsity Blues was a federal investigation in 2019 that discovered an enormous college admissions scandal, where wealthy parents were paying to have someone bribe school officials or coaches with the end goal of having their child accepted into an elite university. As the investigation was released, each of the eight universities involved sent out press releases that explained where the university stood regarding the scandal and what they were doing in response. Using the well-establish crisis communication theories of Benoit’s Image Repair Theory (1995) and Coomb’s Situational Crisis Communication Theory (2007), a qualitative content analysis on the communications from the universities, specifically their press releases, surrounding the crisis, allows a better understanding for what specific response strategies were applied in this situation. The study concludes that while the universities each denied responsibility regarding the scandal itself, they also communicated that they would take full responsibility in preventing the crisis from happening again. This combination of strategies allowed the universities to maintain their innocence while reassuring the public that they were making changes to prevent cheating in the future. Understanding how the theory’s recommended strategies were applied to this situation provides further clarity in understanding how the theories in general are applied, and how universities use them under these specific circumstances