Students commencing tertiary education enter through a number of traditional and alternative academic pathways. As a result, tertiary institutions encounter a broad range of students, varying in demographic, previous education, characteristics and academic achievement. In recent years, the relatively constant increase in tertiary applications in…

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) are competing to recruit students in a crowded market with the number of colleges on the increase and the number of high school seniors declining. IHEs are looking for effective ways to recruit students and increase retention and graduation rates. Relationship marketing (RM) is an approach from business that…

Texas' 2006 House Bill 1, which required all high schools in Texas to provide students with the opportunity to earn a minimum of 12 hours of college credit prior to their graduation beginning the fall of 2008, changed the high school experience. The goal of the bill was to smooth the transition from high school to higher education. By looking at…

Examines the relationship between class rank and intelligence skills for a group of 75 physically handicapped students mainstreamed into two regular vocational-technical high school programs. (Author/CM)

Examines structural features of grade point averages (GPAs) and offers examples showing that GPAs cannot consistently determine class rank since class rank is sometimes permuted with arbitrary change of scale. Notes relativistic efforts to resolve inconsistencies are insufficient. Discusses the function of GPAs as predictors of academic…

Various reasons are given for the unrealiability of class rank as an indicator of academic success; author is head of a small private college-preparatory school. (SP)

Rebuts the claims of Trusheim and Crouse, made in an earlier issue, that Scholastic Aptitude Test scores are no more effective predictors of college success than is high school class rank. Discusses inaccuracies in the data used by Trusheim and Crouse and points out errors in their analyses. (PGD)

Characteristics that might help predict student prominence within a medical school class were studied. The prominent student is one who is highly visible and extensively involved in key relationships with other students. This prominence is expected to provide the student with greater access to information and resources held by classmates. A total…

In this essay, Rebecca Zwick confronts the controversy surrounding the use of standardized tests in college admissions. She examines the degree to which the SAT and its lesser known cousin, the ACT, limit access to college, particularly for racial and ethnic minorities, and considers two alternative admissions policies that do not involve tests:…

This study compared the effectiveness of several existing and proposed methods for statistically adjusting college grade point averages (GPAs) for course and departmental differences in grading standards, using first-semester grades from an entire entering class at a large state university (4,351 students), in 1988. Most of the adjusted GPAs…

The study explored the qualifications of learning-disabled college students by examining the academic performance (first year grade point average--GPA) of 179 learning-disabled and 249 nonlearning-disabled students classified by two objective admission criteria--either Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) or high-school class rank. Overall, the scores…

This study sought to determine which, if any, of the possible predictor variables based on relationships with college performance available at freshman entry would prove useful in selecting students for admission. A study of the relationships between four college performance variables and eight admission variables was conducted using seven…

In this paper the bootstrap technique was applied to the evaluation of potential predictive bias for different ethnic groups using the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and high school ranks to predict college grade point averages (GPAs). Data of three ethnic groups were used; the total number of subjects was close to 5,000. Both conventional…

The predictive value of secondary school honors-type courses for the college admissions process was studied, with attention to the proposition that an honors-type course grade should be promoted one full level (e.g., from a "B" to an "A"). The sample consisted of 950 freshmen at Pennsylvania State University in 1979. The…

The aim of this study was to appraise whether different forms of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) used since the mid 1970s varied in their correlations with academic performance criteria in the same cohort of examinees. A 1975 form and a 1985 form were administered to equivalent samples of high school juniors, and self-reported grade-point…