Doctoral Dissertation Research: Admissions Policies at Women's Colleges

在过去的几十年里，许多女子大学采取了招生政策，将招生机会扩大到更多不同的学生群体。因此，女子学院为研究多样性包容政策提供了一个重要案例，因为这些机构仍然必须依靠某种形式的排斥标准才能保持女子学院的地位。然而，社会学研究忽视了在这些政策实施过程中考察学生在这些机构中的经历。这项研究的问题是，更具包容性的政策如何塑造不同学生的学术和社会经历。由于高等教育中的大学成绩、坚持性和学生幸福感仍然不平等，这项研究将帮助教育机构内的政策制定者以及负有监督责任的人改进有助于积极教育结果的政策。这些发现将为有关大学招生政策的对话提供信息，并对当今美国学生的社会机会和职业前景的研究产生影响。该项目对两所女子学院的招生政策进行了为期一年的比较民族志研究。这两所学校地理位置相近，招生人数相近，都成立于19世纪末。然而，在招生政策方面，一家商学院以包容性更强而著称，而另一家商学院则以包容性较低而著称。该项目将使用三种类型的人种学方法。它将分析30多年来与招生相关的档案记录，为当代观察奠定背景。该项目还包括为期9个月的参与者观察和对这两所学院的120名不同学生、校友和员工的采访，以检查与招生相关的日常机构实践和对话。这些数据将使用定性编码软件NVivo进行编码和分析，然后进行开放式和轴向编码，以检测数据中的主题。该项目的发现将为有关组织多元化参与的社会学理论，以及与教育多样性和社会流动性相关的理论提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In the last few decades, many women's colleges have adopted admissions policies extending the opportunity for enrollment to more diverse groups of students. As such, women's colleges offer an important case to study diversity inclusion policies because these institutions must still rely on some form of exclusion criteria in order to remain a women's college. Yet, sociological research has overlooked examining the experiences of students within these institutions as such policies are implemented. This study asks how academic and social experiences of diverse students are shaped by more inclusive policies. Because college achievement, persistence, and student well-being in higher education remain unequal, this research will help policy makers within educational institutions as well as those with oversight responsibility to improve policies that contribute to positive educational outcomes. The findings will inform conversations regarding college admissions policies for students, with implications for studies of social opportunity and career prospects of students in the United States today. This project employs a year-long comparative ethnography of admissions policies at two women's colleges. They are geographically proximate to one another, have similar levels of student enrollment and were both founded in the late 19th century. Yet one has a reputation for more inclusivity and one has a reputation for less inclusivity in terms of admissions policies. This project will use three types of ethnographic methods. It will analyze over 30 years of archival records relevant to admissions to set the context for contemporary observations. The project also includes 9 months of participant observation and interviews with 120 diverse students, alumni, and employees at the two colleges to examine day-to-day institutional practices and conversations relevant to admissions. These data will be coded and analyzed with the use of qualitative coding software, Nvivo, followed by open and axial coding to detect themes in the data. Findings from this project will inform sociological theories regarding diverse participation in organizations, as well as theories related to educational diversity and social mobility.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.