DEI Challenges in College Admissions
DEI Challenges in the College Admission Counseling Profession, completed with support from Salesforce.org, provides insights and data on how counseling and admissions professionals experience DEI and how institutions and organizations can make changes to create an immediate impact.
Toward a More Equitable Future for Postsecondary Access
The impediments to racial equity in college admission and financial aid are complex, systemic, and longstanding, so the work to dismantle those impediments requires courage, collaboration, creativity, and an unrelenting commitment to both understand the problems and continue to strive to solve them.
Enhancing Data Analysis Aptitude of Admission Staff
Data analysis is an increasingly important job function for admission professionals. Particularly, entry and mid-level professionals are often required to analyze the pipeline of prospective students and make decisions based on patterns found in data. While data analysis has become a necessary job skill, training for these positions rarely includes a data component.
Latest Research
Student-to-Counselor Ratios by School District
To highlight differences in student-to-counselor ratios, NACAC has prepared a series of state maps highlighting school district-level data available from the US Department of Education. Although state averages provide a general sense of how states are meeting students’ school counseling needs, they can mask substantial differences in student-to-counselor ratios within states. A school district-level analysis draws attention to areas most in need of outreach and support.
What's New
Enhancing Data Analysis Aptitude of Emerging Admission Professionals
Data analysis is an increasingly important job function for admission professionals. Particularly, entry and mid-level professionals are often required to analyze the pipeline of prospective students and make decisions based on patterns found in data. While data analysis has become a necessary job skill, training for these positions rarely includes a data component.
Learn MoreDEI Challenges in College Admissions
DEI Challenges in the College Admission Counseling Profession, completed with support from Salesforce.org, provides insights and data on how counseling and admissions professionals experience DEI and how institutions and organizations can make changes to create an immediate impact.
Learn MoreSchool Counselors and School Safety
According to a national survey conducted by NACAC, school counselors overwhelmingly oppose efforts to arm educators as a response to gun violence in schools. Nearly three-quarters of 2,251 counselors who responded were either “somewhat opposed” or “strongly opposed” to policies that seek to arm teachers and other school staff.
Learn MoreResearch Reports
NACAC research illuminates complex elements of college admission counseling and comprise a unique body of knowledge in the field.
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The State of College Admission Report
Examining the transition from high school to postsecondary education through survey data collected from colleges and universities across the country.
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Character and the College Admission Process
Character counts when it comes to college admission, according to new data from NACAC and the Character Collaborative.
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State-by-State Student-to-Counselor Ratio Report
This report to provide a glimpse at the 10-year trends in student-to-counselor ratios from 2004-05 to 2014-15.
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Community Colleges and Transfer
High school counselors generally feel prepared to advise students about community colleges and believe these institutions offer relatively easy application and enrollment processes. However, results of a national survey conducted by NACAC showed that many counselors feel less knowledgeable about transfer policies at area four-year colleges and about comparisons of community colleges to for-profit colleges.
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Barriers to Successfully Financing a College Education
Examining the role of secondary school counselors and college admission professionals in supporting student decision-making related to paying for college.
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Supporting International High School Students in the College Admission Process: A Qualitative Study of College Counselors
This study explores the unique challenges and needs of counselors advising nonimmigrant international students in US high schools.
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How Can High School Counseling Shape Students' Postsecondary Attendance?
Among the first to demonstrate that school counselors have a positive impact on student outcomes that is both quantifiable and statistically significant, this study provides a powerful tool for counselor advocacy efforts.
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School Counselors and School Safety
According to a national survey conducted by NACAC, school counselors overwhelmingly oppose efforts to arm educators as a response to gun violence in schools. Nearly three-quarters of 2,251 counselors who responded were either “somewhat opposed” or “strongly opposed” to policies that seek to arm teachers and other school staff.
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Use of Predictive Validity Studies to Inform Admission Practices
This report sheds new light on the important role predictive validity research can play in informing admission practices.
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Preparing Students for College: What High Schools are Doing and How their Actions Influence Ninth Graders' College Attitudes, Aspirations, and Plans
In order to understand the ways US high schools are preparing students for the college transition process, NACAC, in partnership with MPR Associates, analyzed data from the US Department of Education's High School Longitudinal Study. The report largely examines high school counselors including how their attitudes and interactions with students affect ninth graders’ college aspirations.
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A National Look at the High School Counseling Office: What is it Doing and What Role Can it Play in Facilitating Students' Paths to College?
This report draws on data from the second wave of the US Department of Education’s High School Longitudinal Study to explore how high schools and counseling offices across the country support students as they transition from high school to college.
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Agents and International Student Recruitment
Learn more about specific requirements, such as the provision that the names and contact information of all commissioned agents must be included on institutional websites.
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Individualized Learning Plans for College and Career Readiness: State Policies and School-Based Practices
This report, developed by NACAC & Hobsons, highlights promising state- and school-level practices using individual learning plans (ILPs) to prepare students for success beyond high school.
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College Counseling for Latino and Underrepresented Students
In order to understand the role of the school counselor in preparing Latino and other underrepresented students for the transition to college, Excelencia in Education and NACAC conducted a national survey and observed counseling practices at six US high schools that were successfully supporting underrepresented populations during the college application process.
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Career Paths for Admission Officers: A Survey Report
This report presents the results of a survey of NACAC admission professionals, offering insightful observations on their career experiences and advice to others to advance in the profession.
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