A majority of high school graduates aspire to earn a college degree (ACT, 2016), yet many students are graduating from high school unprepared to do college-level work. As a result, about one-third of college freshmen enroll in at least one developmental course upon entry to college (Skomsvold, 2014). Because developmental courses are often not…

This dissertation analyzes the ways that college applicants and college students navigate through higher education with a focus on ways to improve their experience. In the first chapter, I examine the ways that college applicants change their application and enrollment decisions when using the Common Application. In the second chapter, I highlight…

Colleges are increasingly interested in identifying the factors that maximize their enrollment. These factors allow enrollment management administrators to identify the applicants who have higher tendency to enroll at their institutions and accordingly to better allocate their money rewards (i.e., scholarship and financial aid). In this paper we…

A plethora of research spanning several decades has attempted to understand predictors of retention and graduation in undergraduate bachelor's degree programs. The topic is no less important today, as larger and larger swaths of the American population attend college each year. Studies have demonstrated that key demographic variables, indicators…

This study examines the differential effects on student subgroups of using the ACT® College Readiness Assessment Composite (ACTC) score and high school grade point average (HSGPA) for making admission decisions. The subgroup characteristics investigated include race/ethnicity, gender, and income. For each student subgroup, we examine the effect of…

This study used a logistic probability model to investigate the effects of variables relating student characteristics and institutional factors on the decision to apply to a large land-grant research university. The study used the entire data set from American College Testing (ACT) program test-takers in the fall of 1995 and institutional data on…