The Decision-making Mechanism In Undergraduate Admissions At American Elite Colleges And Universities:the Construction Of A Multiple-logic Function Model

The selection of applicants for admission to American elite colleges and universities seems simple,but complicated indeed.It requires an all-round and in-depth research to get a good understanding of it.This research adopts "decision-making mechanism" as a joint point,analyzes the goals of decision-making practices and the ways of their realization based on admission factors,review approaches and methods of quality control adopted by American elite colleges and universities in undergraduate admission,and then proposes a multi-logic function model which drives admission decision-making behavior.With data collection and analysis through comparative case studies involving three elite public universities,two elite private universities and two elite liberal arts colleges in a qualitative approach,and with interviews of 39 admission officers and 13 stakeholders as well as a large amount of relevant documents,this research has made findings and reached conclusions and suggestions as follows:First of all,the principle of being goal-oriented,institutional interests-served and institutional mission-served is commonly abided by American elite colleges and universities in admission decision-making practices.On one way,their common goal is to craft an excellent and diversified class in a fair and transparent way.On another,the iron law of admission decision-making is to serve the interests and mission of the institutions.Those interests include reaching enrollment goals,meeting financial needs,enhancing institutional prestige,improving institutional selectivity,promoting race diversity,maintaining sports strength,and so on.However,the specific interests and priorities in admission decision-making are different.Admission decision-making process is driven by the three missions of cultivating citizens,cultivating leaders of citizens,and serving the society.Next,in order to achieve various admission goals,the colleges and universities involved in the case studies not only have conducted multiple-criteria based comprehensive assessment and holistic review characterized by equity and efficiency,but also have applied quality check techniques,built teams of expert readers,invested a lot of resources,accepted inspections from faculty for quality control.Regarding comprehensive assessment,those universities or colleges judge the fitness of applicants on the basis of the three criteria of the potential of achieving success in college,potential of making external contribution and potential of benefiting from college education,through reviewing various factors under the three dimensions of academic performance,personal achievements and personal background.The decision rules in comprehensive assessment are:academic achievement is an essential requirement,those with excellent academic performance being generally admitted;personal achievements help distinguish those "good students" in the middle;plus factors help those "good students" in the middle and those "qualified students" win in the competition,also makes it possible for "unqualified students" to get admitted due to lowered academic standards.With regard to holistic review,the institutions in case studies all have applied contextualized review,individualized review and collective review in order to ensure the equity and efficiency in admission decision-making.First,each applicant would be reviewed under their high school educational background and personal family background,considering the availability of resources and opportunities.Meanwhile,each applicant would be reviewed in the applicant pool,which means a certain applicant would be compared with other applicants from the same high school,with average performance of applicant pool,and with admission standards,rather than horizontally comparing two applicants without context.Second,individualized review regards each applicant as both "a whole" and "an individual",with no cutoff,no formula,no single tie-breaking factor.It is a legal practice approved by the Supreme Court considering races,an essential way of realizing race diversity under the state ban of Affirmative Action,and is also the best way to ensure decision-making freedom,distinguish applicants and reaching various admission goals.Third,although there are two modes of implementing collective review,namely committee discussion mode and team reading mode,but the process of forming a new class through collective review both start with a single reader doing an analytical assessment of each application based on numerical rating or a holistic assessment based on qualitative notes,then goes through two readers' assessment and committee discussion or the review of senior admission officers,and ends with the end-of-season review which determines the name list of the new class.Therefore,the collective review is a collaborative decision-making approach which highly relies on human judgment.Third,in the admission decision-making practices of different types of elite colleges or universities,the influences of academic logic,culture logic,marketing logic,political logic,ethical logic and cost logic co-exist,but each differentiating in their degree of effect:first,academic logic and culture logic are the logics that lead to similarities that institutions apply in the use of various factors,while marketing logic,political logic,ethical logic and cost logic are logics that lead to differences;second,the influence of academic logic and ethical logic differs in public and private higher educational institutions,and manifests more obvious in public universities.The effect of culture logic differs subtly among public universities,private universities and liberal arts colleges,while manifesting the most obvious in liberal arts colleges.The effect of marketing logic and cost logic varies a lot in public institutions and private ones,with marketing logic manifesting most obvious in private universities and political logic in public universities.The effect of cost logic does not differ among different types of universities.In the end,the enlightenments of American experience for China's college admission policies include:first,broaden the definition of excellent srudents and explore the value of diversification of students;second,promote equal access and enhance decision-making transparency;third,firmly propel the reform of comprehensive assessment and improve real practice;fourth,expand admission autonomy of universities and provide environment support.