Prior activities and progress in MBA programs

Many graduate business programs encourage, and even require, postbaccalaureate work experience as a criterion for program admission. In this research we use data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 to examine the extent to which MBA students actually experience a hiatus in their educational careers, and whether their work/education profiles differ from those of other graduate students in the United States. We also address whether this emphasis on educational discontinuity in the formal sense has any effect on how the student progresses through the MBA program. Our results suggest that interrupting school between the BA and MBA leads to a higher likelihood of part-time enrollment, and a consequent lower probability of completing the degree program in a timely fashion.     

Assessing practical intelligence in business school admissions: A supplement to the graduate management admissions test

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is the most widely used measure of managerial potential in MBA admissions. GMAT scores, although predictive of grades in business school, leave much of the variance in graduate school performance unexplained. The GMAT also produces disparities in test scores between groups, generating the potential for adverse impact in the admissions process. We sought to compensate for these limitations by adding measures of practical intelligence to the admissions process in an MBA program. We developed two approaches to measuring practical intelligence, one knowledge-based and the other skill-based. We administered the resulting measures to two samples of incoming MBA students (total N = 792). Across the two studies, we found that scores on both measures predicted success inside and outside the classroom and provided small, yet significant, increments beyond GMAT scores and undergraduate GPA in the prediction of variance in MBA performance. We further found that these measures exhibited less disparity across gender and racial/ethnic groups than did the GMAT. These findings, although preliminary, suggest the potential value of considering a broader range of abilities in admissions testing.     

Online MBA students' perceptions of online learning: Benefits, challenges, and suggestions

Online MBA programs have seen a rapid rise in student enrollments in recent years and institutions of higher education have keen interests in offering quality online MBA programs to meet the demands. The present study reports the results of a case study in which over 100 students enrolled in a top-ranked online MBA program were interviewed and surveyed to investigate their perceptions of the benefits and challenges in online learning and their suggestions for improving the quality of the online MBA program. It was found that virtual teaming was a major factor that influenced the students' online learning experience; they viewed virtual teaming experiences as valuable for preparing them for the increasingly global business environment; at the same time, it also served as a key challenge to their learning in the online environment. Students' suggestions for improving the quality of online MBA program are discussed as well.     

Modeling the student in intelligent tutoring sytems: The promise of a new psychometrics

This paper reviews a number of relatively new and promising psychometric approaches to the problem of modeling student achievement (the student model) within intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). A shared characteristic of most ITSs is their need to estimate a model of the student's understanding of the domain, and use this model to modify and adapt subsequent instructional content and sequence. Sound cognitive diagnosis and the need to advance ITS technology require the development of student models that are integrated with cognitive theory and instructional science. A number of cognitively oriented psychometric approaches — including latent-trait models, statistical pattern recognition methods, and causal probabilistic networks — are described and discussed within the current ITS framework. As measurement-based student models are refined, we anticipate their compatibility with future generations of intelligent tutoring systems.     

Issues management in strategic planning

The concept of issues management is gaining the increasing attention of both researchers and practitioners in the field of strategic planning. Issues management—which is concerned with the identification, analysis, probability, and timing of a developing issue and with the organizational response—can spell the difference between the success and the failure of the planning effort. This paper delineates the attempt of a major public university to integrate issues management into the institutional strategic planning process. The intent is to make issues management an ongoing and systematic organizational exercise.Paper presented at the Twenty-fifth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Portland, April 28–May 1, 1985.     

Joint determination of college student achievement and effort: Implications for college teaching

In this paper, a four-equation simultaneous equations model is developed with college student effort and achievement being jointly determined. The model is then tested using a sample of students from one comprehensive university. The empirical results provide evidence that student efforts with respect to faculty interaction, but not with respect to library usage or course effort, significantly affect achievement.You know, teachers sometimes think they are all that happen in class. But I have to take what a teacher is trying to teach me and translate it into something I learn, and that has little to do with the teacher. The learning is what I do.—A student named Susan, fromOn College Teaching, by Ohmer Milton and AssociatesAn earlier version of this paper was presented at the Lilly Conference on College Teaching at Miami University in November 1989.     

