Explores how toughened admissions policies have reshaped the City University of New York, attracting many new students but turning some immigrants away. (EV)

The excess of qualified candidates at selective colleges distorts the way in which applications are evaluated. Admission committees are put in the position of looking for reasons to exclude. The fair way to choose a freshman class from among too many qualified applicants is by some type of random selection. (MLW)

Increasing, high-achieving Black high school students are choosing Black colleges over traditionally more selective schools. Aggressive marketing and racist incidents at White colleges have contributed to this trend resulting in many Black institutions becoming more selective. Some educators worry they will abandon their traditional mission of…

A Trinity University (Texas) study identified a strong correlation between campus visits by admitted applicants and the proportion of admitted applicants who matriculated there. It is suggested that college marketing strategists consider the important role of this sales promotion device. (Author/MSE)

Differential grading standards were examined in a sample of 1,029 Dartmouth College graduates. Fields of study that attracted students (as majors) who scored higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) employed stricter grading standards. These differential standards attenuated the substantial correlation between SAT scores and grades.…

A new business is using the Internet to sell compositions written by successful applicants to 60 competitive colleges and schools. Personnel of the service claim the essays are not to encourage plagiarism but to help disadvantaged or underprepared students compete. Admissions counselors disagree, and some are prepared to reject applicants…

A study of over 8,000 admissions of Cornell University (New York) graduates to 19 highly selective medical schools, 1982-89, found that grade point average (GPA) was extremely influential especially at 9 schools. It was concluded that applicants often receive encouragement to continue the application process despite little chance of acceptance.…

Data from a national survey of Graduate Management Admission Test registrants provide information on characteristics of the first job respondents held after graduation, use of school-based job-placement and related job-search services, and use of placement services not provided by the schools. Data are compared for schools at four levels of…

To create an effective plan and marketing strategy, administrators, faculty members, trustees, alumni, and students need to be involved. Each group needs to understand that it must subordinate individual and departmental concerns to those of the college. (MLW)

A study investigated the relationship between undergraduate admissions selectivity at 40 research universities and academic rigor of course examination questions, as determined by the level of understanding required. Results suggest that more selective institutions do not provide more academically rigorous instruction than less selective ones.…

Looks at books about college admissions, and at the unexamined prejudices fueling the elite college admissions frenzy. Powerful emotions, of students and parents alike, get mixed up in the college admissions process. Class anxiety, culture wars and other prejudices, not academic standing or faculty credentials, all contribute to making some…

This study applied probability models in a four-year case study at a selective liberal arts college. The study found that, while admissions decisions matched institutional goals for student characteristics, discrepancies between acceptance and enrollment decisions frustrated the institution's efforts to achieve diversity and highlighted the…

Characteristics of competition from an institutional perspective were studied, based on a 1983 field study of the management and performance of four-year institutions. Attention was directed to three concerns: the similarity of competing institutions; the extent to which enrollment competition is structured by characteristics such as institutional…

The question of whether minority, female, and low income college students are disproportionately attending less-selective and lower-cost institutions was studied. Three sets of student characteristics were assessed: ascribed (race, ethnicity, and gender); socioeconomic (parental income, parents' educational attainments, and family size); and…

Develops a gatekeeping theory by stepping inside the black box of Harvard university's admissions process. Stresses how political and organizational contexts influence selection (gatekeeping). Analyzes how student merit and social class-based factors mutually determine selection. Links an understanding of the organizational field with process…