It's Not Just About Ideas

College Admissions: The path to college admissions

Faith Lopez

Lamar University

EDLD 5315: Assessing Digital Learning

Dr. Kristi Meeuwse

April 21^st , 2025

Introduction

Many students in the world apply to universities and colleges every year. Often it is a long a tedious process and takes a lot of steps. There are many deadlines, essays and steps that students need to take to complete their applications. Every student deserves a college education but a lot of the time, they just give up on their application because the process is too hard, it takes too long and there is so much information they need to know to apply successfully. There are tons of resources that are available to students, but too many times have I seen a student miss out on opportunities because they did not know the resources that were available to them.

This literature review will explore all the different areas of college admissions that students struggle with the most when it comes to applying for colleges and universities. Furthermore, this review will lead the way for other researchers to have another source of information when they are doing research about college admissions themselves. This paper will explore some topics like test scores, the cost of attending, first generation students, understanding where to start, financial aid and their support.

College Admissions: Test scores

In the college admissions world, test scores are a great way to show admission officers how the students do education wise. However, test scores from the ACT or SAT are most often what determines a student’s acceptance into college. Because certain schools are so high when it comes to test scores, students are often deterred from even trying to fill out applications because they are worried that their test scores are not high enough. Halpern and Scrom wrote, “Many school administrators believe the SAT/ACT just proves a student is a good test taker and cannot inform a school of other qualities an applicant may have” (“What Change’s Has Affected the College Admission’s Process?” 2024). Many students are amazing students academically and can test very well while others are not so blessed with amazing test taking skills. Many students these days do well in a project-based environment rather than a testing one and low-test scores are not a very good indicator of intelligence and learning.

College Admissions: Applying to the right school

As an admissions officer, every day I talk to students who have only applied to the big-name colleges. They pay the application fee and usually end up not getting accepted to any big schools which in turn discourages them from applying again to different schools because they think it is too late for them. I can’t emphasize enough that its not too late. For example, the school that I work for doesn’t close their applications till late July of the starting fall semester. We are a smaller school with amazing programs, but we have trouble attracting students because we are not as well known as the bigger school even though we have top ranked programs in the nation. Schuman says, “For many, small colleges can be the very best places for stimulating creative and critical thinking.” (Schuman, S. (2005)). What he means by that is the fact that small colleges and universities offer something that larger colleges don’t. They offer more room for personalization and quick thinking because when a college has a smaller size, the professors are more hands on with the students since the student to faculty ratio is lower. In turn the students get a more personalized experience when it comes to learning.

College Admissions: The cost of attending

A common barrier for students completing applications is the cost barrier. A lot of students are discouraged from the start of the process because their family does not have enough money to send them to college without taking out loans. Some students are lucky enough to finish college debt free, but others are worried that it will be a burden that they will have to carry into their adult years. Mowreader says, “A college degree still holds its historic value in boosting a young person’s earnings, and those with a degree are less likely to be in poverty, but high costs of entry prove a barrier to access and enrollment for many” (Mowreader, 2024). Many jobs these days are valuing experience over education, so it is easy to be deferred from getting a college degree when there are better opportunities to get experience from without accumulating debt from a 4-year college degree. Cost is definitely a big factor when deciding whether to fill out an application or to enroll in a university. We as educators need to help our students by teaching them all the ways they can access scholarships and financial aid. There are many programs out there that students are not aware of that can help them. Once they see the big numbers that await them coming into college, they often get deferred from attending or they drop out within the first year of college.

College Admissions: First Generation College Students

Many students in the US are considered first generation students. This means that they are the first in their family to go to college. Believe it or not, this can be a big barrier between students attending universities or colleges. There are many reasons a first-generation student will not finish their application or enrollment. One of those reasons is that since they are first generation, they and their families have no idea what the process looks like when they start applying for colleges. Their families have no idea about deadlines, or they do not know how to apply in the first place because they themselves went straight to the workforce instead of going to college. In first generation, families, it is often a big deal when their child can go to college for the first time in their family and they will do everything they can to help that child succeed. As educators, we must be able to provide the resources necessary to help our first gen students succeed in this ever changing world. We need to step up and help others understand the importance of going to college and even though there are barriers, they can overcome them and be able to successfully go to college. “Despite such gaps, low-income, first-generation student were actually more than seven times more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees if they started in four-year institutions but only 25 percent of them did so. A large number of low-income, first-generation students began and ended their studies at public two year and for-profit institutions” (Engle, J., & Tinto, V. (2008)). The likelihood of first-generation students attending college is not very high. There are so many barriers that affect our students’ application process, and we need to step up and help them have more access to resources they can use such as the online platform that I plan on developing.

