98-105 / Access to Postsecondary Education for the 1992 High School Graduates / Qualification for Admission to Four-Year Colleges

Access to Postsecondary Education for the 1992 High School Graduates

Qualification for Admission to Four-Year Colleges

Regardless of how motivated students are to attend a four-year college or university, they must meet admission standards measured by criteria such as grade point average (GPA), class rank, standardized test scores, and academic coursework. Furthermore, prospective students must take a college entrance examination and submit an application for admission. In attempting to explain the gap in four-year college enrollment rates among income levels and racial-ethnic groups, two major factors will be examined: academic aptitude and achievement\22\ and taking the necessary steps toward admission to a four-year institution, which include taking a college entrance exam (SAT or ACT) and submitting an application.

College admissions decisions are based on both objective and subjective criteria. In assessing applicants' qualifications, admissions officers try to look at as much information as possible, taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of students in relation to their situation. For example, an applicant from a poor urban school district who has very low SAT scores may be admitted on the basis of a high class rank. For this study, a composite measure of academic qualification for four-year college work was developed that attempts to approximate the college admissions process. This "college qualification index" is based on cumulative academic course GPAs, senior class rank, the 1992 NELS aptitude test scores, and the SAT and ACT college entrance examination scores, with an adjustment for academic coursework. Since admission standards and requirements vary widely among four-year colleges and universities, the approach used was empirical. It was based on an examination of the actual distribution of these five measures of academic aptitude and achievement among those graduating NELS seniors who did attend a four-year college or university by 1994.

Data sources were available for approximately half (45 percent) of the NELS graduating seniors for four or five of the criteria: class rank, GPA, the NELS test, and ACT or SAT scores or both (table 11). For about one-third (36 percent) of the seniors there were only three data sources available because they had no ACT or SAT scores; most of these had NELS test scores, however In order to identify as many students as possible who were potentially academically qualified for four-year college work, even if data were missing for these students on some of the criteria, the seniors were classified according to the highest level they had achieved on any of the five criteria for which data were present. That is, the college qualification index approximates an admissions process which would only take into consideration the applicants' strongest measure of academic performance.

The initial classification of the graduating seniors was determined as follows:

Very highly qualified: those whose highest value on any of the five criteria would put them among the top 10 percent of four-year college students (specifically the NELS 1992 graduating seniors who enrolled in four-year colleges and universities) for that criterion. Minimum values were GPA=3.7, class rank percentile=96, NELS test percentile=97, combined SAT=1250, composite ACT=28.
Highly qualified: those whose highest value on any of the five criteria would put them among the top 25 percent of four-year college students for that criterion. Minimum values were GPA=3.6, class rank percentile=89, NELS test percentile=90, combined SAT=1110, composite ACT=25.
Somewhat qualified: those whose highest value on any of the five criteria would put them among the top 50 percent (i.e., in the second quartile) of four-year college students for that criterion. Minimum values were GPA=3.2, class rank percentile=75, NELS test percentile=76, combined SAT=960, composite ACT=22.
Minimally qualified: those whose highest value on any of the five criteria would put them among the top 75 percent (i.e., in the third quartile) of four-year college students for that criterion. Minimum values were GPA=2.7, class rank percentile=54, NELS test percentile=56, combined SAT=820, composite ACT=19.
Marginally or not qualified: those who had no value on any criterion that would put them among the top 75 percent of four-year college students (i.e., all values were in the lowest quartile). Those in vocational programs (according to their high school transcripts) were also classified as not college qualified. \23\

Then some adjustments were made for programs of rigorous academic coursework, defined as including at least 4 years of English; 3 years each of science, mathematics, and social studies; and 2 years of a foreign language.

Those who had taken a program of rigorous academic courses were moved up into one higher level of qualification; and
Those in the "very highly qualified" category were moved down into the "highly qualified" category if they had not taken rigorous academic coursework.\24\

The average scores for each of the levels of the four-year college qualification index, both for those who did and did not actually enroll in a four-year institution and for all of the high school graduates, are shown in table 12. Since the college qualification index was based on the highest score on any of the five criteria and then adjusted (usually upward) to reflect academic coursework, the averages for the individual categories are lower than the interval values used to classify the students initially. Those who enrolled and were classified as minimally college qualified, for example, had an average academic course GPA of 2.3, an average combined SAT score of 758, an average class rank (42nd percentile) below the median, and NELS aptitude test scores (51st percentile) which put them near the median of their senior class. Except for a lower average NELS aptitude test score (43rd percentile), the average scores for the marginally or not qualified who enrolled in a four-year college were similar to those who enrolled and were classified as minimally qualified. However, the total group of those classified as marginally or not qualified for four-year college work had an average class rank and NELS aptitude test scores which put them in the bottom third of their senior class, an average GPA of 2.1, and an average combined SAT score of 700.

