Matching Students to Opportunity: Expanding College Choice, Access, and Quality

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“Matching Students to Opportunity” expands on the discussion of a crucial issue in college access and success: the match between prospective students and the colleges in which they enroll. Research indicates that ensuring a good match significantly increases a student’s chance of graduating.

The contributors to this volume argue that the discussion of college match must be broadened to include students at all levels of achievement — not just the most academically qualified — and must take into consideration dimensions other than academic selectivity, such as geography and price. Drawing on original empirical research, they examine the preferences that shape students’ choices and assess their importance in ensuring students’ success. They look at institutional practices that contribute to the problem of undermatching and ask how local, state, and federal policy can help change both the demand and supply sides of the college match equation.

Written with policymakers, researchers, and higher education professionals in mind, “Matching Students to Opportunity” advances the current conversation on college access, match, and completion, and offers a valuable addition to public policy discussions on this timely and urgent topic.

Praise for “Matching Students to Opportunity”

“‘Matching Students to Opportunity’ widens the college match and fit conversation to be more inclusive and impactful. This volume challenges us to take a more global and comprehensive view of college match—a view that is critical if we want to make serious progress in improving educational attainment and increasing opportunity for all of our nation’s students.”
—Nicole Hurd, founder and CEO, College Advising Corps

“This book is a powerful exploration of inadequate matching between students and colleges. It provides important insights to all parties in the college admissions process—students, counselors, college administrators, and policy makers.”
—Christopher Avery, Roy E. Larsen Professor of Public Policy and Management, Harvard Kennedy School

Andrew P. Kelly is the director of the Center on Higher Education Reform and a resident scholar in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Jessica S. Howell is the executive director of policy research at the College Board. Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj is an assistant professor in the Department of Education Leadership, Management, and Policy and a codirector of the Center for College Readiness at Seton Hall University.