College Admissions: Understanding how to start

On some occasions, students start getting deferred from the application process because they do not know how to start. Every student who wants to go to college is motivated to succeed but unfortunately a lot of them don’t know where to start so it plants a seed of doubt in their minds that they cannot accomplish what they want in the future. We must educate our students in how to start the college process. A good place to start for example, would be to do some research into which colleges have the degree your looking for. Then the next step would be applying, which seems simple, but a lot of students today rely on their parents for a lot of things, and they were never taught to do the research on their own. Common apps for example are something that tons of colleges have utilized but the problem in today’s world is that not every college has an application process that can be completed through an app. In this technology-focused world, teens rely on their phones for everything which includes sending out college applications. The other colleges that are only online such as Apply Texas, see lower enrollment numbers due to students not having access to computers or not wanting to go on a computer and apply on Apply Texas which can only be done on a computer since there are many complex things on it that cannot be done on a phone. College age students rely so much on technology these days, so it is harder for schools to get their names out there. Because colleges cannot get their names out there as often, students must do their own research into colleges and universities which in turn presents lower enrollment numbers because students don’t understand why research into colleges is necessary. Understanding the college admissions process is so difficult today. As educators we need to educate our students about the importance of researching so they are not lost in the future when they become seniors in high school and start applying for colleges. They need to understand the process to grow enough so that they can accomplish what they need on their own without the help of their parents. Yes, parents can help their children but at some point, our students need to figure things out on their own. The best thing we can do is guide them on their journey and help them whenever it is needed.

College Admissions: Financial Aid

In the college admissions world financial aid is a huge factor in whether students go to college. Many students are eligible, but a lot of the times students don’t want to take out loans because they don’t want to be in debt. That in turn stops them from applying to college altogether and discourages them from the admissions process even though there are many scholarships available to them. Financial aid also sometimes does not consider how many students are going to college at the same time under one household. They just consider how much income the family makes. According to John and Edward, “student aid is a “profitable” program for the federal government. The net present value of tax revenue returns attributable to student aid-resulting from its impact on attendance and persistence-is far in excess of the level expended on aid” (John & Edward, 1991). Financial aid seems like a useful tool, but a lot of families are seeing that in the long run, it benefits the government more than their families so in turn that is causing the parents to encourage the students to not pursue college because it is too expensive. We must educate our students that going to college is indeed a long lengthy process but with the right resources, they too can navigate through college admissions successfully.

College Admissions: Support

Most students throughout the college admissions process receive all kinds of support from their family, friends and teachers at school. Sometimes that is not the case for certain students whose support system is not good. Many times, parents want their students to succeed in college where other students don’t have the family support system that they need. Some examples that come to mind are that the student could be estranged from their family members, some of them are foster children and some of them don’t have a home altogether. Many times, this discourages a student from starting the admissions process because they don’t have anyone they can share this journey with. We as educators need to be their support system. Even if there is nothing going on in your students life, it is still necessary to support your students no matter what path they want to take career wise because even though they might look perfect and happy on the outside, there could be something going on at home that prevents them from having a support system when it comes to applying for colleges.

Conclusion

To sum up this literature review, it covers many topics about why students get discouraged from applying to colleges and how we can help our students succeed in the college world. This review highlights some of the issues that students face and other researchers from education can apply some of the knowledge they gained here to their schools and classrooms. Some of the highlights of this review are that there are many topics that you can do research within this paper. There are some cons, however. This review is based a lot on opinion even though some of it has sources from journals and for some people it might not be enough for what they are trying to find for themselves. Some of the things that are missing from this review are the reasons why I made this literature review. It is solely based on me gathering information for my online platform. I am trying to create an online platform or website that I can share with counselors and teachers where students can go to learn about college admissions and how it works. That is the focus of my study and I am really looking forward to developing this further in the future.

References

Chada, S. (2024, January 9). Why Does College Admissions Feel Broken? Ivyscholars.com. https://www.ivyscholars.com/why-does-college-admissions-feel-broken/

Engle, J., Tinto, V., & Higher, I. (1025). Moving Beyond Access: College Success for Low-Income, First-Generation Students. Pell Institute For The Study Of Opportunity In Higher Education. Vermont Avenue Nw Suite , Washington, Dc 5. Tel: 202-638-; Fax: 202-638-; E-Mail: Info@Pellinstitute.org; Web Site: Http://Www.Pellinstitute.org.

John, S., & Edward, P. (1991). The Impact of Student Financial Aid: A Review of Recent Research. Journal of Student Financial Aid, 21(1), 2.

Mowreader, A. (2024, May 29). Students, Parents and Voters Agree—Higher Ed Costs Too Much. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/college-experience/2024/05/29/cost-higher-education-not-worth-it-students

Schuman, S. (2005). Old Main : small colleges in twenty-first century America. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Selingo, J. (2020). Who Gets in and Why : A Year Inside College Admissions. Scribner.

Sternberg, R. J. (2010). College admissions for the 21st century. Harvard University Press.

What Change’s has Affected the College Admission’s Process? (2024, November 14). Halpern & Scrom Law PLLC. https://www.halpernadvisors.com/thought_leadership/how-has-the-college-admissions-process-changed-recently