Correlates of behaviors of ``pre-business\u27\u27 students denied admission to the school of business in a research university

The purpose of this study was to examine the behavior of a sample of 190 students enrolled as pre-business \u27 students in a research university\u27s liberal arts college who were denied admission to the university\u27s business school.^ The study first sought to identify selected demographic and educational characteristics of a sample of these students. It next sought to group the students according to four categories: re-petitioners or non-re-petitioners for admission to the business school; selectors or non-selectors of business-related alternate majors. A third phase of the study was the identification of the degree of adequacy in exposure to career planning and counseling on the part of students in the sample.^ Finally, the study sought to identify educational and demographic variables, along with indices of adequacy of exposure to career planning and counseling, which could serve as effective predictors of group membership of students as re-petitioners or non-re-petitioners for admission to the business school and as selectors of business-related or non-business-related alternate majors.^ Educational and demographic data were drawn from student files at the university. Data for the degree of exposure of the students to career planning and counseling were generated by a four-item Likert-type checklist administered to the entire sample.^ Discriminant function analysis compared the principal statistical applications for the study.^ The findings of the study indicated that pre-business students enrolled in a college of arts and sciences and denied admission to the university\u27s school of business were similar to other students at the university under study, e.g., SAT-V of 457, SAT-M of 544, high school rank of 73, and university GPA of 2.45. The findings also indicated that the students had serious deficiencies in exposure to career planning and counseling.^ Optimal predictors for group membership as re-petitioners or non-re-petitioners included the degree to which students had studied occupational information before making their first choice of major, SAT-V score, and high school rank.^ Optimal predictors for group membership as selectors of business-related or non-business-related majors included an indicator of the degree to which students had read occupational information before making their second choice of major, SAT-M, and GPA.