A Case Study of the MBA Market in Western Australia

An earlier paper in this journal has discussed segmentation of the MBA student market, according to demographic criteria, based upon experience at the University of Western Australia. This follow-up paper uses the Western Australia market and particularly the University of Western Australia as a case example of the Australian MBA market. The paper provides an overview of current Australian MBA market conditions and discusses the history, competitive environment, structure, admission policy, tuition and financial aid of the University of Western Australia's MBA program.     

Teacher credentials and student achievement: Longitudinal analysis with student fixed effects

We use a rich administrative dataset from North Carolina to explore questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this research are not new—and, indeed, have been explored in many papers over the years within the rubric of the “education production function”—the availability of data on all teachers and students in North Carolina over a 10-year period allows us to explore them in more detail than has been possible in previous studies. We conclude that a teacher's experience, test scores and regular licensure all have positive effects on student achievement, with larger effects for math than for reading. Taken together the various teacher credentials exhibit quite large effects on math achievement, whether compared to the effects of changes in class size or to the socio-economic characteristics of students.     

Why preferences in college admissions may yield a more-able student body

Critics of affirmative action policies contend that the elimination of racial preferences in college admissions would lead to a “more-able” student body. We develop a simple model comprised of three classes of college admissions—merit, race and legacy—to show that it is possible that a change in admissions policy that reduces racial preferences leads to a “less-able” student body. The change in admissions policy may serve only to ensure that more admissions are available for “sale” to wealthy alumni through legacy preferences. In other words, when there are multi-dimensional preferences, reducing or eliminating one dimension of preferences may lead to the unforeseen consequence of producing a “less able” student body.     

Price response in enrollment decisions: An analysis of the High School and Beyond Sophomore cohort

Most research on student price response was conducted on students who entered college before the Pell Grant program was implemented in fall 1973. This study uses the High School and Beyond Sophomore cohort, the High School Class of 1982, to analyze the effects of the amount of tuition charged and aid offered on student enrollment decisions. The findings include (1) all forms of financial aid—grants, work, and loans—were effective in promoting enrollment; (2) one hundred dollars of aid (any type) had a stronger influence on enrollment than a one-hundred-dollar reduction in tuition; (3) low-income students were more responsive to increases in grant aid than to increases in loans or work study; and (4) high-income students were not responsive to changes in aid amounts.     

Involvement and growth of students in three academic programs

The purpose of this study was to provide further evidence on potential determinants of college student involvement in curricular and cocurricular campus activities, particularly on the importance of student enrollment in three academic programs. The study focused on how students in two special academic programs—an honors program and a transition program to assist academically disadvantaged students adjust to college—as well as students in the regular curriculum become engaged in a variety of experiences and how their quality of effort (involvement) in the activities is related to student growth and development. The relationship between level of student activity and achievement supports the claims of previous research that involvement contributes to students' development and gains in intellectual and interpersonal areas. However, the strength of relationship between student effort and gain varied for the three groups. Overall, the honors and transition students appeared to get more for their effort than did the regular students.     

Teacher development in advanced educational technology

Advanced educational technology promises to improve science teaching and learning. To achieve the posited outcomes, however, teachers must have access to, know how to, have the skills to, and want to use the proposed advanced educational technologies in their teaching. In response, for the past eight years with support from the National Science Foundation, BSCS has conductedENLIST Micros — a teacher development to help science teachers improve their use of microcomputers.ENLIST Micros has three phases — Phase one (1984–1986): BSCS designed, tested, and producedENLIST Micros (Ellis and Kuerbis, 1987, 1989) teacher development materials (text, video, and tutorial software) for helping science teachers improve their use of educational technology. Phase two (1986–1989): BSCS designed, developed, tested, and disseminated a staff development model for helping science teachers integrate educational technology into instruction. Phase three (1989–1992): BSCS established Teacher Development Centers to implement theENLIST Micros teacher development materials and staff development model with science teachers throughout the United States.ENLIST Micros has served more than 1500 science teachers in 15 states. Teachers who have participated in the program have improved their knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy about computer usage and have improved their use of microcomputers in their science courses. Furthermore, as part of the project, BSCS has described the implementation process and has developed recommendations to support improvements in the use of educational technology in science programs.     

