3.4 Attraction and selection of applicants for a doctoral program  (Page 3/7)

To provide potential applicants with specific information about substantive requirements for admission to a doctoral program in educational leadership, Young (2005a) developed a format for an empirical compensatory model that can be tailored for use by most doctoral programs. This model considers the interrelationships among typical academic predictors used to delimit an initial applicant pool. Through using an empirical compensatory model, several advantages are likely realized by doctoral programs in educational leadership when attempting to attract an able pool of candidates.

More specifically, for many potential applicants substantive requirements for admission to and for graduation from a doctoral program are unknown. Information derived from an empirical compensatory model can provide these individual with substantive information through well constructed recruitment brochures. At minimum cost, these brochures can be circulated widely throughout public school districts and can provide potential applicants a“measuring stick”relative to their own credentials and to their probable success.

Well known by many faculty members are those applicants seeking information on minimum expected scores on predictors, especially on standardized tests. These persons have an academic history as reflected by undergraduate and graduate grade-point averages; they want to known the minimum score on a standardized test to be considered as a viable candidate given their past specific academic performances. By using an empirical compensatory model derived from local data, these individuals can be given the requested information.

Not to be overlooked within the applicant attraction process are those individuals who applied but were rejected based on their past academic performance and/or on their obtained scores from a standardized test. For these individuals, substantive information can be provided about different possible alternatives involving either additional course work yielding higher grade-point averages and/or retaking the standardized test reflecting a higher level of performance. Although this information may well be beyond the realm of possibilities for some candidates, at least these individuals are informed on the basis of objective data rather than via subjective opinions.

Although getting applicants either to apply or to reapply is a necessary condition for generating an initial applicant pool, this effort is not a sufficient condition for selecting a quality student body. To select a quality student body, valid decisions must be made for differentiating between those likely to be unsuccessful and those likely to be successful in their pursuit of a doctoral degree. Such a differentiation involves the development and the use of valid selection criteria for delimiting an applicant pool.

Valid Selection Criteria of Applicants

At the basic level, selection is an organizational as opposed to an individual activity. As an organizational activity, selection involves delimiting an initial applicant pool of candidates seeking admission to a doctoral program in educational leadership. To guide this delimitation process, faculty members rely both on subjective and objective information.