Research
Inequity and College Applications: Assessing Differences and Disparities in Letters of Recommendation from School Counselors with Natural Language Processing
Brian Heseung Kim, Julie J. Park, Pearl Lo, Dominique Baker, Nancy Wong, Stephanie Breen, Huong Truong, Jia Zheng, Kelly Rosinger, & OiYan Poon
Letters of recommendation are affected by inequality.
Using natural language processing techniques, we analyzed counselor letters of recommendation from 600,000 college applications submitted through the Common Application platform. We found large and noteworthy naïve differences in letter length and content across nearly all demographic groups (e.g., many more sentences about Athletics among White and higher-SES students, longer letters and more sentences on Personal Qualities for private school students). Findings reflect the importance of reading letters and overall applications in the context of structural opportunity.
Inequality Beyond Standardized Tests: Trends in Extracurricular Activity Reporting in College Applications Across Race and Class
Julie J. Park, Brian Kim, Nancy Wong, Jia Zheng, Stephanie Breen, Pearl Lo, Dominique Baker, Kelly Rosinger, Mike Hoa Nguyen, & OiYan Poon
Inequality in extracurricular activities is pervasive.
We analyzed extracurricular activity descriptions in nearly 6 million college applications. White, Asian American, high-SES, and private school students reported more activities, more activities with top-level leadership roles, and more activities with honors/awards. Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and low-income students reported top leadership positions at a similar rate as other students, although the absolute number was lower. Findings do not support a return to required standardized testing, nor do they necessarily support ending consideration of activities in admissions. We discuss implications for holistic review.
Test-Free Admissions at Selective Colleges: Insights from Admissions Professionals
Pearl Lo, Julie J. Park, Nancy Wong, Jia Zheng, OiYan Poon, Kelly Rosinger
While 1,700+ colleges and universities are test-optional, about 86 institutions completely eliminated the use of tests in admissions.
Given the Supreme Court decision on race-conscious admissions as well as the desire to promote equity, more institutions may consider test-free policies in the future. In response to open-ended survey items, admissions professionals at test-free institutions expressed positive opinions about test-free policies, and noted implications for the review process.
Test-Optional Policies in the Era of COVID-19: Responses from the College Admissions Community
Nancy Wong, OiYan Poon, Julie J. Park, Jia Zheng, Pearl Lo
The COVID-19 pandemic propelled many institutions to adopt test-optional policies. At the same time, little is known about the decision-making processes that led to these changes, or how practitioners implemented them.
We surveyed 226 admissions college admissions professionals from selective, four-year institutions, and interviewed 15 senior admission leaders. Overall, the majority of respondents viewed the move to test-optional admissions favorably, and felt that they had received adequate training and preparation to evaluate applications under the new policies. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
Variation in Test-Optional
Admissions at Selective Colleges During the Pandemic
Kelly Rosinger, Dominique J. Baker, Joseph Sturm, Wan Yu, Julie J. Park, OiYan Poon, Brian H. Kim, and Stephanie Breen
The pandemic saw the rapid and widespread adoption of test-optional admissions policies that allowed applicants to choose whether to submit SAT or ACT scores to selective four-year colleges.
This policy brief draws on detailed information about selective colleges’ admissions testing policies to describe the proliferation of test-optional admissions policies during the pandemic period and highlight the variations in how colleges implemented test-optional policies.