Current Progress

It seems like research is going well. I found a lot of good information during my focused session today. Finding information has been easy but sorting through what is most important is the hardest part. I'm trying to focus mainly on the info that addresses my main question or one of the sub questions. I have also been seeing a lot of the same broad information so I'm still trying to find more specific information and actual facts and figures. I have found a little bit of specific facts so far but I'm hoping to find some more later on. All around though Iwould say this was a productive research session.

Research Prospectus

The topic of my research is affirmative action in college admissions. From my research I would like to address how big of a factor affirmative action is when it comes to acceptance of students of different ethnicities here at UNC. My research will compare UNC’s practices with other major universities and it will examine some of the larger affirmative action cases that have affected other universities. The comparison will also include universities who have completely gotten rid of affirmative action and compare how there demographics differ from UNC’s. I will be addressing it from an objective point of view in hopes of discovering how big of a role affirmative action plays in minority acceptance rates and also in establishing diversity for a university.
I chose this topic because it is close to home for me since I am a minority. I’m not sure how much of an advantage affirmative action gave me in getting accepted into UNC. I also wonder how much diversity would decrease if there was no affirmative action, and I think that can be discovered by examining those schools that have abolished it.
· How much of an impact does affirmative action have in college admissions here at UNC and is it effective in establishing diversity?
§ How does UNC’s affirmative action policies compare with other major colleges?
§ How does UNC’s diversity compare with colleges that don’t use affirmative action?
§ What are the common practices of most universities regarding affirmative action?

Current Info Need

I would say currently Kulthau’s theory fits pretty well with what I am experiencing now. I seem to have a good idea of the direction I want to take but I haven't actually started gathering information yet. Therefore, I am experiencing that stage of uncertainty just like in Kulthau's theory. But I'm sure just as his theory predicts, as soon as I start gathering the information I will feel more confident about the topic I have chosen.

Currently I need to know how much information is out there on affirmative action in college admissions. If there is a lot more then I expect then I'll probably need to narrow my topic to a specific region. But I might just end up keeping my topic as it is if I can't find a lot of good information for a specific region. So really the next stage for me is just researching the internet and the library trying to gage how much information is out there. Once I get a good picture of how many sources are available, then I can start narrowing down the relevent information.

Current Information Need

I think I will stick with the topic of affirmative action in college admissions. I believe that it won't be to difficult finding sources of information. I'm sure if I go to the library there will be atleast a few books on the subject and even more on specifically affirmative action. There will be tons of information on the internet about it but the only difficulty here will be deciphering which sources are reliable. I'm sure many people may write about this controversial topic in a biased viewpoint and since I'm trying to use a strictly objective view, I'll need to avoid using some of the websites I find.

One of the main reasons I want to stick with this topic is because I feel like I could get a lot of insight from an admissions counselor right here on campus. My other ideas would have been much harder to find an expert and even if I did I don't think they could shed much more light then what I could find in books and on the internet. However, actually speaking to an admissions counselor, I could see what goes through their head as they are reviewing a minorities application and how much of a factor it is for them. They may even have insight into how other colleges do it.

The only thing that may change about my topic is whether or not I decide to focus it more. I may try to narrow down my research to a certain region like the south but I'll only do this if I find sufficient information while I'm researching.

My Prospectus

I would like to address the issue of how big of a factor affirmative action plays in college admissions. Through my research I will identify the common practices of most colleges regarding affirmative action. Then I will also look at some of the unique schools who have completely gotten rid of affirmative action and compare their student demographic to the colleges that still use it. I will also address how well the schools that use affirmative action are doing at establishing diversity.
In order to gather this information I will consult multiple sources. First I will look in books found in the library. I will also search the internet and use information and statistics from reliable sources. Then I will try to find information from a scholarly journal or magazine. Finally I will attempt to interview a couple of college admission counselors to gage how much they take into account race in college admissions.