Doctoral Dissertation Research: Admissions Policies at Women's Colleges

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

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.