Does the MBA Experience Support Diversity? Demographic Effects on Program Satisfaction*

Using data provided by graduates from 128 MBA programs, we examined the extent to which age, gender, and ethnicity predicted student perceptions of the MBA experience. We found that women and minorities were more likely to see program costs and the availability of financial support as significant factors in their program enrollment decisions than were Caucasian males. The most consistent predictor of students’ perceptions of their educational experience was whether the MBA program was full time or part time, with full‐time programs generally perceived more favorably. Our findings suggest that because diversity measures of age, gender, and ethnicity were not consistent predictors across the different perception areas, at minimum, MBA programs presently do not consistently inhibit diversity. However, given the increasing percentage of women and minorities that comprise the undergraduate population, maintaining the present path in program accessibility may create enrollment problems for MBA programs perhaps in the very near future. Therefore, we conclude with a discussion of the changing demographics in higher education and their potential implications for MBA programs and suggestions for how MBA programs might respond.     

The Army's continuing education model

Virtually unknown to the academic world, for over 25 years the U.S. Army has conducted a sophisticated continuing education program for its reserve component officers, marked by many aspects of the nontraditional study civilian campuses are now discovering. This paper discusses goals, courses, delivery systems, faculty, instructional materials and methods, and students of the army program and summarizes the characteristics adaptable to many forms of civilian alternative higher education—credit for life experience, credit by examination, varied yet articulated delivery systems, quality control exercised by residence faculty, maximum use of ad hoc faculty, tangible and intangible student incentives, constantly revised instructional materials, in-service training for instructors, and performance testing—a cost-effective program at once responsible for academic standards and responsive to student needs.A product of the school system he describes, Col. Schoenfeld served as a USAR School Instructor, Chief of Staff, and Commandant. In civilian life he is Joint Professor of Journalism and Wildlife Ecology and Director of Inter-College Programs, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.     

Student finances and campus-based financial aid: A structural model analysis of the persistence of high need freshmen

Lisrel, a more versatile technique than traditional path analysis, was employed to account for 42% of the variance in the persistence of 343 new freshman financial aid recipients at a major urban university. Unlike recent persistence models, the specific model developed here highlights the impact of student finances—in particular, the amount of assistance from the programs of federal campus-based aid—on the persistence of freshmen with high financial need. The results indicate that financial need, student residency status, and noncampus-based loans and grants have direct effects on new freshman persistence regardless of the type or amount of campus-based aid awarded. The direct effect of each federal campus-based program on persistence was significant and positive. Implications for administrators and persistence researchers are discussed.Expanded version of a paper presented at the 24th Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Fort Worth, Tex., May 1984.     

Remembering places: Student reliance on place in timed essays

This is the story of a research journey that follows the trail of a novel evaluand—place. I examine place as mentioned by rising juniors in timed exams. Using a hybridized methodology—the qualitative approach of a hermeneutic dialectic process as described by Guba and Lincoln (1989), and the quantitative evidence of place mention—I query student writing to uncover motivations for reliance on place-based experience despite the absence of an explicit mention of place in the writing prompt. Finally, I consider implications for using generative prompts to elicit evidence of student learning.     

Influencing the Probability for Graduation at Four-Year Institutions: A Multi-Model Analysis

The purpose of this study is to identify student and institutional characteristics that influence the probability for graduation. The study delves further into the probability for graduation by examining how far the student deviates from the institutional mean with respect to academics and affordability; this concept is referred to as the “match.” The validity of the matching model is tested using a multivariate analysis with select variables from the Beginning Postsecondary Study: 1996/2001 (BPS:96/01) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Traditional multivariate models examine the importance of both student and institutional characteristics but assume the two are independent of one another. This study is different in that it uses the matching model to examine the relationship between student and institutional characteristics. The results are compared to more frequently used models and show that the relationship between students and their institutions plays an important role in understanding the probability for graduation.

The effect of the financial aid package on the choice of a selective college

This paper examines the effects of financial aid on the decision to attend a selective liberal arts college using data obtained from applicants accepted to Occidental College in 1989. Patterned after a similar empirical investigation by Ehrenberg and Sherman for accepted freshmen at Cornell in 1981, logit probabilities of enrollment equations are estimated based on (1) observable characteristics of the individual students, (2) the net costs of attending Occidental and the various alternative colleges under consideration (including the financial aid packages offered) and (3) other characteristics of these alternative colleges. The results, like Ehrenberg and Sherman's, indicate that relative tuition and scholarships affect the probability of enrollment for financial aid applicants, but that loans and work study assistance have no statistically significant effect. Non-financial aid applicants — a group not investigated by Ehrenberg and Sherman — are much less sensitive to relative cost considerations.