One reason that there is very little difference in the average scores between the minimally and the marginally or not qualified students who enrolled in a four-year college is the problem of missing data. As shown in table 11 above, the proportion of students in these groups with only one source available for the qualification index was about twice as high among those who attended a four-year college as among those who did not (20 percent compared to 11 percent of those marginally or not qualified; 15 percent compared to 7 percent of those minimally qualified). The methodology used to construct the qualification index has a bias, since the probability of scoring high on at least one criterion increases with the number of data sources available for the student. Among all high school graduates, the students classified as marginally or not qualified were more likely than any qualified group to have data for only one or two criteria, so they were more likely to be misclassified than those with more sources of data. \25\

Table 13 shows the number of sources available for the college qualification index by student background characteristics for all high school graduates and for those who enrolled in four-year colleges. Those with three sources available always had at least one standardized test score (usually NELS) and those with four or five sources always had either SAT or ACT scores. Among all high school graduates, Hispanics, blacks, and low-income students were less likely to have four or five sources available, which means they were less likely to take the college entrance examinations than were whites, Asians, or higher income students. Among those who attended four-year colleges, black students were more likely than whites to have only one or two sources available.\26\

The distribution of the 1992 high school graduates who enrolled in four-year colleges and universities according to the categories of this college qualification index are shown in table 14. Over half were classified as highly or very highly qualified (30 percent and 27 percent, respectively). Thirteen percent were minimally qualified and 11 percent were classified as marginally or not qualified for regular admission to a four-year college according to this index. As discussed above, the average scores of the latter two groups were similar, and 15 to 20 percent only had one source available for the qualification index, so the differences in the academic preparation of the minimally and the marginally qualified who enrolled may be relatively small.

In addition to the problem of missing data, the qualification index has other limitations as a predictor of college admissions. At most four-year institutions, college admissions decisions are not based solely on grades, class rank, and test scores.\27\ Other criteria may also be considered, such as letters of recommendation, musical and artistic talents, ability in sports, or parents who are alumni. Many colleges have policies which set aside a certain percentage of admissions for students in educational opportunity programs. These programs are designed to recruit motivated low-income students who do not meet regular admission standards, and to provide them with special tutoring and other support services. Table 14 shows, for example, that the college students who were marginally or not college qualified according to the index were more likely to come from families\28\ with low income and low educational levels, and were more likely to come from Hispanic or black families, which both tend to have lower incomes and educational levels than white and Asian families.

Table 15 describes the proportions of all the students from the senior class of 1992 who were qualified to be admitted to a four-year institution according to this index. Among all 1992 high school graduates, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) appear to have been at least minimally qualified for admission to a four-year college or university (hereafter referred to as "college qualified"). There was a direct relationship between students' family income and their likelihood of being qualified for admission to a four-year institution: 53 percent of low-income students were college qualified compared to 68 percent of middle- and 86 percent of high-income students. The proportion of college-qualified students was also directly related to their parents' educational attainment.

Reflecting their higher income and parental education levels, Asians and whites were more likely than blacks and Hispanics to be qualified to attend a four-year postsecondary institution according to this index. Hispanics were more likely than Asians and whites to be no more than minimally qualified. The proportion of very highly qualified students was largest among Asians: 32 percent of Asians were in this category, compared to 22 percent of whites, 15 percent of Hispanics, and 14 percent of blacks.

The relationship between the four-year college qualification index levels and four-year college enrollment rates, as well as postsecondary enrollment rates in general, is displayed in table 16. Among those seniors classified as marginally or not qualified for regular four-year college admission, half entered postsecondary education, but only 15 percent enrolled in a four-year college or university. Among those seniors who were minimally qualified, three-fourths enrolled in some postsecondary education and 35 percent attended a four-year institution. With each higher level of academic qualification, the total proportion of students enrolled in postsecondary education increases,\29\ largely because the proportion of students enrolled in four-year colleges and universities increases and the proportions enrolled in public two-year colleges decreases:\30\ 56 percent of the somewhat qualified, 73 percent of the highly qualified, and 87 percent of the very highly qualified high school graduates enrolled in four-year institutions. The enrollment patterns by levels of the college qualification index are also illustrated in figure 3.

Footnotes:

22/ These are often included in studies examining educational inequality. See, for example, K. Alexander et al., "Consistency and Change in Educational Stratification: Recent Trends Regarding Social Background and College Access," Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 6 (1987): 161-185.

23/ This affected the classification of less than 1 percent. Very few students whose transcripts indicated that they were in vocational programs met any of the other criteria for college qualification.

24/ This was done to assure that the very highly qualified had both rigorous coursework and high scores.

25/ The majority of those who had only one source available had only the NELS aptitude test scores.

26/ The combined percentage for one and two sources was 12 percent for whites and 25 percent for blacks. The difference between blacks and the other minorities was not statistically significant. U.S. Department of Education, , 1992-93 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:93), Data Analysis System.

27/ J. Owings, M. McMillen, and J. Burkett, in "Making the Cut: Who Meets Highly Selective College Entrance Criteria?", Statistics in Brief (Washington, D.C.: , 1995), discuss some of the other criteria and the effect of using several criteria jointly as opposed to using a single criterion. The study is limited to very highly qualified applicants.

28/ The difference between blacks (28.5 percent) and Hispanics (17.7 percent) is not statistically significant.

29/ With the exception of no difference between the "very highly" and "highly qualified."

30/ With the exception of no differences in public two-year enrollments between the "minimally" and "somewhat qualified."