Browsing by Subject "college admissions"

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    Criminal Records and College Admissions
    (2020-07) Stewart, Robert
    The systems of criminal justice and higher education are two major institutions that have profound effects on American social life. Since their inception, both institutions have served as powerful socioeconomic sorting mechanisms. As both institutions have expanded, they have played increasingly important roles in social mobility, socioeconomic status, and life opportunities. Criminal records are a pervasive, acutely restrictive feature of American social life, perpetuating cycles of crime, inequality, and lost opportunity, especially for low-income people and people of color. Higher education has long been considered a key to unlocking social mobility and developing social cohesion in American society, and a potentially compelling mechanism for facilitating desistance. College attendance and completion are associated with lower rates of unemployment and higher relative earnings. Through college, students can access valued opportunities, develop human capital, and foster civic membership. Yet, most colleges require applicants to disclose detailed criminal history information as part of the application process, and some evidence suggests that applicants are being rejected on the basis of their records. Thus, the benefits of higher education may not accrue for students with criminal records. The increasing scrutiny of criminal records in college admissions is especially consequential for groups most subject to the criminal legal system, particularly young Black males. Considering the historic underrepresentation of Black Americans in higher education and overrepresentation in justice-involved populations, criminal history disclosure requirements could raise additional barriers to racial progress, student learning, and citizenship. Drawing on original data sources, including a national audit of college admissions, I find that criminal record screening in college admissions raises substantial hurdles and barriers on the path to college for students with criminal records, demonstrating how records overwhelms potential life course opportunities, hardens inequality, and redefines social membership.
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    Disclosures of Trauma in College Applications: Policies, Practices, Perceptions, and the Role of the Admissions Professional
    (2024-05) Cron, Shannon
    Research shows that most college students have experienced a traumatic event in their lifetime—85%, according to one study (Frazier et. al, 2009). It follows that students often discuss these traumatic experiences in their college application essays. Sharing this kind of information can emotionally tax students and leave them feeling vulnerable to judgment—the latter of which is especially acute in the college admissions process, where being accepted or rejected is at the core. As a result, the need for admissions professionals to know how to best handle disclosures of trauma exists; this qualitative study explores what that might entail. The purpose of it is to examine what action (or lack of action) admissions counselors who work at private liberal arts colleges in the Midwest take when students disclose traumatic experiences in their college applications, as well as how they perceive that action (or lack of action), utilizing an online survey and trauma-informed theories. It aims to answer the question: What action (or lack of action) do admissions counselors who work at private liberal arts colleges in the Midwest take when students disclose traumatic experiences in their college applications? How do they perceive this action (or lack of action)? Findings indicate that, while some institutions have policies and practices, many admissions professionals possess a desire to more effectively navigate the phenomenon. Drawing on literature about trauma-informed practices, survey responses, and my own personal experiences as a college admissions professional, I offer several recommendations for future practice, including: training, filling gaps in knowledge about the effectiveness of practices, dispersing information about how trauma disclosures are utilized in application review, and carving out more time to adequately address the issue.