College Admissions and the Public Interest PDF Download

Author: Brainerd Alden Thresher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Author: Michael S. McPherson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
This study describes the American system of higher education's distributive mechanism in the practice of selective admission and considers possible changes in that system. Chapter One presents the work's overall approach, a three level analysis of the current system from the viewpoints of the individual student and the individual college as well as a conspectus of the system as a whole. Chapter Two describes some main features of the outcome of the existing admissions system in terms of the distribution of students across institutions. Chapters Three and Four analyze the consequences of higher education by enumerating and evaluating the various outputs of higher education in terms of what is "fair" and what is "efficient." Here, alternative descriptions of how the educational system actually operates are provided. Chapter Five follows up the earlier work on defining and measuring equity and efficiency by turning to trade-offs between the two. Chapter Six returns to the central issue: the person or institution's pursuit of individual goals may result in a collective situation in which achievement of those goals is frustrated. Chapter Seven looks at what all of this means for policy decision making and concludes that, although radical change in existing practices are neither feasible nor desirable, improvements in both equity and efficiency are possible if relatively small changes (such as institutional cooperation to limit competition-driven expenditures) are implemented. (56 references) (JB)

Author: Susan F. Paterno
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250622654
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Director of the Chapman journalism program—and mother of four recent college grads—Susan F. Paterno leads you through the admissions process to help you and your family make the best decision possible. How is it possible that Harvard is more affordable for most American families than their local state university? Or that up to half of eligible students receive no financial aid? Or that public universities are rejecting homegrown middle- and working-class applicants and instead enrolling wealthy out-of- state students? College admission has escalated into a high-stakes game of emotional and financial survival. How is the deck stacked against you? And what can you do about it? Susan F. Paterno, a veteran academic and journalist, answers these questions and more in Game On. Paterno helped her four very different kids navigate the application process to a wide range of colleges, paying for their four-year educations on a finite budget. She incisively decodes the college admission industry—the consultants, the tutors, the rankers, the branding companies hawking “advantage”—and arms you with the knowledge you need to make the system work for you. You’ll learn how to narrow your focus, analyze who gets in and why, and look for the right financial fit before considering anything else, including geography, reputation, and, especially, ranking. Among the tools and insights in Game On: · Why forty years of failed free-market policies have led to skyrocketing tuition and historic levels of student debt · Why applying to college has become a bewildering maze and how to find your way to a successful result · Why college costs are more terrifying than you think · How to read beyond the rack rate to negotiate the best financial package with the least debt · Why merit is a myth, but merit aid is essential · The difference between family debt and student debt and how to split it A playbook for the Hunger Games of higher education, Game On explains the anxiety, uncertainty, and chaos in college admission, explodes the myth of meritocracy, exposes the academy’s connection to America’s widening gap between rich and poor, and provides strategies to beat—and reform—a broken system.

Author: Lloyd Thacker
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674019775
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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The presidents and admission deans of leading colleges and universities remind readers that college choice and admission are a matter of fit, and that many colleges are "good" in different ways. They call for bold changes in admissions policies and application strategies to help schools and applicants fully appreciate what college is really for.

Author: John Aubrey Douglass
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804755597
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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The first comprehensive study of the admission policies and practices at U.S. public universities, examining their "social contract" in light of contemporary debates over affirmative action, standardized testing, privatization, and the influences of globalization.

Author: Anthony P. Carnevale
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1620974878
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
An eye-opening and timely look at how colleges drive the very inequalities they are meant to remedy, complete with a call—and a vision—for change Colleges fiercely defend America's deeply stratified higher education system, arguing that the most exclusive schools reward the brightest kids who have worked hard to get there. But it doesn't actually work this way. As the recent college-admissions bribery scandal demonstrates, social inequalities and colleges' pursuit of wealth and prestige stack the deck in favor of the children of privilege. For education scholar and critic Anthony P. Carnevale, it's clear that colleges are not the places of aspiration and equal opportunity they claim to be. The Merit Myth calls out our elite colleges for what they are: institutions that pay lip service to social mobility and meritocracy, while offering little of either. Through policies that exacerbate inequality, including generously funding so-called merit-based aid for already-wealthy students rather than expanding opportunity for those who need it most, U.S. universities—the presumed pathway to a better financial future—are woefully complicit in reproducing the racial and class privilege across generations that they pretend to abhor. This timely and incisive book argues for unrigging the game by dramatically reducing the weight of the SAT/ACT; measuring colleges by their outcomes, not their inputs; designing affirmative action plans that take into consideration both race and class; and making 14 the new 12—guaranteeing every American a public K–14 education. The Merit Myth shows the way for higher education to become the beacon of opportunity it was intended to be.

Author: Harold S. Wechsler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351475622
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
In The Qualified Student Harold S. Wechsler focuses on methods of student selection used by institutions of higher education in the United States. More specifically, he discusses the way that college and university reformers employed those methods to introduce higher education into a broader cross-section of America, by extending access to an increased number of students from nontraditional backgrounds. Implicit in much of this book is an underlying social and ethical question: How legitimate was and is higher education's regulation of social mobility? Public concern over colleges' and universities' practices became inevitable once they became regulators between social classes. The challenging of colleges' admissions policies in the courts augments similar concerns that have been present in legislatures for decades. The volume is divided into three main sections: Prerequisites, Columbia and the Selective Function, and Implications. It focuses mainly on four universities, The University of Michigan, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the City University of New York. Wechsler maintains that unlike other universities, these institutions were pacesetters; they did not adopt a new policy simply because some other college had already adopted it. A new introduction brings the book, originally published in 1977, up to date and demonstrates its continuing importance in today's academic world of selective admissions.

Author: Jeffrey Selingo
Publisher: Scribner
ISBN: 1982116293
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
From award-winning higher education journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Selingo comes a revealing look from inside the admissions office—one that identifies surprising strategies that will aid in the college search. Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets In and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game, and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a “good college.” Hint: it’s not all about the sticker on the car window. Selingo, who was embedded in three different admissions offices—a selective private university, a leading liberal arts college, and a flagship public campus—closely observed gatekeepers as they made their often agonizing and sometimes life-changing decisions. He also followed select students and their parents, and he traveled around the country meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes consultants, and college rankers. While many have long believed that admissions is merit-based, rewarding the best students, Who Gets In and Why presents a more complicated truth, showing that “who gets in” is frequently more about the college’s agenda than the applicant. In a world where thousands of equally qualified students vie for a fixed number of spots at elite institutions, admissions officers often make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors—like diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted. One of the most insightful books ever about “getting in” and what higher education has become, Who Gets In and Why not only provides an unusually intimate look at how admissions decisions get made, but guides prospective students on how to honestly assess their strengths and match with the schools that will best serve their interests.

Author: Brennan Barnard
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421447487
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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"A guide for students and families that demystifies the college process"--

Author: Jerome Karabel
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618574582
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 748

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Book Description
Drawing on decades of research, Karabel shines a light on the ever-changing definition of "merit" in college admissions, showing how it shaped--and was shaped by--the country at large.